| dc.description.abstract | Period poverty is a global issue that impacts women’s health, education and dignity. Charity and
activist organizations fight period poverty through legislation and by providing free products to
women in need. This research focuses specifically on Instagram feminism and how it is influenced by
popular feminist sentiments like individualism and consumerism, but also intersectionality. The main
research question is: how does popular feminism guide period poverty activism on Instagram in
aesthetic and the goals the movement tries to reach? I analyzed the 50 most liked posts tagged with
#periodpoverty and a discursive interface analysis of the activist organization PERIODs Instagram. I
found that popular feminism and Instagram help reach goals like sharing information and raising
awareness but also that it helps an organization like PERIOD with making changes on a governmental
level. PERIODs other goal, getting rid of the stigma around periods, is hindered by popular feminism’s
and social media’s media-friendly sentiment which was found in the aesthetic of the posts. The
stigma around feminism not being intersectional gets challenged however, by sharing images of
women of different ethnicities, body types and sexualities. Nonetheless, I argue that the focus on
consumerism and charity work counteract this. It creates a divide between the people buying
merchandise and the people receiving donations. It counteracts the notion that period poverty, as a
whole, is a global issue. | |
