Baiq Rahayu Kurniasih, Aprillia

Exploring Body Positivity Through Instagram Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Clara Dao and Her Audience

Introduction

Exploring body positivity through instagram discourse: a critical discourse analysis of clara dao and her audience. Explore body positivity on Instagram through a critical discourse analysis of Clara Dao's content and audience. Uncover how societal norms shape women's body image and identity online.

Abstract

This study focuses on the feminist stylistic features of Clara Dao's Instagram discourse. A qualitative research design is employed, using Sara Mills’s feminist stylistics within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which focuses on the word, sentence, and discourse levels. Data were collected through purposive sampling and documentation techniques. The subject of the study is the commentary associated with Clara Dao’s Instagram content, explicitly discussing body image issues. The data include 18 comments categorized as positive, negative, and neutral, selected based on the relevance issue of body positivity. The findings reveal that societal expectations impose certain norms and standards on women’s physical appearances. These expectations influence how women are judged and often criticized when they do not conform to dominant beauty ideals. Additionally, the construction of female identity is shown to be shaped by social norms that dictate how women should behave and present themselves in public discourse.

Review

This study tackles a highly relevant and timely topic by exploring body positivity discourse on Instagram through the lens of Clara Dao and her audience. The choice of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), specifically integrated with Sara Mills’s feminist stylistics, offers a robust theoretical and methodological framework well-suited to uncovering the power dynamics and linguistic constructions embedded within online discussions of body image. The focus on a prominent influencer like Clara Dao provides a specific and pertinent case study, promising valuable insights into how feminist principles and stylistic choices manifest in public discourse surrounding women's bodies and identity on social media platforms. However, the methodology presents several significant limitations that undermine the potential depth and generalizability of the findings. The reliance on a mere 18 comments, even with purposive sampling, is critically insufficient for a robust CDA study aiming to explore "Instagram discourse" and broader "societal expectations." This small sample size severely restricts the ability to draw meaningful or representative conclusions about the nuances of body positivity, the range of audience responses, or the stylistic features employed. Furthermore, while the abstract mentions analysis at "word, sentence, and discourse levels," it lacks detail on the specific analytical tools or linguistic features examined within Sara Mills's framework, making it difficult to assess the rigor of the CDA application. Clarification on the definition and identification of "positive, negative, and neutral" comments, and the specific "documentation techniques" used, would also enhance methodological transparency. The presented findings, while inherently important, appear somewhat disconnected from the detailed linguistic analysis implied by the chosen methodology. Stating that "societal expectations impose certain norms and standards on women’s physical appearances" and that "the construction of female identity is shown to be shaped by social norms" are established observations in feminist and sociological literature. The abstract does not sufficiently demonstrate how these broad conclusions are *specifically evidenced* through the feminist stylistic features identified in the 18 analyzed comments. For a CDA study, the key is to show *how* language works to construct, maintain, or challenge these norms. Without illustrating this explicit link, the findings risk being perceived as general sociological observations rather than the direct output of a rigorous critical discourse analysis of specific online interactions.

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