HAS SOCIAL MEDIA LIBERATED WOMEN'S BODIES IN TERMS OF BEAUTY?
Part 1: Introduction - Beauty Ideals and Social Media
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I want to understand how social media portrays bodies and the effect this has on women. I believe that social media constantly portrays a certain female body image, including being slim. As a woman who has used social media from a young age, I believe this beauty ideal is portrayed as the perfect women that we strive to achieve. I have often compared myself to it and tried to achieve it. Many people have experienced similar emotions as a recent study (Mental Health Foundation, 2019) found 40% of teenagers said social media caused them to worry about their body image. Therefore, my personal experience of body image issues relating to social media is a shared experience.
A beauty ideal is the standard that defines what is physically attractive or desirable. These standards vary over time and across different cultures. However, in western societies, there is a focus on clear skin, youthful appearance, and being petite. One article (Susy Alexandre, 2022) explains this ideal for women “values the aesthetic of a tall, slender-but-busty woman with delicate features.” Additionally, certain skin colours, hair textures, and facial features are sometimes favoured in certain cultural contexts leading to harmful biases and discrimination. It is important to recognize that beauty ideals are subjective and develop over time. However, they can have negative impacts on an individual's self-esteem as this is the only standard deemed socially acceptable. Therefore, if you do not meet this standard, it can affect your mental health as women believe they are not beautiful.
(Getty Images, 2018).
Beauty ideals create feelings of inadequacy causing depression, eating disorders and use of cosmetics and photo editing to achieve standards. One study (Wilksch S.M et al.2019) found a connection between media usage and eating disorder behaviour in adolescents. This demonstrates how from a young age the images on social media negatively impact the way that we view our bodies and how we want to look.
(Download logos, n.d.)
Social media has allowed freedom around posting and consuming because it has individual creators. Allowing users to choose content and create different representations. Personally, I have managed to recognise the harm of comparing myself to others online. It damaged my confidence and mental health. There are many accounts on social media which promote body positivity. Therefore, I have tried to surround myself with content that makes me feel more confident in my body instead of striving to conform to unrealistic beauty standards. This shows social media can celebrate beauty diversity.
Feminism and Social media
Feminism has a broad range of goals to achieve equality. Therefore, specific movements and aims get referred to as waves. For example, in 1918 women over the age of thirty were allowed to vote, which is part of first wave feminism. Social media has been credited for allowing this fourth wave of feminism to form (Masterclass, 2022) focused on social aspects such as sexual harassment and body shaming. This wave parallels the creation of social media as women of different identities and bodies can share their thoughts and call out inappropriate behaviour, helping liberate women.
(Masterclass, 2022)
This is why intersectionality (IWDA, 2018) is a large part of fourth wave feminism. This is the idea that your identity is not just one thing. Meaning other things can link with your identity such as race, sexuality, or disability. Intersectional feminism and social media are being used as a device to give these unrepresented women an opportunity to speak on feminism. This helps challenge inclusivity in beauty.
(IWDA, 2018)
Social media has been described as a ‘A Double-Edged Sword for the Feminist Movement’ (Jacqueline Kamei, 2022). It does allow for greater visibility on women’s issues. However, it can result in spreading of misinformation and harmful beauty standards that damage mental health. There are studies supporting the link between social media to eating disorders like orthorexia nervosa, (Pg, T. and Ce, L. 2017) an obsession with eating clean and pure foods. Demonstrating issues around body image and debates whether social media has been used as a device to liberate or restrict women.