Entrepreneurial Selves, Feminine Corporeality and Lifestyle Blogging in Singapore

Abstract

The making of the entrepreneurial self is a dominant trope of contemporary media culture, and a multitude of media formats across divergent national contexts showcase the contemporary obsession with media visibility and the attainment of celebrity status as the most aspirational form of social mobility. In Singapore, commercial lifestyle blogs are prime examples of entrepreneurial identity-making as websites almost exclusively created by young women, showcasing user-generated content oriented around the pleasures of consumption as a means of empowerment, self-actualisation and individualisation. By analysing content on a selection of blogs, this article aims to answer the following questions: To what extent are Singaporean women’s identities contingent upon material consumption as a means of identity creation? How do blogs created by women demonstrate an entrepreneurial investment in their appearance and feminine corporeality as the means of perceived empowerment, even at the expense of more formal and structured forms of individualisation, such as education?

“The Big Women”: A textual analysis of Chinese viewers’ perception toward femvertising vlogs

“…Second, the findings of this study also attested to the fantasizing of consumption as a way to achieve “empowerment, self-actualization and individualization,” an agenda constructed by microcelebrities on social media who implicitly call among their followers for an “investment in their appearance” as a way of realizing self-empowerment (Abidin & Gwynne, 2017, p. 385). These efforts align with what previous scholars have referred to as the feminism approach of “Sex and the City” (Arthurs, 2003), which denotes the marketing approach that legitimizes consumption of goods and equates consumption with individual empowerment.…”

“…In sum, when providing ideology of “the ideal woman” who challenges the existing stereotypes, brands run the risk of creating a new one, one that is implicitly signaling and serving the purpose of consumerism. That is, by advocating “women’s free choice,” the implicit messages embedded in the femvertising actually obscure the promotion of consumerism culture, in which much capital is required to invest in appearance and cosmetics that make the socially mediated “having-it-all” and “free choice” seem tangible (Abidin & Gwynne, 2017; Duffy & Hund, 2015). In this sense, the “women empowerment” message serves as a mask that disguises consumerism.…”

“…However, some studies found that femvertising campaigns reinforce feminine traits, such as emphasizing appearance and constructing “the ideal androgynous woman: pretty, yet strong; decisive, yet gentle” (Abitbol & Sternadori, 2016, p.117). As a result, femvertising messages often promote a superficial understanding of girl power, which always is reduced into a celebration of consumerism (Abidin & Gwynne, 2017). Moreover, despite female consumers are willing to spread the contents of femvertising on social media, this, however, does not necessarily implies purchase intention (Kapoor & Munjal, 2019).…”

The Internet in Asia through Singapore

“…In particular, there are works charting different aspects of the Internet's evolution in China (e.g., Tai 2006;Yu 2009;Yang 2009Yang , 2015Herold and de Seta 2015;Negro 2017) and India (e.g., Chopra 2008;Gajjala 2013;Biju 2017). There are studies of particular phenomena, such as activism and civic engagement (e.g., George 2006;Postill 2014;Pang and Goh 2016;Soon and Samsudin 2016) and time periods (e.g., Pang and Ng 2015;Abidin and Gwynne 2017). But, when we survey what has been done so far, we find little in the way of widespread, comparative, in-depth, or longitudinal surveys since Ho, Kluver, and Yang 2003. This gap in science, technology, and society (STS) scholarship is particularly perplexing.…”

“…Such agency of the user in a context of control is well illustrated by Internet users in Singapore. Crystal Abidin and Joel Gwynne (2017) show that the experiences users create through Internet interfaces influence not only how the self relates to others (Fischer 1999;Turkle 2011) but also how users think of themselves and even become central to fulfilling a particular imagination and reality of self. Less obvious is the interaction between distinct imaginations and rationalities, particular shared conceptions of reality (Appadurai 1996), and what is considered logical or reasonable.…”