The Aesthetics of Siri on Screen: Visual Representation of Bugis Women, the Commodification of Cultural Identity, and the Negotiation of Social Capital on Social Media
Nurul Fadhillah S

Universitas Negeri Makassar

Abstract

Social media has become a primary stage on which the gender-cultural identity of Bugis women is represented, negotiated, and commodified. This study examines how Bugis womanhood rooted in the value of siri^ na pacce is visually displayed on Instagram, and how such representation moves between two poles: cultural preservation as a form of resilience, and a commodifying logic that turns women^s bodies and attire into a marketable aesthetic. Although the phenomenon is abundant in the digital sphere, visual-culture scholarship that specifically reads the intersection of gender, Bugis local identity, and digital platforms remains scarce. This qualitative study analyses a corpus of 25 visual posts gathered purposively through three layers of hashtags markers of traditional dress (baju bodo, lipa^ sabbe), Bugis ethnic identity, and cultural values drawn from varied account types (personal, influencer, small-business/cultural studios, community, and institutional). The analysis applies Barthesian semiotics (denotation, connotation, myth), reinforced by multimodal discourse analysis and cross-validated through reception analysis (Hall) and intercoder reliability to mitigate the subjectivity inherent in semiotic reading. Preliminary findings indicate that digital visibility functions as social capital (Bourdieu, Putnam), negotiated differently across account types: commercial accounts tend toward commodification, communities and institutions sustain a preservationist discourse, while influencers and personal accounts display an ambivalent agency. The study contributes to debates on gender, social capital, and inclusive resilience within technologically mediated Bugis society.

Keywords: Visual Representation- Bugis Women- Cultural Commodification- Semiotics- Social Capital

Topic: Digital Power, Social Capital, and Inclusive Resilience: Interrogating Gender and Inequality in Technologically Mediated Societies (Digital Power- Social Capital- Inclusive Resilience)