Senior Thesis

Fashion Photography and the Body Positivity Movement: Shaping Society's View of Women

This thesis was presented to Chestnut Hill College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Departmental Honors Program in Communications

Published April 20, 2020

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This paper was written over the course of several months during the 2019-2020 academic year. 

Abstract: The idea that fashion can be more inclusive of different cultures, body types, and gender identities, has gained traction with the help of Millennials and Gen Z as part of the Body Positivity Movement. Campaigns run by Aerie, Target, and even Old Navy, have claimed that they have become more inclusive of various body types, and are pushing the idea that every body is different: no two people look the same, feel the same, or have the same sense of style. This paper analyzes and critiques the body positivity of the social media advertisements of six popular clothing brands. Expanding the range of models used for advertisements, promotions, and other posts on Instagram has, and will continue to influence society’s idea of the ideal body image. Promoting posts like these on a platform like Instagram, which is primarily used to share the most artistic, aesthetically pleasing, and most “like-able” types of photos, people (especially women) can feel as if they belong, even if they do not look like the traditional, stereotypically beautiful model. Additionally, models who are body inclusive have brought the brands they represent a larger target audience and customer following. This project backs up the claim that body positivity included in popular brands on social media gives more women the opportunity to identify with brand image. The content used for this project was a random sampling from late October to mid-December 2019 and analyzed to create the data set referred to in this thesis.