Exploring Disabled Girls' Self-representational Practices Online

Citation metadata

Author: Sarah Hill
Date: Summer 2017
From: Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal(Vol. 10, Issue 2)
Publisher: Berghahn Books, Inc.
Document Type: Report
Length: 6,395 words

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Abstract :

Recently, the field of girlhood studies has witnessed a growing body of research into girls' self-representation practices, but disabled girls are largely absent from this work. In this article, I intervene in this area by asserting the need to explore how disabled girls represent themselves online in order to consider the intersections between girlhood and disability. I attempt to move away from discourses of risk that circulate around girls' digital self-representation practices by demonstrating how these practices provide disabled girls with visibility in a postfeminist mediascape that renders them invisible, and also act as a form of social advocacy and awareness raising. I then explore how disabled girls represent themselves online in a postfeminist cultural landscape through a case study of a severely sight-impaired blogger, looking at how they must be seen as both motivated and motivational. KEYWORDS disability, Instagram, motivation, postfeminism, selfie, social media

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Gale Document Number: GALE|A536152491