Beauty and the Biz
Still from 'Beauty and Beast' (1946, Jean Cocteau)
Nowhere has the impact of influencer media and marketing been more apparent—or visible—than on the business of beauty. Studying longform and shortform female social media content creators in the beauty and skincare space, this project will understand and analyse their (self)representation, socio-cultural influence, and the evolving reciprocal relationship between them and the multi-billion pound beauty industry in the UK.
The project will examine how this content, its creators and this ‘ecosystem’ is navigating a complex landscape defined by concerns about the widespread influence of social media, disinformation, AI-generated multimedia content, online misogyny and misogynoir, audiences becoming resistant to ‘overconsumption content’, and online influencers being increasingly perceived as being ‘unrelatable’ and ‘inauthentic’.
We will also study female beauty content creators themselves as entrepreneurs, particularly exploring how their entrepreneurial identities are (de)constructed in a context where they might be dismissed (or entirely overlooked) as entrepreneurs because of their gender and intersectional parts of their identities, and the sector that they work in.
This is an ambitious project, particularly as the majority of academic research in the area has focused on been focused on the United States.
The project aims to:
- Analyse ‘micro-influencer’ content by Scottish and other UK-based influencers.
- Study beauty influencers as female entrepreneurs.
- Understand how race, ethnicity, ‘visible difference’, disability and other aspects of intersectional identities intersect with the business of the (micro)influencer ecosystem and economy.
- Understand the economic impact of female influencers on the UK’s Beauty and Skincare market, product creation, promotional activities and other trends.
- Unpack the trends and factors complicating/threatening the social media influencer content ecosystem in the beauty space.