Beneath the Hashtags: Norms, Peer Reinforcement, and Body Discourse among Self-Presented Teenage Boys in #EDTWT on X

Proponent/s Name/s (Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial)

• Sofia C. Bayona, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow
• Naomi S. Gueverra, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow
• Jereanna A. Maraon, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow
• Don A. Razon, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow
• Joseph S. Cadelina, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow

Document Types

Paper Presentation

Research Theme (for Paper Presentation and Poster Presentation submissions only)

Media and Philippine Studies (MPS)

School Name

De La Salle University, Manila

Track or Strand

Humanities and Social Science (HUMSS)

Research Advisor (Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial)

Cadelina, Joseph, S.

Start Date

23-6-2026 3:30 PM

End Date

23-6-2026 5:00 PM

Zoom Link/ Room Assignment

DLSU Manila Campus (In-person) - Don Enrique T. Yuchengco Hall - Y405

Abstract/Executive Summary

Social media increasingly shapes adolescent identity and peer interactions, particularly on the platform X, where online communities emerge around shared interests and experiences. One such community is EDTWT, where users who identify with eating disorders discuss diets, bodies, and lifestyle practices. Prior research indicates that these discussions normalize extreme behaviors and establish peer-driven norms around body image and health. This study examines how discourse within EDTWT reinforces specific body ideals among self-presented teenage boys, employing Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis across textual, discursive, and social levels. A dataset of 50 posts from accounts that self-presented as boys aged 15-19 through public profile markers in 2025 was analyzed to explore linguistic strategies, interactional patterns, and peer dynamics. Findings reveal that discourse primarily normalizes and glorifies disordered behaviors through mechanisms like affirmative uptake, peer enabling, competitive comparison, and numerical self-surveillance. These patterns collectively construct a moral hierarchy wherein thinness is socially rewarded, and fatness stigmatized, reinforcing behaviors like extreme restriction, body monitoring, and ongoing self-surveillance. Although a few recovery-oriented interactions emerge but remain marginal within broader discourse. The study concludes that linguistic practices, discursive dynamics, and socio-cultural beliefs within EDTWT collectively privilege thinness while marginalizing fatness, shaping body ideals and social hierarchies for adolescent boys. The findings underscore the importance of examining how peer interaction and online discourse normalize particular body ideals and construct discourses of body perception and self-worth. The study contributes to Asian and Philippine studies because it shows how globalized body norms are reproduced and contested within youth-centered digital cultures.

Keywords

critical discourse analysis; #EDTWT; teenage boys; body image; social media discourse; online peer interaction

Initial Consent for Publication

yes

Statement of Originality

yes