Power, Images and Stereotypes. a Visual Analysis of Gender-Based Violence on Instagram

Considering the relevant role of images in everyday life, here we would like to consider the impact they have not only in the reproduction of roles and thus of stereotypes and prejudices, but also on gender-based power dynamics.

In this perspective I will present the first results of an analysis conducted on a corpus of 1.000 images extracted from Instagram using #violenzadigenere during 25th November 2022 (The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women).

Given the direct relationship between the iconic sphere and social life, the field in which the research is conducted is sociological aesthetics. To this end, a Qualitative Content Analysis was conducted using the visual field as a unit of analysis. The results show not only how the symbolic order of gender-based violence manifests itself, but also what forms of representation of alternative imaginary emerge from the prejudices and stereotypes with which this kind of imaginary is visually represented on Instagram.