This paper analyzes the Instagram posts of Serena Williams. I will focus on how she represents herself on her Instagram. Especially, I will focus on how to deal with her representation as a black woman. Looking through her Instagram, it is obvious that she implicitly emphasizes on her blackness and womanhood in her post. Instagram is one of the popular SNS (Social Networking Services) in the world. We can post a picture with a comment and hashtag on the Instagram. Because we need to choose at least one picture to post, it is easy to understand what users want to describe. I will analyze her recent thirty Instagram post (from August 6th to November 20th, as of November 20th, 2017). Her posts could be divided into roughly five types. They
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Serena Williams is known as the symbol of the strong African American women who never give into difficulties. On her Instagram, she advertised Gatorade, Headphones of beats, Purple Purchase Challenge and Oath Brands and so on. She attached hashtag #ad to her post, so we can easily distinguish with other posts. The Purple Purchase Challenge is her project of supporting the people who suffered or is suffering from domestic violence to buy the bag designed by S. Williams. As one article says that “Serena recognize that their accomplishments have a meaning that extends beyond them to Black communities.” (Douglas, 2011, p134)”, she realizes she has an impact on the society as a black woman. It is considered that she participates with other charities based on this thought. She does not clearly mention about blackness and womanhood on Instagram. And her advertisement posts are just for advertising products and services. However, we can learn from the advertisement on Instagram that she uses herself as the representative of strong black women even …show more content…
In conclusion, Serena Williams’s Instagram shows her blackness and womanhood implicitly. We don’t know that she intentionally did or not, but some followers might be supported by her posts. Different from the media coverage which described Venus Williams as intelligent, not sexual and cocky (Projansky, 2014, p143), Instagram post can be controlled by people who post them. It means that the user, in this case Serena Williams, can make her images and self-representation through the Instagram and she is doing this. For example, she posts as rather one tennis player than one black woman who is a mother, and some posts which I mentioned above. The blackness and womanhood could be an interference of the success in the past, but they can be advantages and support to success now (although this might be the commodity racism (Spencer, 2004, p128)). How to deal with her characteristic of being a black woman depends on her how to utilize SNS from now
Serena Williams is known as the symbol of the strong African American women who never give into difficulties. On her Instagram, she advertised Gatorade, Headphones of beats, Purple Purchase Challenge and Oath Brands and so on. She attached hashtag #ad to her post, so we can easily distinguish with other posts. The Purple Purchase Challenge is her project of supporting the people who suffered or is suffering from domestic violence to buy the bag designed by S. Williams. As one article says that “Serena recognize that their accomplishments have a meaning that extends beyond them to Black communities.” (Douglas, 2011, p134)”, she realizes she has an impact on the society as a black woman. It is considered that she participates with other charities based on this thought. She does not clearly mention about blackness and womanhood on Instagram. And her advertisement posts are just for advertising products and services. However, we can learn from the advertisement on Instagram that she uses herself as the representative of strong black women even …show more content…
In conclusion, Serena Williams’s Instagram shows her blackness and womanhood implicitly. We don’t know that she intentionally did or not, but some followers might be supported by her posts. Different from the media coverage which described Venus Williams as intelligent, not sexual and cocky (Projansky, 2014, p143), Instagram post can be controlled by people who post them. It means that the user, in this case Serena Williams, can make her images and self-representation through the Instagram and she is doing this. For example, she posts as rather one tennis player than one black woman who is a mother, and some posts which I mentioned above. The blackness and womanhood could be an interference of the success in the past, but they can be advantages and support to success now (although this might be the commodity racism (Spencer, 2004, p128)). How to deal with her characteristic of being a black woman depends on her how to utilize SNS from now