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How cosmetic apps fragmentise and metricise the female face: A multimodalcritical discourse analysis
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. Örebro University, University Library.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1089-5819
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4876-3352
2023 (English)In: Discourse & Communication, ISSN 1750-4813, E-ISSN 1750-4821, Vol. 17, no 3, p. 278-297Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In the present time, we see a rapid development of so-called cosmetic apps promoted by prominent cosmetic companies. Although there is an emerging market for male consumers, these apps are marketed as technological innovations designed to analyse, rate and evaluate mainly women’s facial appearances through the submission of a selfie. Based on the results generated from the selfie, personalised solutions are offered in the form of recommended products to supposedly help women improve their appearances. Drawing on a critical feminist approach and using multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), the aim of this article is to study how these evaluations are semiotically reproduced and presented to the users. The paper examines in detail how apps convey the evaluation process and transform a selfie into measures, presented through diagrams and charts, that is, how the female face is fragmented and metricised. Coming with affordances of being systematic, exact and scientific, these infographics assign the facial evaluations with meaning. A key argument is that these cosmetic apps are changing the way women are implied to consider and control their (facial) appearance. Following neoliberal notions, the apps put strong pressure on women to take the responsibility to engage in intensive forms of aesthetic labour and to consume the ‘right’ products to appear as the best versions of themselves.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2023. Vol. 17, no 3, p. 278-297
Keywords [en]
Aesthetic labour, cosmetic apps, feminist approach, fragmentation, metricisation, multimodal critical discourse analysis
National Category
Media and Communications
Research subject
Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-105207DOI: 10.1177/17504813231155085ISI: 000954689900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85150933947OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-105207DiVA, id: diva2:1746595
Available from: 2023-03-29 Created: 2023-03-29 Last updated: 2023-06-22Bibliographically approved

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Eriksson, GöranKenalemang, Lame Maatla

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