Hetero-Sexy Representation by Young Women on Myspace: The Politics of Performing an 'Objectified' Self (Essay‪)‬

Introduction In this article, I offer a categorisation of 'hetero-sexy' material found on a sample of MySpace profiles maintained by young Australian women, aged between 18 and 21. By 'hetero-sexy' (a term discussed below) material I mean imagery, iconography, and decorations on the profiles that appear, in terms of aesthetics and the visual appearance of bodies, to reinforce current notions of feminine gender performativity as 'sexualised', and seem to be appealing to a similar gaze economy as that produced in conventional heterosexual pornography. Social network site profiles have been theorised as a kind of identity performance (boyd, 2007; Liu, 2007; Buckingham, 2008; Westlake, 2008; Zhao, 2008; Pearson, 2009). The premise of Do-It-Yourself social media such as MySpace currently appears to be one of an implicit understanding between viewers and viewed: first, that the representations are self-produced and fashioned to express the identities of their creators; and second, that the subjects of representation are themselves making choices about, actively participating in, and controlling their own representations. I refer to this as the premise of 'self-production' on social network sites. The purpose of this article is to open up some questions about the ways in which this viewing premise of self-production and choice in one's own mediated representation could, and perhaps should, affect feminist interpretations of these hetero-sexy (new) media representations. I offer a textual analysis of hetero-sexy material from MySpace profiles that draws from feminist performance theory and explores the meaning of hetero-sexy icons as visual representations of women.