Distant reading case study "Body Image" ​
🙌 This case study was inspired by MA DC student Caroline Déharbe, who used some of the data recommended below for her essay in the 2024/2025 academic year.
INFO
To use this case study in your classroom presentations, you can download csv data tables and txt files for the two podcasts mentioned below. If emojis or special characters appear distorted in Voyant Tools, you may need to use a different character encoding. Read more about it under data cleaning.
Reasons for studying body images in social media data ​
Body image is a relevant and much-discussed topic in our digital age as it influences self-worth, mental health, and societal expectations. Body images and their contestations can be analysed through different data, including podcast reviews and YouTube comments. When we analyse how audiences of audio and video content address body images online, we can find out about beauty standards and how they are confirmed or challenged by different demographics. Gender roles also play a considerable part in this debate, but body images can also be linked to ethnicity. This may also allow for a post-colonial analysis. Moreoever, critical user feedback on beauty content may highlight intersections between personal empowerment and collective activism, which can be linked to theories of the (digital) public sphere.
Podcasts dealing with body image ​
For this case study, you may want to analyse reviews from two podcasts that directly engage with body image themes:
I weigh (Jamil, 2023–2024)
This podcast, hosted by actress and activist Jameela Jamil, explores mental health and body positivity. It features guests such as Esther Perel, Greta Thunberg, and Aubrey Gordon, who share stories that promote individual progress over perfection. Reviews of this podcast frequently discuss themes like vulnerability, empowerment, and societal change.
Jamil, J. (2023–2024). I Weigh [Podcast]. (Now titled Wrong Turns with Jameela Jamil). https://podcasts.apple.com/bw/podcast/wrong-turns-with-jameela-jamil/id1498855031
We can do hard things (Doyle et al., 2021–present)
This podcast does not have a narrow focus on body image but highlights (self-)love and overcoming difficult situations more generally. Many episodes cover (mental) health topics, including ADHD and OCD. The podcast is hosted by author Glennon Doyle, her wife Abby Wambach, and her sister Amanda Doyle. The hosts encourage their listeners to
"drop the fake and talk honestly about the hard things including sex, gender, parenting, blended families, bodies, anxiety, addiction, justice, boundaries, fun, quitting, overwhelm . . . all of it."
Doyle, G., Wambach, A., & Doyle, A. (2021–present). We can do hard things [Podcast]. https://podcasts.apple.com/bw/podcast/we-can-do-hard-things/id1564530722
YouTube videos covering body image ​
Alternatively or in comparison, you can analyse user comments for YouTube videos. Possible directions are videos on the history of diet culture, such as content relating to the so-called 'almond moms'. These are parents, usually mothers, who hold strict views on dieting and body image while trying to pass these ideas on to their children. YouTuber Queer Kiwi, for instance, made a long and critical video on "the almond mum epidemic" on 30 May 2025, which received more than 1500 comments in half a year.
An analysis of the phenomenon in the light of TikTok's success (among younger social media users) is offered in the video How Almond Moms Became The TikTok-Friendly New Face of Diet Culture shared by the channel The Financial Diet in 2023.
Rowan Ellis (2023) also posted a video on almond moms and the cult of generational diet culture, but focuses more on a queer perspective. The highlighted video has over 400 thousand views, and more than 1100 comments.
A more historical perspective on diet cultures is, for instance, offered by YouTube Mina Le (2022), whose channel is dedicated to video essays on fashion and pop culture. In her video The history of dieting is crazier than you think, Mina le covers past dieting, including the interplay of gender and race throughout its evolution. She also presents the ties between that evolution and the modern desire for thinness topics. This video has over 1.5 million views and over 2800 comments.
The video Heroin & Cigarettes & Tapeworms: The Dark History of Diet Culture by Bailey Sarian (2022) also goes back in time and traces the cultural prioritization of thinness. This video has more than 3 million views, and over 7000 comments.
Data analysis with Voyant ​
Use Voyant Tools for distant reading and identify key patterns in the data. As further explained in the Skills section of this Github repository, you should start with a word cloud / a high-level analysis of word frequencies. Recurring terms may include "empowerment" and "authenticity" but also emotions that podcast listeners and YouTube viewers express or judgments that they have experienced from others. Voyant’s contextual analysis tools (e.g. the keywords in context table) can help examine how prominent terms are used in relation to other words. Collocation tools like the word tree can reveal common phrases (e.g. adjective + noun combinations), while the trends graph can help you analyse the distribution of terms across the dataset. Also consider comparing themes between the two podcasts.
Possible theoretical approaches ​
To frame your findings, several theoretical approaches are possible. Based on what is taught in the MA DC course Machines of Knowledge, you may want to use one of the following three lenses:
Feminism as a theoretical framework can help you reflect on women-led critiques of societal beauty standards as well as gender-related communication patterns and stereotypes. You can also consider what impact the gender identities of the content creators have on user reactions.
Through a postcolonial approach, you can potentially examine if and why your data sets address cultural or racial dimensions of body image and self-love discussions. Consider how the user responses engage with global perspectives or marginalised voices.
Public Sphere theory is another possible approach and can draw your attention to how media such as podcasts create participatory spaces and contribute to (political) opinion-making. You can, for example, explore whether reviews and comments reflect a shift toward inclusive and democratic conversations, and if the users are empowered to take collective action offline.
Cited Works and Further Readings ​
- Chuck, C., Fernandes, S. A., & Hyers, L. L. (2016). Awakening to the politics of food: Politicized diet as social identity. Appetite, 107, 425-436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.08.106
- Faw, M. H., Davidson, K., Hogan, L., & Thomas, K. (2021). Corumination, diet culture, intuitive eating, and body dissatisfaction among young adult women. Personal Relationships, 28(2), 406-426. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12364
- Hogan, L., Johnson, K. J., & Faw, M. H. (2025). Diet Culture Beliefs, Co-Rumination, Intuitive Eating, and Experiences of Internalized Weight Stigma in the Adjustment to College Among Emerging Adult Women. Emerging Adulthood, 13(4), 833-844. https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968251338573
- Jovanovski, N., & Jaeger, T. (2022). Demystifying ‘diet culture’: Exploring the meaning of diet culture in online ‘anti-diet’ feminist, fat activist, and health professional communities. Women's Studies International Forum, 90, 102558. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102558
- Jovanovski, N., & Jaeger, T. (2024). Unpacking the 'anti-diet movement': domination and strategies of resistance in the broad anti-diet community. Social Movement Studies, 23(2), 172-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2022.2070736
Note ​
The Chuck et al. (2016) and Jovanovski & Jaeger (2022, 2024) texts offer a focus on the political elements of diet culture and body image, while Faw et al. (2021) and Hogen et al. (2025) give you a more in depth look at the relationship between diet culture and body dissatisfaction. The first three can guide an analysis of feelings and discussions of the larger structures at play (the more sociological aspects), while the other two can be more useful for analyzing the psychological elements.