Unveiling Gender Constructs: A Social Identity Analysis of Barbie Media Representations

Abstract

Introduced as a pioneer by Henri Tajfel and John Turner in the 1970s, social identity theory has been expanded with the continuous development of socio-linguistics and media. However, the use of different cultural media to analyze social identity construction has not been fully explored for the time being. This study selected the 2023 release of the film Barbie as the primary subject of investigation and employed a multi-modal research approach to analyze it. The results found that 1) female character terminology exhibits specific gender norms; 2) body language and visuals represent the social identities of female characters; 3) dialog between characters illustrates power dynamics and social trends rooted in identity theory. These findings provide meaningful insights into the use and embodiment of social identity theory from a socio-linguistic perspective.

Keywords: Social identity, Barbie film, multi-modal discourse analysis

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/102-07

Publication date: June 30th 2024