6. The lack of the significant presence of the US
6.1. The national background of the Instagram screenshots
6. The lack of significant presence of the US
The third main and most significant finding of this present research was the lack of significant presence of influencers from the United States in the sample of screenshots sent by both Hungarian and Taiwanese interviewees as examples of beautiful women. According to theories of cultural globalization, which often names the United States of America as an important driving force of the process and source of cultural products, should have been much more prominent across the image samples. I will present two arguments to explain this finding. Firstly, I will argue that we live in a different era today, where social media has changed the celebrity culture. It allows for consumers to follow influencers known not only from traditional celebrity-careers such as actors or singers, but often solely social media itself, as there has been an increase in self-made celebrities. Secondly I will introduce the changes in Hollywood’s star recruitment strategy – as in accordance with cultural proximity, they have started to recruit stars from different regions in order to cater to diverse markets.
6.1. The national background of the Instagram screenshots
Prior to discussing the argument explaining the lack of US presence, first I would like to review the accounts Hungarian and Taiwanese interviewees follow on Instagram, as well as the national backgrounds of the Instagram screenshots they sent over during and following the interviews as examples of beautiful women.
Hungarian interviewees almost all mentioned following a diverse group when it came to the national background of the accounts they follow, however, they also added that they were almost exclusively Western, with “maybe just one or two Asian girls” as just a few of the interviewees added. They themselves used these specific terms, mentioning following
“Western” accounts, meaning people and businesses mainly from European countries, North America and Australia. Only one interviewee mentioned following ‘Asian’ girls, however she did not specify, whether she meant their racial or national background. However, in the sample of screenshots the interviewees sent over the only two images that portrayed women with Asian ethnic/racial background were not living on the Asian continent – one lives in the United States, while the other in the United Kingdom.
Regarding the national background of the Instagram screenshots the Hungarian interviewees sent over during or following the interview, the findings are the following. Out
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of the screenshots where nationality could be determined, around half of them, namely 52%
(43 images, 48% if including the unknown-nationality screenshots as well) were from the United States. Almost 20% (16 images) were Hungarian, mostly the interviewees’ own friends, and some athletes and 12% (10 images) were from the United Kingdom – which underlines their own descriptions of the national backgrounds of the accounts they follow. Of the remaining images 10% (8 images) were from a mixture of European countries (Italy, France, Poland and Germany), while Canada made up for 5% (4 images) as well. The last nationalities represented in the sample were Iraq with 3% (3 images) and Australia with 2%
(2 images). And although around half of the screenshots were indeed of women from the United States, the images still represented diverse national backgrounds with over 10 countries appearing from four continents. Interestingly, no women from Asian countries were chosen as examples for beauty.
In order to gain a deeper understanding of what kind of images Taiwanese young women consume and what accounts do they follow as a source for their construction of ideal beauty and their national and cultural background, during the interviews they were also asked about the accounts they follow on Instagram. The majority of the interviewees said they mostly follow their friends on the platform – but multiple girls also mentioned following Eastern singers and actors, Western models as well as fashion accounts. In these cases for singers and models none of them mentioned specific nationalities, using the terms ‘Eastern’ and
‘Western’ completely independently from one another was their own choice of wording, which was very interesting. The East and West are broad, social constructs as their boundaries are not clearly agreed upon and can depend on power – so the interviewer should have asked for further specification regarding nationality, what she missed to do. Nevertheless it is interesting to see how the Taiwanese interviewees categorized the accounts and people they follow based on these socially constructed categories for cultural background.
Regarding the national background, understandingly, Taiwan appeared for all of them as the friends they follow are Taiwanese as well – but most of the girls stated they followed quite a diverse group of people nationality-wise. Sometimes they just said it was diverse from East and the West as well, sometimes they mentioned specific countries. For Asian countries, apart from Taiwan there were specific mentions of China, Korea and Japan; while for Euro-American countries they often specifically mentioned the United States and the United
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Kingdom or just Europe in general. One girl said she follows probably “70% Western and 30% Eastern” accounts (TW10) and another one also mentioned how
“I think [I follow] Western more – because I follow a lot of influencers and artists, and they’re usually from the West.” (TW02)
For the screenshots that Taiwanese interviewees sent over, out of the 108 images 30% (32 screenshots) were portraying Taiwanese women – often the friends of the interviewees, which is not surprising, considering multiple girls said they followed mostly their Taiwanese friends – and women from their country might also often feel more relatable to them. Additionally, following accounts from their own country or culture provides them content with no language barriers, which might be a reason for not following accounts from other national backgrounds whose content they might not understand. The next most prominent nationality was girls from the US, although only making up for 22% of the pictures (23 images), followed by what I categorized as “other European countries” with 13% (14 images). Korean women shared a ratio similar to Europeans with 13% (14 images). The remaining countries were Thailand (7%, 7 images), Australia and South Africa (6%, 6 images), Russia(3%, 3 images), Brazil and Japan (2%, 2 images each).
The following graphs below illustrate the national backgrounds of the screenshots received from the Hungarian and Taiwanese interviewees, including the number of screenshots of which the nationality couldn’t be determined.
Figure 16. National backgrounds of the women in the Instagram screenshots sent by Hungarian and Taiwanese interviewees
UK, Germany, Hungary, Spain 12%
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