Superhero Teachers on Instagram: A Fantasy Theme Analysis of Social Media Platforms and Group Identity

Abstract

This study utilizes fantasy theme criticism to considers the impact of how an online teacher platform (Bored Teachers) uses Instagram to create a community for educators using comedic digital content. This study asks: 1. How does a teacher group’s content create a community through its posts? 2. Can a social-media-based group both profit from their content and have social impact at the same time? 3. In what ways does the utilization of hero language help create and sustain followers, therefore developing a larger group identity? 4. What are the limitations for groups using social media to reach their audience? This paper identifies two fantasies Bored Teachers have created using superhero language and explores how followers of their platform may respond to this language. The group both rejects superhero language when speaking about the teaching profession while also co-opting such language to speak positively about teachers. Such analysis finds that superhero language is, regardless of the user, inherently harmful toward the teaching profession, as it normalizes the struggles of educators which reinforces the power structures present in the profession. Similarly, this study acknowledges the Bored Teachers’ use of comedy and their efforts to use Instagram to earn money limits their effectiveness as teacher advocates. It also determines that the field of rhetoric and writing studies needs to reconceptualize fantasy theme criticism when the group is primarily using online spaces.