Framing Dysphoria and Discomfort Beyond the Binary: A Multimodal Analysis of Non-Binary Influencers on Instagram

This article explores how non-binary influencers represent gender dysphoria and discomfort on Instagram, challenging pathologising and binary narratives (Bradford and Syed 2019; Galupo, Pulice-Farrow, Pehl 2021). While DSM-5-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) (American Psychiatric Association 2022) continues to frame gender dysphoria as an internal condition rooted in distress, this study investigates how non-binary users reframe it as relational and socially mediated. Combining corpus-assisted discourse studies (Gillings, Mautner, Baker 2023), multimodal critical discourse analysis (Kress and van Leeuwen 2021), and framing theory (Entman 1993), the research analyses captions and images from ten public influencer accounts, adhering to ethical guidelines for internet-mediated research (Markham and Buchanan 2017). By situating this approach within queer digital humanities (Ruberg, Boyd, Howe 2018), the article suggests how corpus-based tools and multimodal frameworks can be used to interrogate aspects of identity representation in online spaces. In particular, it suggests how non-binary influencers – whether consciously or unconsciously – employ visual-textual strategies to frame and reframe gender-related discomfort.