Erasmus University Thesis Repository
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Contemporary Reframing: An Analysis on Museum's Contemporary Interpretations of Traditional Representations of Female Biblical Figures
No full textThis study seeks to analyze the contemporary reinterpretations of museums towards handling collections of
female biblical figures who have often been intertwined in complex histories and intricately layered discourses.
Where some of these depictions have been rooted in androcentrism resulting in sexualized depictions and
portraying these figures in manifestations that appeal to male audiences. This poses a problem with
normalizing objectification amongst women where this was merely seen as a standard artistic convention
which has historically been accepted and rarely questioned. This approach disguises the perpetuation of gender
biases which is no longer acceptable within the context of contemporary social issues where society has
become increasingly aware, demanding for higher accountability in the messages that are put forward. The
portrayals of Susanna and her assailants have been a popular depiction for centuries, painting scenes of her
sexual assault in bright vivid colors. The contextualization of Susanna in contemporary museums today is the
definitive factor of whether her image will continue to contribute to justifying voyeurism in plain sight or
where museums can use this image to send a powerful message instead - challenging and vindicating the
narratives of violating a woman's body. Similarly, Mary Magdalene's iconography in art has been heavily
shaped and tainted by an allegation, diminishing her sanctity and womanhood - through recent calls to action
regarding recontextualizing her identity, institutions have revisited and revised their curatorial narratives
depicting her. Varying depictions of female biblical figures stand out which historically have been less
sexualized but are popularly depicted for its gore and violence such as the image of Judith. Her story has been
used as a symbol of strength but also instills fear over female agency. Contemporary museums have used her
powerful imagery linking this together with story of Artemisia Gentileschi, a survivor of rape who had released
her frustrations of injustice and gender inbalance on to her craft. This link has uplifted both women to symbols
of power and resilience amidst patriarchal domination, heavily resonating with ongoing societal issues. Lastly,
the depiction of Esther as a queen dressed in beautiful garments is given greater meaning in shedding light to
the reason behind her frequent portrayals during the liberation of the Netherlands from Spain in the 17th
century. Transforming her image from a static decorative artwork, to a powerful symbol of freedom. Through
analyzing these reinterpretations of contemporary museums, we hold institutions to a higher degree, as a space
that both cultivates and reflects cultural practices using collective memory in shaping the future, allowing for a
more inclusive and conscious society
Trusting TikTok: The Influence of Human and Machine Agents on the Credibility of Beauty Product Information on TikTok
No full textIn recent years, TikTok has emerged as a leading platform for product discovery, particularly within the beauty industry. For Gen Z, the app functions not only as a source of entertainment but also as a trusted space for learning about products through influencers, algorithmic recommendations, and user interactions. However, the credibility of the beauty- related information presented on TikTok remains under-researched, especially when considering the interplay between human agents (e.g., influencers, engagement signals) and machine agents (e.g., algorithmic recommendations, search functions). This study addresses this gap by asking: How do human agents and machine agents influence Gen Z users' perception of the credibility of beauty product information on TikTok? To explore this question, a quantitative research design was employed. Data was collected through
an online survey targeting Gen Z users (aged 18-27). The survey included validated scales for constructs such as perceived influencer expertise, reliability, physical attractiveness, meta-voicing, algorithm, and the search affordance. The dependent variable, credibility perception, was measured through multiple items reflecting trustworthiness and expertise. The data were analyzed using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions to test a set of predefined hypotheses. The findings reveal a nuanced picture. Among human
agents, influencer reliability significantly predicted credibility perceptions, while expertise and attractiveness did not consistently show significant effects. Additionally, higher engagement signals (meta-voicing) were associated with increased credibility, suggesting that social proof still plays a crucial role in how Gen Z evaluates content.
Regarding machine agents, both personalized algorithmic recommendations and search affordances significantly predicted higher perceived credibility, indicating that Gen Z users place trust in the platform's technological infrastructure as much as in individual content creators. A hierarchical regression comparing human and machine agents showed that the inclusion of human factors improved the overall model. However, only influencer reliability remained a significant individual predictor, while machine-based features, particularly algorithmic recommendations, consistently showed strong effects. These results suggest
that Gen Z's credibility judgments are not driven solely by either human or machine agents, but rather reflect a hybrid model, where both play meaningful, though varied, roles
Breaking Through: The Role of Amsterdam Fashion Week in Shaping the Careers of Emerging Designers
No full textAmsterdam Fashion Week is a fashion event hosted in the Dutch capital each year. Its core purpose is to position Amsterdam as a fashion city and hence a power in the global industry alongside fashion capitals such as Paris and Milan. Reflecting Amsterdam's unique culture of being a 'hub' for companies that strive to promote creativity, sustainable development, and innovation, a core value advocated by AFW is that of platforming young and emerging designers, serving as a stepping stone for their career. This thesis investigates the role of AFW in shaping these designers' careers, exploring how their participation in the event influences their professional opportunities and trajectories. Specifically, the study aims to answer the research question: How does Amsterdam Fashion Week shape and influence emerging fashion designers' careers? Through a qualitative research methodology centering on semi-structured interviews with designers who have taken part in AFW, this thesis aims to analyze some of the experiences, challenges, and professional outcomes that arise for these designers as a result of participating in the event. The findings reveal that AFW participation often serves as a platform for visibility and exposure, a valuable learning experience, and an important opportunity for industry networking and entry into the professional field. However, the impact of AFW is highly contingent on individual trajectories, with many designers using the experience to reassess their alignment with the broader fashion system. These varied responses are encapsulated in the proposed typology of career trajectories: Stop, Slow, and Straddle - referring respectively to designers exiting fashion, embracing slow fashion, or navigating its commercial and creative tensions simultaneously. Specifically, this thesis aims to examine the relative effectiveness of fashion weeks as career accelerators for emerging fashion talent. More generally, however, this research strives to highlight the current role of intermediaries and temporary clusters in the cultural and creative industries (CCIs), exploring their relevance and impact on creatives in today's digital age
Beyond Fashion: Posthumanism as a Sustainable Business Model (2000 - 2025)
No full textThis thesis investigates whether posthumanist values can inform viable business models in the fashion industry. Against the backdrop of intensifying environmental and social critiques of fashion, the research examines how posthumanism, a framework that reconsiders value, agency, and responsibility across human and nonhuman actors, can move beyond theory into applied practice. The analysis is structured around five key posthuman principles: distributed agency, relationality, material agency, becoming, and undoing dualisms.
A comparative case study method was used, drawing on expert interviews, internship-based fieldwork, other primary sources and secondary sources. The study focuses on Die Kees, a Dutch brand rooted in posthuman philosophy, and Allbirds, a global fashion sustainability-oriented company. Die Kees demonstrates strong material ethics and design integrity, but faces constraints in visibility, capacity, revenues and scale. Allbirds, while embedded in the dominant market system, offers insights into how aspects of communication, framing, and growth might inform posthuman-aligned models, supporting the broader aim of exploring whether posthumanism can function within the very system it critiques.
Situated within the historical evolution of sustainable fashion, following the rise of fast fashion in the early 2000s and shaped by shifts from ethical to circular, regenerative, and now posthuman design approaches, this research positions posthumanism as a distinct framework for fashion business innovation. The findings suggest that although posthuman values are difficult to sustain under current economic pressures, they can nonetheless shape viable business models when supported by narrative clarity, strategic compromises, and financial adaptability. At the same time, scalable brands like Allbirds offer practical insights into how visibility and framing might be adapted, while also revealing the tensions and trade-offs that come with aligning ethical values to market expectations
The Beat of Our Drums: The Role of Community in Shaping Black Musical Success
No full textPurpose - This thesis focuses on the experiences of Black music artists in the creative and cultural industries (CCIs) and their perception of community. As Black people are still faced with discrimination in their daily lives as well as in their careers, this research focuses on if, and how, community impacts the development of said careers. Although the CCIs are often viewed as a fair and equal field, the reality is far less glamorous. So, how do Black music artists navigate an industry that often marginalises them, and what role does community play in supporting their career development? This thesis aims to study the relation between Blackness, community and the music industry. It also considers the impact of intersecting factors such as gender and class, examining how their interplay may shape an individual's understanding and experience of community. The research question is the following: How do Black music artists view the importance of community in the development of their career?
Methodology & Data - This thesis employs a qualitative methodology and a thematic analysis approach to explore the concept of community among Black music artists. The study is based on ten semi-structured interviews with artists working across a variety of musical genres and creative practices. Participants include singer-songwriters, DJs, rappers, producers, musical theatre performers, voice actors, and a studio owner, each offering unique insights into their experiences, influences, and understandings of community within their respective artistic and professional environments.
Main Findings & Conclusions - This thesis demonstrates that community plays a significant and multifaceted role in the lives of Black music artists. Participation in a community not only fosters creative expression but also cultivates vital support systems and professional networks. These networks serve various functions, enhancing mental well-being while also generating career advancing opportunities and increasing visibility of Black artists in the music industry. The findings further suggest that for individuals from marginalised backgrounds, community often acts as an essential coping mechanism and a source of resilience. The results also suggest that Black women's perception of community is shaped by the intersecting challenges of racism and sexism
What's Said, What's Meant:
No full textIn recent years, corporate sociopolitical activism (CSA) has become a prominent and often contested element of brand communication, especially in industries tied to identity and cultural expression. The beauty sector, with its image-driven narratives and symbolic consumption, has seen an increasing number of brands publicly supporting humanitarian and political causes via social media. As this trend evolves, authenticity has emerged as a central lens through which consumers, particularly Gen Z and Millennials, evaluate whether a brand's activism is genuine or merely performative. While CSA is attracting more scholarly attention, most existing research focuses on utilitarian sectors, leaving open the question of how activist messaging operates in emotionally and symbolically rich domains like beauty branding.
This thesis addresses that gap by examining how message type (advocacy vs. product-focused) influences perceived brand authenticity and how corporate motive framing (value-driven vs. profit-driven) moderates this relationship. Drawing on attribution and framing theories, a 2×2 between-subjects experiment (N = 209) exposed participants to simulated Instagram posts from a fictional beauty brand. Authenticity was measured using a concise, multidimensional scale spanning credibility, integrity, symbolism, and continuity. Although the manipulations were pre-tested for clarity, the motive framing manipulation failed to create a clear interpretive differentiation, and no significant main or interaction effects appeared at the overall authenticity level.
However, a deeper analysis across dimensions revealed that advocacy messaging significantly boosted perceptions of credibility and integrity, two dimensions linked to sincerity and ethical alignment, even though symbolism and continuity remained unchanged. These results imply that activist messaging can selectively influence trust-based impressions while falling short of shifting deeper perceptions tied to brand heritage or identity. Moreover, consistently high baseline authenticity scores and the limited perceptual impact of motive cues underline the constraints inherent in digitally mediated messaging environments like Instagram.
Overall, these findings highlight the need to treat brand authenticity as a layered construct that does not respond uniformly to single-message interventions. While brief activist content can enhance moral perceptions, it is unlikely to affect broader authenticity judgments without sustained narrative coherence and clear motivational transparency. For beauty brand strategists, this means that meaningful CSA cannot stop at singular, brief statements. Instead, it must be woven into a long-term, relationship-driven branding strategy
The Role of Brand Personality Appeal in AI Subscription Intentions and Brand Advocacy: Mediating Effects of Trust and Emotional Engagement And the Moderating Role of Anthropomorphism Tendency
No full textArtificial Intelligence (AI) Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini are increasingly embedded into users' daily lives, transitioning from functional tools to branded digital companions. While much research in the human-AI interaction field has emphasized functionality, trust, or affect, the role of Brand Personality Appeal (BPA) - defined as the degree to which a brand's personality is perceived as favorable, original, and clearly defined-remains underexplored in this domain. This study addresses this gap by investigating how BPA influences two critical user outcomes: AI subscription intentions and brand advocacy, through the mediating roles of user trust and emotional engagement. In addition, the study examines whether anthropomorphism tendency moderates the effects of BPA on these mediators.
Guided by Consumer-Brand Relationship Theory (Fournier, 1998), a conceptual model was constructed to test the proposed relationships. A cross-sectional online survey (N = 200) was conducted among users with prior experience using AI LLMs. Validated scales were adapted to measure BPA (favorability and clarity), user trust, emotional engagement, brand advocacy, subscription intentions, and anthropomorphism tendency. The data were analyzed using regression-based mediation and moderation analysis via PROCESS macro in SPSS.
Findings revealed that both BPA dimensions (favorability and clarity) significantly and positively influenced user trust and emotional engagement, which in turn predicted brand advocacy and subscription intentions. Mediation analyses confirmed that these two psychological mechanisms: cognitive and affective serve as parallel mediators linking BPA to the behavioral outcomes. Notably, emotional engagement emerged as the sole significant mediator between BPA clarity and AI subscription intentions. However, anthropomorphism tendency did not moderate any of the hypothesized relationships, suggesting that BPA's impact on trust and engagement may be consistent across varying levels of anthropomorphic perception.
The study offers several theoretical and managerial implications. Theoretically, it contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how relational branding mechanisms operate in AI contexts, reinforcing the dual-process logic of persuasion. Managerially, the results underscore the importance for AI developers and marketers to strategically craft favorable and consistent brand personalities that foster trust and emotional bonds. Overall, this research highlights the emerging significance of brand personality as a central determinant in shaping meaningful human-AI relationships
Mirror, mirror on the screen
No full textThe lack of body and skin tone diversity in fashion marketing has long been criticized for reinforcing narrow beauty standards and underrepresenting many consumer groups. This study investigates whether perceived similarity between consumers and models, in terms of body type and skin tone, affects consumers' purchase intention in online apparel contexts. While earlier research shows that objective similarities can influence consumer behavior, the direct effect of subjective perceived similarity, particularly in these two dimensions, has received limited quantitative attention. Moreover, few studies have examined their combined influence, leaving a gap in understanding how visual identification shapes fashion purchase decisions.
To address this gap, the study poses the following research question: How do consumers' perceptions of similarity to a model in terms of body type (low vs. high) and skin tone (low vs. high) influence their purchase intentions of clothing items? A between-subjects experimental survey was conducted among Dutch women aged 18 and older (N = 175) using snowball sampling via social media. All participants viewed the same AI-generated model wearing jeans. They rated their perceived similarity to the model in body type and skin tone, after which they were grouped into one of four similarity conditions. The main dependent variable was purchase intention, and the data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA and additional non-parametric tests due to violations of test assumptions.
Results show a significant main effect of perceived body type similarity on purchase intention, indicating that consumers who saw the model as highly similar in body type reported higher purchase intentions than those who perceived low similarity. However, no significant effect was found for skin tone similarity, nor for the interaction between the two dimensions. Exploratory non-parametric analysis suggests that body type may moderate the effect of skin tone, but this pattern is not statistically significant.
These findings contribute to marketing theory by emphasizing the importance of subjective similarity, particularly body type, in shaping consumer behavior. From a managerial perspective, the results suggest that fostering identification through diverse model representation may function as a form of visual mirroring, enhancing persuasiveness and potentially boosting conversion rates in online retail. However, the non-significant findings for skin tone similarity underscore the need for more nuanced research into how different aspects of identity interact in visual marketing
Scroll, Post, Reflect
No full textIn today's digital economy, content creators on TikTok and Instagram continuously navigate tensions between authenticity, commercial pressures, and ethical responsibility. While previous research has explored identity work and personal branding, less is known about which ethical decisions, personal values, and reflective actions shape the construction and performance of digital identities in these highly visible and commercialized spaces - and how they play out in practice. Therefore, this study
investigates the research question: Which ethical decisions, values, and reflective actions play a role in the identity work and personal branding of creative content creators on TikTok and Instagram? And: how do these play out in their respective context?
To answer this question, ten in-depth semi-structured interviews with diverse creative content creators were conducted. Using thematic analysis, this research uncovered how these creators navigate the ethical and strategic dimensions of their online presence, structured around six key themes. First, ethical dilemmas frequently arise when balancing authenticity with commercial interests, deciding whether to speak out on sensitive issues, and managing the tension between privacy and visibility. Second, personal values - particularly authenticity, integrity, and social
responsibility - serve as key guiding principles in content choices and collaborations. Third, reflective actions such as peer feedback, archiving, and self-evaluation play an essential role in aligning online self-presentation with offline values. Additionally, platform logic and algorithmic pressures significantly influence creators' identity work, shaping what is considered visible, valuable, or appropriate. Audience expectations similarly impact ethical decision-making, functioning both as a source of pressure and as a driver for reflection. Ultimately, the construction of digital identity is a dynamic, ongoing negotiation between personal values, audience dynamics, and platform affordances.
This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how content creators embed ethics and values into their digital identity work. It also highlights the need for further research into how these dynamics differ between creators with varying levels of visibility, and how long-term exposure to algorithmic pressures affects identity, well-being, and decision-making
Navigating the Tensions Between Gender and National Identity
No full textScholars have long acknowledged the powerful position of news media in society and its role as central channel through which people stay informed about the world, its structures, hierarchies, and phenomena. They have highlighted how this interconnectedness is evident through news media's meaning-making practices, which are closely connected to dominant ideologies, power inequalities, and general news routines and practices. This puts constraints on the representations of identities that challenge these hegemonic beliefs, such as transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. In the Netherlands, TGD representation is shaped by the country's progressive and queer-friendly national self-image. However, recent years have seen a considerable increase in reports of gender-based discrimination and violence against TGD people. Therefore, this study explored the position and power of journalists in navigating these tensions in their news reporting on discrimination and violence against TGD people in the Netherlands. It centered around the research question: how are Dutch online news media representing discrimination and violence against transgender and gender diverse people in the Netherlands? Accordingly, a Critical Discourse Analysis was used to analyze Dutch news articles from both national and regional newspapers, as well as digital news websites.
The analysis demonstrated how journalists constructed five different discourses that either focused on discrimination and violence against TGD people or the Netherlands and its national self-image. The first discourse positioned the issue as a problem and was constructed through a progressive ideological lens, an emphasis on fact-checking, and an activistic stance that advocated for change. The second discourse presented TGD people as a polarizing topic of discussion and was constructed through a (seemingly) neutral approach that gave voice to both progressive and conservative perspectives. The third discourse centered a political perspective and was characterized by discussions on legislations and the responsibility of the government in this issue. The fourth discourse focused on the Netherlands and represented its queer-friendly reputation as a myth by stressing current intolerant attitudes and the unsafe environment this creates. The final discourse positioned the Netherlands in a more positive light and focused on progress, positive developments, and comparisons with less tolerant countries. Overall, this study provided insights into how the sociocultural context of the Netherlands both shaped and is shaped by the construction of discourses around discrimination and violence against TGD people. In doing so, this study presented an updated outlook on social understandings of gender diverse identities, their position in Dutch society, and the role of journalists in challenging these power inequalities through more inclusive and authentic representations