Digital Culture and Value Clash on TikTok: ‘Dancing Girl’ vs. Radical Feminist

Abstract

TikTok is the youngest and one of the most popular social networks in the world, and as such is a “mirror” of the values of new generations which illustrates the culture and values of young girls of the 21st century, provides an opportunity for public speaking to any audience, regardless of social status, worldview, profession and location. Notably, many of the most popular TikTok stars are young, feminine and sexy, white and rich women who dance and expose their bodies. On the contrary, there is a group of radical feminists on TikTok who do not dance but use humor to demonstrate sexism and discrimination against women. The author of the study at the time of writing analyzed the last 30 TikTok videos of four representatives of the “mainstream” values on TikTok, the socalled “dancing girls”, as well as the last 30 videos of four radical feminists. In total, 240 videos were analyzed by the modal method. The purpose of the study is to determine what values these two groups of women stand for. As a result, we found that between these two groups there is a confl ict of values, expressed in the discrepancy between ideas about the social status of women in Russia. Moreover, the results of the study show that there is a division of girls not only for the situation studied in the article but also for the modern media world in general. Nowadays, TikTok has become part of popular culture and therefore represents a reliable source of information for researchers involved in popular culture and the modern value system of the young.