Construction of Health Topics in Healthy Lifestyle Online Communities: Gender Aspect

This study explores the construction of health topics within Russian online communities, focusing on the gender aspect of healthy lifestyle discussions. The research aims to identify discourses formed for men and women in these communities, to reveal expectations imposed on men and women, and to explore how cultural online contexts shape these narratives. With the implementation of netnography and discourse analysis, the study investigates three types of communities in Russian social media site VKontakte: general healthy lifestyle, women's health, and men's health. The main focus of the analysis is on the posts and comments shared within the communities, as they are the main mediums of constructing health-related topics. Online communities, especially those focused on health, provide spaces for individuals to express concerns, share information, and change their behavior, thereby creating new values and social norms. The findings show that online health communities reflect and reinforce traditional gender norms, which in turn shape the meanings of health, with some spaces offering resistance and promoting more inclusive views of health. Different understandings of health and healthy lifestyle are formed within the analyzed communities, highlighting that general and male-directed communities translate the idea of a healthy body into the achievement of conventionally attractive looks, while the female-directed community promotes the discussions of health being the result of practices dedicated to physical wellness and mental well-being.