‘It is not about beauty … or is it?’ Fashion, body positivity and authenticity in micro-celebrities affective practices online

Abstract

This article focuses on Italian micro-celebrities and their engagement with body positivity within the framework of affective labour and authenticity performances online, specifically through Instagram. The body positivity discourse has been embraced by very different subjects, negotiating sometimes conflicting ideals such as empowerment, social liberation, commercial exploitation and neo-liberal individualistic co-optation of the same values. Among many, I will focus on two accounts: influencer/content creator Muriel (@murielxo) and content creator Denise D’Angelilli (@dueditanelcuore). Muriel and Denise D’Angelilli are two different examples of how many young female micro-celebrities discuss issues such as beauty standards, harmful stereotypes against non-conforming bodies and female empowerment, mostly starting from their own experiences, sharing intimate accounts of their lives and images of their bodies. This type of sharing can be framed as a specific type of affective labour performed by creators negotiating their online presence and self-branding through a performance of authenticity. Moreover, the article focuses on their adoption of peculiar fashion practices and fashion choices and how these practices contribute to their ongoing narrative around authenticity and body positivity. While in the case of Muriel we have a ‘professional’ content creator who builds her online persona through the more institutional co-optation of fashion language, sponsored content and modelling jobs, @dueditanelcuore is insistently using her apparent lack of interest in fashion as a marker of an authentic self. Far from being genuinely opposite, I argue that both strategies are part of a constant negotiation between ‘authentic’ empowerment and post-feminist individualism that permeates online conversations around body positivity.