Social Media and Sexualization: A Comprehensive Analysis on Sexism in Instagram Comments Section

Below is an excerpt for my paper “Social Media and Sexualization: A Comprehensive Analysis on Sexism in Instagram Comments Section.” Access for the full essay, including references and the appendix, is located at the bottom of the page.

Introduction

Social media can be utilized as an excellent tool, from community members connecting with one another in a supportive way, to increasing customer outreach for businesses. Social media, also, gives users the ability to spread positive messages regarding, acknowledging, and discussing social issues in the form of motivation, advocacy, and inspiration through various posts. Fighting negative body-image, sexualization, and misogyny often are key topics that fall under the umbrella of issues that women (and men) online are actively fighting against online. However, the internet has also created interconnected networks for incels and misogynists to connect and spread their beliefs through trolling Instagram comments. The Instagram comments sections has been used as a space for incels to connect and spread their misogynistic beliefs and sexist ideology, resulting in sexual harassment including, but not limited to, using the rhetorical device, “fatherless.”

Background

Again, social media has been a source to forage, strengthen, and source connections, but  they have also exacerbated existing societal biases like sexism and objectification (Buie, 2023, p.10). The overarching term that’s used for online harassment in general is called “trolling,” which is an offshoot of cyber bullying, defined as “an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and overtime against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself,” (Tewari & Mehendale, 2022, p. 494). Overall, women have fallen victim to trolling, specifically, in the “name calling” category, according to Tewari and Mehendale’s study, but the gravity of said words was more inclined towards a sexual connotation (2022, p.498).

The term “fatherless” is a derogatory term that has been utilized by incels to spread their sexist ideology in the comments section of women’s Instagram comments. The regularly used term, “fatherless behavior” is just another version of the infamous “daddy issues,” which has been used to shame and minimize women's attachment needs (Bijolia, 2023, para. 5). Using the term “fatherless” in a comment is a degrading device used to harm women especially when regarding promiscuity and sex. The inclusion of this term, evolving from “daddy issues,” leads to the question “since when did we start blaming the daughter for having an absent or abusive father?” (Weaver, 2020, para. 8). The connotation of using “fatherless” in a comment to degrade and bully a woman is that if a woman is doing something the user deems that she shouldn't, the reason is fully because of her relationship with a man who is absent, but it’s still her fault. Additionally, the shameless sexualization of “daddy issues,” being constantly outlined as a kink or an object of fetishization for the supposed submissiveness of those who suffer from them, is a questionable path that seems to be growing in traction with the new “fatherless” phrase (Sorrell, 2021, para. 15). 

Furthermore, the heightened sexist comment sections reinforce the misogynistic idea that women are sexualizing themselves, perpetuating the “asking for it” myth about sexual assault, which could be directly correlated to having a poor relationship with their father. As a baseline, “33% of women under 35 say that they have been sexually harassed online,” and “61% of women say that online harassment is a major problem; 48% of men agree,” (Ultraviolet, 2021, p. 8). The online sphere has allowed objectification of women’s bodies to become more and more prevalent. Said objectification is done through a visual lens, reacting to a woman’s picture or video, resulting in unsolicited comments (Feltman, 2018, p.1). Through objectification under the anonymity of an Instagram profile, sexist comments have become normal in our society.  

The root of the issue of sexism comes from hostile sexism, heterosexual desires, and supporting traditional gender roles, according to Buie (2023, p.15). Under the seemingly anonymous sphere of social media those with this belief have a gateway to express their disdain.  By being essentially filterless (because those leaving these comments found a way to get around the rather loose monitoring from Instagram themselves), there has been an open space to cyber bully and spread sexist beliefs. There has always been someone in the comments to back up each other's comments, as well. While some activists will engage with the trolling, or just make general comments about how “sad” or “messed up” the comments are, it just takes one other user to validate sexist remarks, and the issue grows.

Methods 

I collected data from September 2023 to November 2023 to gather the three categories of sexual harassment in Instagram comments that I will be discussing in this paper, but only focused on nine posts that exemplify and represent my overall findings. Through looking at various comments, I created an Appendix that narrows down the harassment into three overarching categories: the “Fatherless” category, the “Sexualizing” category, and the “Asking For It” category. All three coincide with the overarching sexist message that the trolling commentators aim to spread. In the Appendix below, I have color coded the three categories, even though there could have been more; what I have barely scratches the surface of the deprived commenters who have found validation for their beliefs via connecting with one another under women’s posts. 

Those highlighted in yellow are under the “fatherless” category of comments. These comments directly insult the woman in the post by weaponizing this phrase and the subsequent phrases that follow. The green highlighted comments are those in which the woman in the video is immediately sexualized or conclusions have been drawn about her due to what she looks like, acts like, or is wearing. Lastly, the blue highlights are for those that perpetuate the victim blaming, “Asking For It” mentality. These comments insinuate or directly tell the woman in the video that she deserves the harassment coming to her or that she, actually, caused it due to the way she is acting or what she is wearing.

Through my research, I found that the accounts that attract sexist comments the most are college or college-adjacent Instagrams. In the nine posts I used, those that are representative of the college-adjacent subculture come from @totalfratmovegirls, @collegeweekly, @ogotacollegeosu, and @fratshenanigans. Other accounts are those linked to Barstool, and various colleges who post binge drinking videos and sexual videos of women, who are most likely students (Pinea, 2018, para. 2-5). 

Analysis 

Through my research, one of the most common comments were those that directly related women to their relationship with their father, saying that if they are acting in a, what they deem as “sexual” manner, they must not have a father or that their father must be disappointed.  Using “fatherless” in the Instagram comments section, creates a disturbing connection between a young girl and sex to their father, with the intention that these women are seeking out something sexual in a way that is completely connected to their biological father (Weaver, 2020, para. 10-13).  A comment on @totalfratmovegirls read “Some dads try so hard and end up with this :((“-- this comment received around 21 thousand likes (Fig. 2 in Appendix). In Figure 8, a girl is recorded in the back of a car mimicking a sexual position, with the on-screen text saying “our roomate giving us the debrief after not sleeping in her bed once the whole weekend.” There was a myriad of sexist comments, the most notable being ones that mentioned a father figure; they read as such: “If I ever have a daughter I’m gonna kill myself,” “Daddy’s gonna be very proud,” etc., with a comment even backing them up saying, “comments pass the vibe check,” (Fig. 8 in Appendix). Placing a woman's value and sexual capacity alongside her father is harmful to society, therefore, the conversation around “daddy issues” or “fatherlessness” should be shifted to analyzing the “wellbeing of young women rather than the sexual gratification of men” and preventing sexualization of women (Sorrel, 2021, para.19). 

Sexualizing women leads to a cultural mentality that is harmful in a layered way for adults and teens alike. In Figure 5, Fifth Year students are shown dancing to the Nicki Minaj lyrics “runnin’ this game for five years, guess that’s why my feet hurt,” (Fig. 5 in Appendix). The comments have since been redacted and turned off, but previous to this the comments all were sexual innuendos about the lyrics being mistaken and it’s actually “knees,” referencing fellatio. The user edited her caption to include “emphasis on feet '' in reaction to such comments (Fig. 5 in Appendix). Assuming that the teenagers in the video are in Fifth Year, that would mean they are underage, most likely between 16 and 17. Almost 1 in 3 teen girls aged 13-17 and 1 in 6 girls aged 9-12 have interacted sexually with an adult on social media platforms (Ultraviolet, 2021, p. 9). The lack-of information regarding age on social media has created an atmosphere where teenagers can be subject to sexual harassment just as likely as adults. 

Sexualiztion is the blanket term for what those who are victim to online sexual harassment are experiencing. Sexualization is a multiple-tier idea with four components, with media playing a crucial role in exposing sexual images, comments, ideas, etc., (Karsay, Knoll, & Matthas, 2018, p.10). The conditions of sexualization go as follows: 1. “The first a person’s value is determined primarily or only from their sexual appeal or behavior; 2. the exclusion of other characteristics a person is held to a standard that equates narrowly defined physical attractiveness with being sexy; 3. a person is sexually objectified; or 4. sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person,” (Karsay, Knoll, & Matthas, 2018, p.10). Some examples of sexualizing comments are: “Love how women are proud of degrading themselves,” “I love that we women complain about how over sexualized our society is, hate on our men for noticing other women and being pigs, but then we prance out around in public in outfits like that,” and “STD Club of America,” (Fig. 2 & Fig. 4 in Appendix). 

Furthermore, negative sexist comments create negative body-image in women that can lead to “self-objectification,” the internalized belief that you are an object. While objectification is not always sexual,  and may occur in many ways and ranges from depictions of an ideal body type, to (unwanted) evaluations of one’s own body, or sexual harassment; there is a heightened sexual atmosphere on social media, especially within the comments section in the Appendix (Karsay, Knoll, & Matthas, 2018, p.10). Negative or degrading comments can have a direct impact on how the person receiving them will see their own body, especially when faced with sexual harassment online. In Figure 3, women are simply showing their outfits to go to a party at University of Alabama. Objectifying comments mention assumptions directly related to the girls’ sex lives; two comments say “Ran through,” and “At least 5000 bodies combined,” both receiving over 4 thousand likes, respectively for a total of almost 9 thousand likes together (Fig. 3 in Appendix). Of course, there is mention of their relationship with their father, too– “I wonder how many of them have good relationships w their fathers,” (Fig. 3 in Appendix). 

Additionally, sexist remarks in the comments perpetuate rape culture in a way that is dangerous and can have serious consequences (Pinea, 2018, para.7). Comments such as “Crazy how proud woman are to be Ran through 🤮” gaining over 40 thousand likes in Figure 2 is a form of hostile sexism (2023). Hostile sexism is “defined as overtly negative views of women as compared with men and is hypothesized to relate to rape and sexual assault in several ways including the belief and support of the “superior” man over the woman following sexual assault and the view of women as deserving of victimization,” (Johnson, 2017, p.5).  The blatant objectification within the comments sections, alongside the communal encouragement is alarming for the progression of society. Rape culture has been created, in-part, due to the way that we normalise and accept violence, hostility towards women, sexism, and adversarial sexual beliefs (Johnson, 2017, p. 6). Leaving, accepting, and the mutual validation from misogynists in the comments that do those listed factors that contribute directly to rape culture. 

There has, also, been  a surge of men insulting women for “sexualizing themselves,” excusing their sexual harassment or sexual harassment against women in general. Figure 4 in the Appendix shows a woman in workout clothes (a tank top and shorts) going to the store with the on-screen text reading “wearing a cute gym set is all fun and games until you look like a wh*ore in the grocery store.” The comments directly “called her out” for “not wanting attention” but then wearing “those” types of clothes, therefore “asking for it,” (Fig. 4 in Appendix). A comment that received around 5 thousand likes reads, “women use they’re body for attention and then complain when they get attention,” (Fig. 4 in Appendix). Two more comments read, “‘Plz dont sexualize my body’ Also her: *wearing almost nothing*,” and “then don't wear something like that 🤦‍♂️,” (Figure 4, 2023).  Comments with this attitude lead to perpetuating the “Asking For It” mentality when it comes to rape and sexual assault. The “asking to be raped” mentality is a tool / myth that is used to blame and be hostile towards victims, alleviating blame on the perpetuator, who is the only one accountable (Smythe, 2020, para. 1). 

Similarly, in Figure 5, five girls are dancing to a p!ink song, two comments say “And you wonder why guys only want you for one thing,” and “Let’s materialize our body’s then complain when people treat us as such,” (in Appendix). The girls are wearing crop tops, tank tops, and skirts, which doesn’t matter, but some have weaponized the presence of a skirt to justify being materialized, treated poorly, and assaulted. In relation to the “asking for it” myth, the comments back up these claims directly linking their clothes to treatment (Smythe, 2020, para.2). A thread between two users @truenorth.strong.and.free and @ege.jessica is shown blatantly supporting this myth (Fig. 5 in Appendix). It starts with @truenorth.strong.and.free commenting “Virgins???”; to that, @ege.jessica says “they’ll cry they were sexually harassed and wonder why,” (Fig. 5 in Appendix). Once again, “women and girls have the right to wear whatever they want and behave however they want without being raped or sexually assaulted. As does everyone. There is never any excuse for rape or sexual assault,” (Rape Crisis England & Whales, n.d., para. 6). 

Further spreading myths about rape, victims themselves have been subject to online sexual harassment. Recently, on Instagram reels and TikTok, rape survivors have created their own trend where they show their recovery with the on-screen text reading, “Either the r*pe will destroy me or I will fight my way back to life.” Some have weaponized these videos by commenting heinous comments about how the sexual assault was a “good thing.” In Figure 9, @jericoiguesss responds to seeing a woman’s comments section under this trend. Some of the comments read ““Looks like you didn't learn the first time to dress properly. It is what is is disasters waiting to happen,” “Don't be sad because it’s over. Be happy it happened,” “Round 2,” and “Want to do it again? I’m down,” (in Appendix). This latent language has found a new, loud, voice on social media, normalizing abuse and impunity for its perpetrators; now it has created a space for justification sexual abuse (MacKay & Meco, 2022, para. 5). @jericoiguesss said, in his response, defending the woman, that “the comments on this video are disgusting and gross. And people always ask me why I don't want a male fanbase. There is no women equivalent of this comment section women don't do that,” (Fig. 9 in Appendix). 

This is not the first time that those who essentially support rape have found a comments section to troll. @Kelleyheller posted a video of herself wearing a maxi-dress with a low neckline; she put an oversized t-shirt on top to go on the subway, which people call a “subway shirt,” to protect herself on public transportation or when commuting. The comments on her initial video, which she responded to in Figure 6 condoned violence against her and even incited rape. Just a few examples include: “Dress like a whore with ur tits hanging out like get treated like a whore…fishing but blaming the fish for biting,” “you don’t HAVE to be a victim,” “Yall dress like that and then play the victims when people sexualize when you wanted the attention this whole time,” “Hopefully sexual assault happens at this party,” and I left out some of the most graphic ones (Fig. 6 in Appendix). The comments under @kelleyheller’s video is an example of how sexual violence, a “silent epidemic,” being excused, justified, and normalized, therefore promoting rape culture (Johnson, 2017, p.2). There is also a validation in the large number of comments with users who think alike– this validation continues normalizing violence against women creating a large cult following.

Online sexual harassment is a major problem, and Instagram has failed to protect female users from this type of severe language (Ultraviolet, 2021, p.4). While social media started out as, and still is, a positive space for connection, as time as gone on, social media platforms not only reflect  unequal societal gender norms, but can also inflate them, as we see within the comments sections (Buie & Croft, 2023, p. 2). In the comments section Figure 1, a girl reacting to a man working out, showing his glutes, a thread started where commenters pretended to be a sexist man commenting in a woman's comments section, who would have posted a similar type of gym video(in Appendix). It started with saying, “Treat this post like yall would if he were a woman. I'll go first: FATHERLESS BEHAVIOR,” and other comments humorously followed suit saying: “Men will wear the tiniest amount of clothes just for attention,” and “The way he has no respect for himself, motherless behavior.” This trolling comments-section highlights the inflated rhetoric pertaining to misogyny and the difference in gender roles, on social media.

Conclusion

Sexualization and sexual harassment are not new, not by a longshot. However, they are heightened and more accessible/accepted under the cloak of anonymity that social media platforms, like Instagram, can provide. Social media can serve as a connective tool where people who would have never connected can, but it also opens up the gates to sexist and misogynistic beliefs being validated through users with a mutual disdain for women. The term “Fatherless” paired with obvious, shameless sexualization, harassment, and objectification of female users in the comments section is exemplary of how incels, and those with misogynistic beliefs have a way to connect on Instagram and spread hate.

Access the full essay here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fctStkHEnT8uk9SFbeKVIycLl9BOiZJXo6KjzpNXCes/edit?usp=sharing