Colonisation of the imaginary in social ecosystem. An intersectional analysis of the representation of aesthetic-cultural differences in brand marketing policies

Abstract

As early as the 1970s, activists such as Assata Shakur addressed the issue of the imposition of white cultural and aesthetic models and the risk of these being uncritically acquired by the new generations of the African American community. Today, the space of social networks seems to allow greater freedom in the representation of the self and in the choice of contents to follow, enabling modes of self-representation and processes of empowerment. However, in the virtual dimension of the Web, the social, class, race, dis/ability and gender asymmetries that characterise onlife seem to be replicated. Assuming an intersectional perspective, the authors of this contribution propose the first results of an exploratory research aimed at investigating the degree of inclusiveness of companies operating on the Net and their effective capacity to offer, within the advertising campaigns, a representation of the multiform identity spectrum. Specifically, the Instagram profiles of well-known brands in the fields of cosmetics, make-up and fashion are analysed as case studies.