CONSTRUCTING GENDER IN SOCIAL NETWORKS ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE NIKE SPORTSWEAR BRAND: THE NEW WOMEN AND THE SAME MEN
Authors:   Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation), Solodukhina Elvira V. 
Published: February 2021

Relevance of the study. Researches of advertising and media are important components of social and cultural research, as it allows to take a critical look at gender images that exist not only in the media, but also in the public consciousness. We chose Nike for the study because of two reasons. First, they purposefully use a gender approach. The brand chooses its models based on what gender issues they can attract attention to. Secondly, Nike is the global brand that influences consumers in many countries, including Russia, setting not only fashion trends, but also lifestyle and values. Purpose. To demonstrate what gender images and standards the Nike brand uses to construct gender in the social network Instagram. Methodology. The research is based on the theory of social construction of gender, critical studies of advertising and the theory of postfeminism. Main methods: content analysis and comparative analysis. Research result. Analysis of the visual content of the Nike brand account in Instagram allowed us to draw the following conclusions: 1. Nike, like many clothing brands, on the one hand, demonstrates the binary of “male” and “female” in its media. They focus on “women's” as discriminated against by society and an issue that needs to be discussed. On the other hand, by making both men and women heroes and putting them in the context of “competition and victory”, Nike unites them and erases the gender boundaries. 2. The image of a man in Nike remains within the existing stereotypes, and the image of a woman shows the duality: on the one hand, she acquires masculine characteristics, on the other – she strives to preserve her femininity. This duality may be because the introduction of women into the masculine field (sport) deconstructs masculinity and turns masculine into universal. 3. The female audience feels the need for the new role models. If earlier in advertising there were two predominant types of women aimed at the female audience – the housewife and the beauty woman, now there is a third type – a feminist woman who claims for the previously male spheres. Nike, in their social networks, strive to meet the requirements of postfeminism in sports, where equality is embodied through the accessibility of all sports and the uniqueness of each gender through gender issues. 4. The gender of all brand characters is still built through two poles: male and female. Cisgender individuals have their own explicit gender characteristic in the brand, and a transgender man and woman with high testosterone levels, according to World Athletics, protect their right to be a “man” or a “woman”. This again leads to a discussion about the binary division of gender. Conclusions. In the context of the presence of men and women in the main brand account, a woman is positioned as an equal player to a man, but at the same time discriminated against. Women in this account, on the one hand are in the field of sports, heroism, leadership (the field of traditionally masculine characteristics), but on the other hand, should be focused on women's issues, and such a new issue is postfeminism, which constructs the new woman. In the context of a women's account, where you no longer need to compete with a man, the brand delves more into the topic of “femininity”. Feminism is also important here, but it is no longer necessary to reach so far for equality with men. Here you can see another facet of post-feminism-the emphasis on femininity as itself important and unique. This uniqueness can be expressed by women's sexuality and physicality. We assume that in the future, global brands such as Nike will continue to look for images for genders that go beyond the binary order. This may lead to an increase in gender-neutral collections, but the advantage, in our opinion, will remain, on the contrary, for the expansion and uniqueness of genders, since this gives a variety of examples for identification. This will primarily be influenced by public thought and values, especially the feminist and LGBT movements, as they set the gender agenda.