Surveillance and discipline play a role in post feminist media texts, which can be understood as Girlfriendship. Girlfriend surveillance is also noted in post queer gay male beauty influencers. “Dynamics in the role of girlfriend culture in intensifying ideals of beauty, compounded through girlfriend surveillance” (Chen & Kanai, 2022).Girlfriendship in the context of these feminized aesthetics performed by gay male influencers and female influencers is the concept that “many women watch many women.” Also referred to as the gynaeopticon, girlfriend influencers are meant to pressure and discipline girlfriends into feminine bodies, psyches, characteristics, lifestyle choices, and overall conform to hegemonic feminine beauty standards (Chen & Kanai, 2022). Girlfriends who fail to maintain “the conditions of the gynaeopticon are ostracized and punished” until they conform to the beauty industrial complex (Chen & Kanai, 2022).
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