IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/meanco/v13y2025a8783.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender Rhetoric for Sale: Ferragni and the Platformization of the Female Body That Crushes Ideologies

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabetta Risi

    (Department of Communication, Arts and Media, University Institute of Modern Languages (IULM), Italy)

  • Maria Angela Polesana

    (Department of Communication, Arts and Media, University Institute of Modern Languages (IULM), Italy)

Abstract

This article aims to make a contribution to the study of liberal feminism, social media, and influencer culture, especially in the Italian context. The feminism of Chiara Ferragni, Italian fashion influencer with over 29 million followers, is an interesting case study that questions the relations, as well as the interaction, between activism, gender, and influencer culture. Ferragni’s body simulacrum, exhibited through numerous social media advertising images, was displayed at Sanremo, a renowned Italian song festival, watched by 12 million people in 2023. At Sanremo, that body carried on the feminist battle through the wearing of manifesto luxury designer dresses together with the reading of a letter addressed to herself, a vector of a rhetorically powerful message that was, however, directed to the single woman rather than to women as a collectivity. This neoliberal discourse is emblematic of the instrumental use of gender issues for self-promotion, which often leads to the dilution of feminist meanings and the trivialization of social movements.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabetta Risi & Maria Angela Polesana, 2025. "Gender Rhetoric for Sale: Ferragni and the Platformization of the Female Body That Crushes Ideologies," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 13.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8783
    DOI: 10.17645/mac.8783
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8783
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/mac.8783?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. José van Dijck & Thomas Poell, 2013. "Understanding Social Media Logic," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 1(1), pages 2-14.
    2. Righetto, Giovanni, 2023. "Marriage patterns and the gender gap in labor force participation: Evidence from Italy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mariek Vanden Abeele & Ralf De Wolf & Rich Ling, 2018. "Mobile Media and Social Space: How Anytime, Anyplace Connectivity Structures Everyday Life," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 5-14.
    2. Luis-Millán González & José Devís-Devís & Maite Pellicer-Chenoll & Miquel Pans & Alberto Pardo-Ibañez & Xavier García-Massó & Fernanda Peset & Fernanda Garzón-Farinós & Víctor Pérez-Samaniego, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Sport in Twitter: A Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-20, April.
    3. Estela Marine-Roig & Eva Martin-Fuentes & Natalia Daries-Ramon, 2017. "User-Generated Social Media Events in Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Martin Echeverría, 2023. "Experiencing Political Advertising Through Social Media Logic: A Qualitative Inquiry," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(2), pages 127-136.
    5. Celina Navarro & Gemma Gómez-Bernal, 2022. "The Use of Social Media by Spanish Feminist Organizations: Collectivity From Individualism," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(2), pages 93-103.
    6. Dolata, Ulrich, 2017. "Social movements and the Internet: The sociotechnical constitution of collective action," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2017-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    7. Kenneth L. Hacker & Vanessa R. Mendez, 2016. "Toward a Model of Strategic Influence, International Broadcasting, and Global Engagement," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 69-91.
    8. Kenneth L. Hacker & Vanessa R. Mendez, 2016. "Toward a Model of Strategic Influence, International Broadcasting, and Global Engagement," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 69-91.
    9. Jacob Groshek & Sarah Krongard, 2016. "Netflix and Engage? Implications for Streaming Television on Political Participation during the 2016 US Presidential Campaign," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Mariek Vanden Abeele & Ralf De Wolf & Rich Ling, 2018. "Mobile Media and Social Space: How Anytime, Anyplace Connectivity Structures Everyday Life," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 5-14.
    11. Maria Schreiber, 2017. "Showing/Sharing: Analysing Visual Communication from a Praxeological Perspective," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 37-50.
    12. Sebastian Berg & Tim König & Ann-Kathrin Koster, 2020. "Political Opinion Formation as Epistemic Practice: The Hashtag Assemblage of #metwo," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 84-95.
    13. Jansson, André, 2018. "Rethinking post-tourism in the age of social media," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 101-110.
    14. Rukhsana Aslam, 2016. "Building Peace through Journalism in the Social/Alternate Media," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 63-79.
    15. Rukhsana Aslam, 2016. "Building Peace through Journalism in the Social/Alternate Media," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 63-79.
    16. Yuhan Wang, 2024. "Navigating the COVID-19 Health Crisis: A Content Analysis of Organizational Communication Strategies on Social Media," Studies in Media and Communication, Redfame publishing, vol. 12(4), pages 311-324, December.
    17. Kaisu Koivumäki & Timo Koivumäki & Erkki Karvonen, 2020. "“On Social Media Science Seems to Be More Human”: Exploring Researchers as Digital Science Communicators," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 425-439.
    18. Celina Navarro & Gemma Gómez-Bernal, 2022. "The Use of Social Media by Spanish Feminist Organizations: Collectivity From Individualism," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(2), pages 93-103.
    19. Daniele Battista, 2023. "Winning against All Odds: Elly Schlein’s Successful Election Campaign and Instagram Communication Strategies," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-13, May.
    20. Rodrigo Quintas da Silva, 2018. "A Portuguese exception to right-wing populism," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-5, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:8783. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.