Thesis
“We’ve Been Fed These Things”: Healthism in Young Women’s Responses to Health-Related Social Media
Honours, Murdoch University
2024
Abstract
Healthism is an ideology and discourse that frames health as an individual’s responsibility, while minimising genetic, social, and environmental factors. Previous research has focused on traditional media and linked healthism to negative body image, particularly in young women. This study examined healthism’s role in social media, exploring young women’s health and body perceptions after exposure to health-related content. Focus groups with eleven women (18-28 years) discussed health beliefs, social media use, and responded to six vertical short-form videos from Instagram and TikTok. Three videos represented healthism values and three promoted body positivity. Reflexive Thematic Analysis identified two themes. The first, Tension in health perspectives: The reproduction and resistance of healthism values, highlighted a tension between the unconscious reproduction of traditional health ‘ideals’ through subtheme, “What I should be doing:” Health is controllable, and a growing recognition of individual health diversity through subtheme, “Healthy is different for everyone”. The second theme, The cognitive work to unpack health narratives, illustrated the cognitive effort expended to feel better after social media exposure, through subtheme “You’re fine”: Navigating the noise of social media, and the mental effort needed to reframe the health beliefs instilled since childhood through subtheme, Reframing the narrative: What we’ve “been fed growing up”. Findings demonstrate a reproduction and resistance to healthism values in response to social media. Participants recognised the unrealistic and harmful nature of health ‘ideals’, but struggled to resist ingrained health beliefs. This identifies a need for critical media literacy to mitigate negative outcomes of healthism in young women.
Details
- Title
- “We’ve Been Fed These Things”: Healthism in Young Women’s Responses to Health-Related Social Media
- Authors/Creators
- Kayla Lowe
- Contributors
- Olivia Monsoon (Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Murdoch University; Honours
- Identifiers
- 991005779521907891
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Psychology
- Resource Type
- Thesis
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