A study, carried out by researchers from the Asterisc Communication Research Group of the Rovira i Virgili University, evidences the reading that adolescent boys and girls make of their peers based on how they are shown on social networks.Seven groups of young people, between 16 and 20 years old, have participated in this work explaining how they value their self-presentations.And, in this process, the labels of prongs and chonis appear repeatedly to classify and rank aesthetics and sexual behavior of the girls .The definition they make of their differences flees from a socioeconomic explanation and points to the gender biases present in social networks.
Relateddouble standard sexual
The researchers consider that virtual spaces reinforce an omnipresent double standard: the double sexual standard that causes girls to be criticized with sexual parameters, unlike boys; and also the double standard that attributes bad taste and lack of culture to people who are considered impoverished or with few studies. This double-double standard generates a contempt for the girls-the chonis-to whom they are attributed Self-presentations and practices in the network in accordance with this class and gender judgment.
The study shows that social media is a key space where class feminities are judged in a public place shared by young people.Participants in these discussion groups, asked about their representation strategies in social networks, spoke of two unique profiles: pija and choni.
pijas and chonis in a macho culture
Pija is a neutral notion, a standard identity marker used as the opposite of the truly derogatory label that is that of "choni", a collectively recognized stigma.However, the profile of the chonis if they have it very defined, delimited and identified with very specific cultural symbols such as very tight pants, thongs, piercings, tattoos, ponytail or monkeys, excessive makeup and provocative postures that are read in a sexual key.
The speeches elaborated in the self-presentations reproduce these stereotypes and do not contribute to transforming them. All adolescents are aware of these prejudices but manifest difficulty (even impossibility) to overcome them, which legitimizes a macho cultural background.
pressure to eroticize
According to the professors of the Department of Communication Studies Cilia Willem, Iolanda Tortajada and Nuria Arauna, also members of the Asterisc research group, these class markers serve to establish boundaries between girls in social networks, where the norm is the One of the concerns of the girls who have participated in the discussion groups has been to avoid being labeled "chonis" when they build an attractive image.Throughout the investigation, they have expressed the pressure they feel for eroticizing, either through the positive reinforcement of the peer group or by the weight of a mediatic culture that rewards women.And at the same time, they are judged for this sexualization.
The results of the work coincide with the stereotype with which working-class women are charged in other cultural contexts , for example, in the United Kingdom, where the figure of the chav feminine is seen as a continuous display of lack of culture, style and taste.
sexual and social reputation
Although there is a certain degree of control of the style and taste that gives the girls guides on how not to harm their sexual and social reputation, the judgments of others are beyond their control.to the choni is to establish the line that should not be passed, that which justifies the self-sexualization itself, presented as an almost artistic exhibition.Despite the fact that postings and chonis are susceptible to receiving criticisms of a sexual nature, most of the Participants in the investigation affirmed that the self-presentations of the Skewers ended up avoiding the sanction and granting them popularity and status.
Not only boys label girls as chonis but, defensively, so do girls.Obviously, everyone recognizes and applies duality, but they try to position themselves outside.Yes, in order to get rid of the stigma of the choni they transfer it to others. This lack of class solidarity among women, as all the people who have participated in the work, is a very studied aspect of postfeminism. To the stigmatization of gender and class, judgments should be added to the Chonis as "reckless" for sharing or uploading sexualized photos in a society that holds women responsible for the aggressions they suffer.
After having studied gender and social class inequalities among the adolescent population in social networks since 2008, this URV research team has just launched an R&D project on the proxy dimension of the networked audiovisual creations carried out by youtubers.
Source: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
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