collection 2020
A World of Pink and Blue
How Instagram Sustains Traditional Gender Norms in Denmark
In spite of an international reputation as a land of equality, traditional gender roles continue to affect Danish society. Turning our attention to Instagram might explain why.
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By Marie Schønning Jensen
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Many women use Instagram for inspiration on motherhood, but if the app promotes traditional manifestations of gender.
“Minority positions are ghettoized online precisely as they are in real life. That said, the ease of use of the Internet allows for connection beyond physical proximity. As a result— if I need to seek out specific advice about, for example, parenting a trans child, or I’m looking for a community of feminist parents, I can seek and find this. But the loudest voice is still that of the mainstream,” Friedman writes in an e-mail.
"The loudest voice is still that of the maistream"
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- May Friedman, Ryerson University in Toronto
Essentially, although counter-movements exist, the majority of content on Instagram follows gender stereotypical norms.
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Instagram: The modern-day baby-manual
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When Simone Westergaard, 26, found out that she was pregnant with her first child, her Instagram patterns changed. Before pregnancy, her Instagram feed was filled with friends and fashion, but today it’s all about motherhood.
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“I often use Instagram’s explore function, and since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve noticed that everything on there is baby-related, because I have been looking a lot at pregnancy photos,” Westergaard admits.
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She is a master’s student of pedagogical psychology at the Danish School of Education, and she and her boyfriend are expecting a son in July. To prepare for the role of being someone’s mother, Westergaard turns to Instagram. Here she finds inspiration on cute baby clothes and on which stroller to buy.
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“Often when I see something on Instagram, I look for more information about it online to figure out if it is something I would like to get myself,” Westergaard says. Asked about whether her boyfriend looks at baby-content on Instagram as well, her answer is a firm no. “The only baby-content he sees is what I show him,” she laughs.
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Westergaard is not the only woman who gets inspired using Instagram. To Simone Facondini, 30, and mother to almost 2-year-old Carl, the social media platform is a primary source for inspiration.
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“On everything from breastfeeding when Carl was just a baby to ideas on how to pass time during quarantine, Instagram has been a huge inspiration to me,” Facondini says. She lives in Aarhus with her boyfriend and son, and she works as a lecturer at VIA University College.
Facondini describes a type of community which has developed among moms on Instagram. And according to Facondini, it’s a community of honesty (along with the occasional filter and staged photos) and support. For instance, if a mommy-influencer talks to her followers about a rough night in Motherland, Facondini responds with a virtual high five - a ‘like’. “Of course I compare myself to the content I see, but it gives me a good feeling to get a glimpse of how other moms go about their daily life,” she says.
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As human beings, we cannot help but compare ourselves and our lifestyles to others, and that goes for both online and offline activities. This process is what Adrian Meier and Svenja Schäfer call social comparison in their study from 2018, The Positive Side of Social Comparison on Social Network Sites: How Envy Can Drive Inspiration on Instagram. In their study, they argue that Instagram users can experience a feeling of inspiration if they have a positive emotional reaction to what they see. This inspiration has the potential to lead to actual motivated behaviour.
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When Westergaard uses Instagram to find the perfect baby carriage or Facondini reads about other momstagrammers’ tips on breastfeeding, it can have an actual impact on their choices in real life. They compare themselves to mothers or other content on Instagram, and if they react positively to what they see, they get inspired.
Meier and Schäfer did not conduct their study on mothers on Instagram. However, one of the authors agrees that inspiration on Instagram can affect decisions on raising a child. Meier is a research assistant and Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Communication of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He specializes in the effects of digital and social media and has won awards for his academic papers, lastly at the Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA). About mothers on Instagram he says:
“I guess you could make the assumption that young mothers using Instagram look for information and look for role models. I can imagine that this can certainly provide inspiration for how to be a mom yourself, how to deal with certain issues and how to throw a baby shower”.
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Instagram is used as a go-to place for inspiration, which affects real-life decisions. As Instagram content is largely gender-stereotypical, so is the basis from which not just young mothers but all types of Instagram users draw inspiration.
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Insta-dads
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Being a mother is a big part of many female Instagrammers’ online identity. In this way, Instagram content follows traditional gender roles. But how about the dads? Is daddy-influencers a thing as well?
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They exist, but not nearly in the same scope. The hashtag #livetsomfar (life as a dad) reveals 18,957 posts. That’s 15 times fewer than #livetsommor (life as a mom). Some of the most popular examples of dads who post about their children on Instagram are journalist Thomas Skov (@thomasskov, 153,000 followers) and comedian Uffe Holm (@uffeholmchamp, 339,000 followers). They both post humorous pictures and videos of their children, but not so much about being a father in general, and their profiles are dedicated to other parts of their lives as well. A prime example of a Danish dad-influencer is Allan Stage (@fartilfirepiger, 23,000 followers). He is the male equivalent to the momstagrammer, as he portrays his life as a father of four girls, and judging by his followers, he is more popular with female Instagrammers than male.
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The tendency of parenting on Instagram being more popular among women than men resonates in Denis Dedovic, a 29-year old associate attorney at DLA Piper in Aarhus. Although he uses Instagram every day and had his first child in 2018, Dedovic has never been interested in looking at baby-content on Instagram. “Only if it has a funny angle,” he says. To him, Instagram is both a source for entertainment and for inspiration on where to get a cool tie. But not for seeking parenting information.
"Fathers are superheroes. At least in the children's eyes. I have written about the superhero Dad Man. Link in bio."
When you search for #genderreveal on Instagram, more than 1.3 million pictures appear. A smiling pregnant woman in a light blue satin dress. A cupcake cut in half, revealing baby blue sprinkles inside. A couple, all dressed in pastel shades, jaws dropping as the balloon below them bursts and reveals the colour pink: they are having a baby girl.
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Gender reveal parties are a big hit on Instagram. The concept, which is the baby shower’s younger sibling, revolves around surprising either one or both upcoming parents with the sex of their newest family member - and obviously documenting the whole process on social media. Pink means girl, blue means boy.
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In 2014, Facebook added more than 50 gender options for its users. At gender reveal parties, there are only two.
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This article sets out to explain why traditional gender norms persist in Danish society. The usual answers to this question either blame history, discourse, family and work structure or even biology. This article takes the discussion to a different dimension. Destination: Instagram. Because as the article will show, the photo-sharing social media is a playground for traditional gender norms.
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Denmark, a land of gender equality... Or what?
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Denmark has long enjoyed an international reputation as a land of welfare, sustainability and equality. More than 100 years ago, in 1915, Danish women gained the right to vote. This was five years before the same right was implemented in the United States, three years before Germany, and 29 years before France, who only in 1944 passed a legislation allowing women to vote.
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A couple of decades later, in the 1960’s and 70’s, myriads of married Danish women entered the labour market, after having spent most of the 1950’s in aprons. Laws regarding equal pay and equal treatment were implemented in Parliament, as women’s movements gained momentum out in the streets.
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In Danish memory, the 1970’s stands out for its focus on gender equality. Big steps were taken these years, and women had officially and legally obtained the same rights as men. As a result, new agendas popped up in society, and gender equality movements lost momentum because, in the eyes of the average Dane, the fight was over. Women had achieved what they wanted.
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So, what is the status in 2020? Do traditional gender norms affect our society? The short answer is yes, but sticking to that would be a shame, so let’s take a few more details.
One of the most used measures of gender equality is the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report, and the 2020 version places Denmark at number 14. A decent result at first glance, but poorer when compared to other Nordic countries. Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden occupy the four leading positions.
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Traditional gender norms, illustrated most clearly in the 1950s when women were largely housewives and men were power holders, continue to show their influence in Denmark.
According to a study by Bonke & Christensen in 2018, Danish women spend almost an hour more on housekeeping each day than men.
Moreover, women continue to take a much bigger share of the parental leave. In Denmark, mothers are entitled to 4 weeks of maternity leave before the baby is born and 14 weeks after. The other parent, which is most often a father, is allowed two weeks of leave right after the baby’s birth. After all this, parents are allowed 32 additional weeks of leave, which can be shared among them as they please. And apparently, what pleases most families is to let the mother take most of the leave. According to Statistics Denmark, the average mother is on leave for 273.9 days (37.1 weeks), while fathers are on leave for 31.9 days (4.5 weeks). Taking care of a baby remains the mother’s responsibility.
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Moving from households to workplaces, the numbers keep being skewed. According to Statistics Denmark, 19% of board members and 15% of members of directions were women in 2019. In the current Parliament, women take up 39,1% of the seats, and the political topics they are responsible for follow traditional gender norms as well. Thus, female politicians are in the majority in the Children & Education Committee, Health Committee and Equality Committee, while men are in the majority in the Employment Committee, EU Committee and Trade Committee, to name a few.
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In this light, Denmark does not come off as a frontrunner on gender equality. But why is it so hard for this Scandinavian nation to shake off the chains of traditional gender roles? One answer is that without knowing, we keep reproducing the norms that have followed us for so long, and Instagram is a prominent arena.
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Traditional gender norms thrive on Instagram
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The stereotypical image of what it means to be a woman is easily found on Instagram. The hashtags #karrierekvinder (career women) and #forretningskvinde (businesswoman) respectively have 963 and 685 hits on Instagram, a search on April 11th reveals. In contrast, 294,707 Instagram pictures have been marked with #livetsommor (life as a mom). On female Instagram accounts, babies trump business.
Body representation on Instagram also reflects gender-stereotypical norms, with muscular men and beautiful women being a big help in gaining likes and followers. In recent years, a wave of body diversity and positivity has swept across the Instagram ocean in protest of the narrow depiction of what men and women should look like. Nevertheless, traditional gender representation remains.
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May Friedman is an associate professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She specialises in digital media, motherhood studies and feminism and is the author of the book Mommyblogs and the Changing Face of Motherhood. She recognises the image of Instagram as a place where traditional gender representation thrives.
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From Instagram to reality
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From Instagram, viewers easily get the idea that childcare is a woman’s job. A mindset aligned with traditional gender roles. And because Instagram can provide inspiration on how to live our lives as the social comparison theory indicates, Instagram takes part in maintaining traditional gender roles in society.
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It goes without saying that Instagram is not the answer to everything. For instance, it is hard to blame Instagram for the low share of women in advisory boards and politics. But on the other hand, when what we see on social media is a reproduction of traditional gender views, this perspective takes root in society. Instagram does sustain traditional gender roles, but the social media is just one out of the 1,000 pieces that constitute the jigsaw puzzle of society. As Friedman puts it:
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“The patriarchy was alive and well before social media and it continues through and beyond it,” the Canadian professor writes in an email.
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"Celebrate the baby. There's no way to have a cake to cut into it, to see if they're going to like chess. Let's just have a cake"
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- Jenna Karvunidis, "inventor" of the Gender Reveal Party
This article reveals some of the power hidden in the little pink photo-app known as Instagram. But all power is limited. In 2019, the woman who allegedly invented gender reveal parties, Jenna Karvunidis, made another revelation. Her daughter, who in 2008 was the unborn hero of the hour, is non-binary and Karvunidis does not support the concept of gender reveal parties any longer.
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“Celebrate the baby. There's no way to have a cake to cut into it, to see if they're going to like chess. Let's just have a cake,” she told NPR.
About the Author
Marie Schønning Jensen,
Denmark
Marie is a Danish journalist with a special interest in inequality. Before Mundus Journalism, she studied a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and International Studies and during her studies, she’s worked at various Danish media, currently at the political news site Altinget.
