Virtual Fashion Blogger’s Social Performance From The Perspective Of Posthumanism

Catherine Hayles,the founder of posthuman theory,proposed that "posthumans emerge when computers replace the individual as the basis of existence." Virtual fashion bloggers,based on 3D modeling technology,construct digital avatars,and inject them with human thought characteristics,becoming the subject of social media in line with the trend of "increasingly personalized technology." In order to reveal how virtual fashion bloggers enter the social media world as opinion leaders as posthumans,this article uses Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory framework,and employs three key concepts of front stage,stage and teams to analyze the social performance of virtual fashion bloggers based on China’s social media,through content analysis and case studies to address the following research questions:(1)What feature and performance elements can be used to construct the field of fashion?(2)How virtual fashion bloggers mobilize their presentation and performance to create a fashionable scene and generate value?(3)Based on the previous analysis,what are the recommended development strategies from three perspectives?This study found that virtual fashion bloggers create a "soul and body" by constructing a refined digital body with human attributes.They use the combination of real and virtual scenes and the setting of hyper-realistic landscapes to create a cyberspace that gives the body a sense of presence.Meanwhile,they adjust their professional identity and emphasize their virtual attributes to achieve self-identity and create a social network,forming a performing "teams" that cooperate with each other to maintain specific situational definitions and performance order.The core is that the landing point of virtual fashion bloggers is consumption.The outfit posting and fashion consumption establish a fashion authority for virtual fashion blogger and form a mutual construction relationship between individuals and fashion.As a new subject in the field of fashion communication,virtual fashion bloggers construct a new fashion scene through three dimensions: aesthetics,socialization,and consumption.Firstly,they mobilize visual information such as appearance and clothing to convey aesthetic concepts and showcase the cultural significance of social media content to establish fashion aesthetics.Secondly,through holographic technology,they stimulate the audience’s senses by making their digital bodies present in the scene and undertake emotional labor to become social objects of fans.Finally,through absolute control of the external appearance and internal thoughts of virtual fashion bloggers,they implement their personal impression management strategies to achieve marketing value,which drives fashion consumption.Virtual fashion bloggers play an important role in the development of science and technology as the intermediary between the meta-universe and the real world.Based on the analysis above,this paper puts forward the following suggestions: Performance(1)Under the effect of Uncanny Valley,it is suggested that virtual fashion bloggers choose media according to the degree of realism,Hyper-realistic,high-tech bloggers suggest using more videos and live performances to generate content;(2)The appearance design of virtual fashion blogger should be more diversity,avoid falling into the rut of aesthetic fatigue;.(3)Fully leverage the text performance to express their characteristic.Stage:(1)Make good use of the “backstage” to simulate real human behavior.(2)Create middle stage by Livestream,the emotional infection of instant interaction brings more benefits to virtual fashion bloggers.Performance Teams:(1)performers collaborate with each other to maintain the order of the stage.(2)The presentation of interactive drama guides the audience to participate in the virtual human blogger co-creation.