Resistance against sexual objectification on Reddit: a large-scale thematic analysis of r/PurplePillDebate

This study explores how social media users resist dominant objectifying discourses about physical appearance and sexual attraction on Reddit. Drawing on objectification theory and Foucauldian perspectives on power and subjectivity, and on an exceptionally large qualitative dataset of 17,412 comments from r/PurplePillDebate, this study shifts the analytical focus away from the passive internalization of objectifying ideals to foreground users' active discursive pushback. While prior research emphasizes internalization of objectifying ideals, this paper foregrounds users' discursive pushback—conceptualized as everyday resistance to objectification. Findings reveal two resistance modes: self-directed and other-directed, each expressed through soft and hard forms. These include rejecting quantified standards of beauty, critiquing algorithmic dating cultures, and challenging gendered double standards. Reddit's affordances enable both anonymous vulnerability and confrontational debate, shaping how resistance is articulated. This study contributes to research on embodiment and digital culture by showing how users reclaim agency in sociotechnical spaces governed by appearance hierarchies and algorithmic visibility, actively negotiating body image through irony, discourse reframing, and strategic detachment. Furthermore, this study demonstrates how a text-based, non-visual platform affords unique strategies for bodily resistance that differ significantly from image-centric social media.