I have now conducted all 6 interviews and honestly it has left me with more questions than what I feel like have been answered...
I guess it was never the aim to answer our inquiry and our supervisors have always emphasised this, but now I feel like I have so much more that I need to research or it has given me new questions that I could start completely separate research projects about.
I was shocked that everyones answers were so different and so different to my own perspective on ‘ how does social media effect a professional dancers body image’.
Potential themes that have reoccured that now I am going to find new literature on are…
Pressure
-Pressure with Dance specific body image
-Pressure to promote / market themselves online
The words FIT and ATHLETIC came up multiple times
Filter
-Filtering what you view online. All my participants said that they really carefully consider what types of accounts that they follow on their Instagram accounts and nearly all mentioned that if any account is ‘letting them down’, ‘making them upset or jealous’ or ‘not making them feel good’ they would simple unfollow and not allow that negativity.
-Also filtering images. How they all admitted to editing their personal images online even if it was just adjusting the lighting to make the image more aesthetically pleasing. Social media was described as a ‘highlight’, ‘superficial’ and ‘fake’
Dance specific body image
-This topic honestly could be a whole research project of its own. And my from my literature review in module 2 I learnt that Body image is extremely hard to define and is such a vast subject.
-The majority of the dancers interviewed spoke about what they felt like they were ‘expected’ to look like. One of the dancers stated that she believes theres a place for everyone in the industry and has worked in L.A and seen all typed of body shapes / sizes and ethnicities working. She believes theres a place for everyone, which I thought was so refreshing. Another dancer with a more scientific approach said that all body types have a different composition and something that a lot of people strive for i.e.. a six pack / abs is actually genetically impossible for some people with the way out bodies are built, taking into consideration body fat percentages. And how someone who is ‘skinny’ a term she hated using, could have defined abs but they aren’t as strong as someone who maybe doesn’t have a prominent six pack. She said everyones got a six pack its literally the muscles on our stomaches.
One thing that was interesting was that all my participants who I interviewed (who are my colleagues working onboard with me) said their social media use was much lower than normal circumstances as we are on a ship with expensive and unreliable internet. They all admitted that they use social media much more when they are at home so maybe this has a big impact on their answers in my interview.
Also something that massively stood out was the younger participants (my participants ranged from 21-30) all had many different type of social media accounts ie. instagram, facebook, twitter, snap chat and tik-tok. Where are the older participants only really used Instagram and Facebook and they were just for fun and not for promoting themselves. The younger participants (both American) said they were taught how to market themselves during their training and knew all about how to use social media to promote their talents.
Like I said I am left with so many questions and now have to figure our how to analyse everything and find more literature!
How is everyone else getting on?
Hi Emily! Congrats on completing your interviews. I too am touching on the topic of body image in my inquiry in terms of how the pressure to look a certain way could potentially be a cause for injury and it is a huge topic. It’s interesting to hear that your younger participants were taught about social media marketing in school- good luck with the rest of your research!
ReplyDeleteWow that's awesome if you find any good articles pass them my way too!! I'll keep a look out too!
DeleteYes that was crazy for me that they actually took classes on how they market themselves and how much web.2.0 has come since I graduated in 2014!!
Wow! I find this fascinating Emily and I can totally see how you now have so many questions. When I danced professionally social media had pretty much nothing to do with getting work. I did get some job offers from physically 'posting' not social media 'posting' show reels to some companies but mostly work was through a printed CV and headshot and physical auditions. It really blows my mind how social media is such a big part of the dance world now and the kind of pressure that must bring to a dancer and their idea of body image. It's great you were able to interview a good age range and really interesting how you can see more and more prominent use of social media the lower the age range. Really look forward to reading more about your inquiry.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I've slowed down this last week. I've completed my interviews and focus group but now really need to get going with the literature part. Its the part I've been dreading and am not confident with so think I am avoiding getting stuck in. So exciting we are all finding out so much in our inquiries though, like you I got data I wasn't expecting which I guess makes for a more interesting report! Good luck with the rest of your inquiry x
Hey Jen I too feel like I've slowed down! My head feels a bit blurry now with where to go next!!! Helen reassured me that we need to repeat the cycle several times before it all clicks in place so I'm going to try and do it all again and see where it gets me!!
ReplyDeleteAlso I too only have ever used a show reel and CV to get a job so it still amazes me that this happens. I feel like I can be alot to do with the more commercial industry then musical theatre and cruise ships though!