Women of Color Feminist Intervention in the Age of the Influencer

This paper explores the recent phenomenon of online socially-engaged self-portraiture produced by women artists of color. The selfie—or spontaneous self-portraits taken with cameras, smart phones or other consumer-based devices—has ignited discussion about mental health, consumerism, capitalism and the ubiquity of technology. While self-imaging has become one of the most effective tools for self-expression in the twenty-first century, the gesture is popularly characterized as culturally corrosive and a symptom of a narcissistic society. Within the past five years, the social media influencer has emerged as a major force in the arenas of marketing and brand promotion. Bloggers with large online followings are being enlisted by corporations to function as digital content creators and brand ambassadors that, through their popularity, are able to wield influence over potential consumers. The influencer economy has successfully harnessed the power of online cultures, often wielding an exploitive hegemony over the creative energies of constituencies who have not traditionally been acknowledged by mainstream advertising and media. Lured by fame and economic opportunity, these influencers (often women, people of color and sexual and gender minorities) are compelled to utilize their difference to promote mainstream brands. In response, many young women artists of color are pushing back against the capitalist appropriation and exploitation of marginalized communities online, by wielding the self-image in a politically oppositional manner. This paper will explore the strategic means by which young socially-engaged feminists—by utilizing self-imaging as an anti-repressive and politically progressive act—contend with the rapacious commodification of women’s bodies online.