The Body Image of Women Portrayed through Social Media: A Tragedy in the Making
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” reads a quote that is easily found all over social media, lately. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter: regardless of website, there are people posting comments and pictures about their bodies absolutely everywhere, and most importantly: about the size of their bodies. For quite some time now, this has upset me for countless of reasons. There is not enough time in one day to explain all of the reasons for why I find social media, and its impact on the body image of women, to be highly disturbing and destructive towards societies all over the world, however I will in this opinion piece account for a couple of these reasons.
1. Social Media has a great impact on what we consider to be the standard: on what we consider to be normal.
Although many people might agree with my statement, very few actually spend sufficient amount of time reflecting upon why this in fact is true, as well as why social media is destructive towards our society, and other societies around the world. I am, what one would call, an opinionated individual. I have plenty of opinions about plenty of subjects, and I like to express these opinions. However, though I am usually not afraid to express my opinions, especially regarding the equality for all whether it being homosexuality, gender or race, when it comes to the subject of body image and the fact that the standard which is set for women is absurd, I have up until now kept quiet. As I am writing this I am asking myself, why? Why have I kept quiet regarding the unrealistic societal norm of how the woman body ought to look? The truth is that I have, myself, fallen victim to these subtle ideals and standards set by social media. I have, perhaps without direct knowledge and awareness, thought to myself many times that I am not skinny enough, pretty enough or altogether good enough. Luckily, being a young-adult woman, I am able to snap out of these disparaging thoughts and realize that I am just fine the way I am. My point though is, not all who are surrounded by the so-called “fitness” accounts and body-image posts are adult, strong women who are able to realize that they are perfect just the way they are. In other words, we are all, perhaps more those of a younger age, highly vulnerable to what social media tells us is the norm.
2. The Media might perhaps set the standards for what is normal, but Social Media constantly maintains, as well as raises these standards.
There has, since countless of years back, been discussions regarding what the media can do, and how the media can change, in regards to its impact upon individuals and the way in which it alters and frames people’s conception of the world. The media decides what stories to tell and how to tell them, thus altering what the public finds to be important, exciting and/or interesting — aka. Newsworthy. Although this is nothing but the truth, there is more to it than simply this. It is an easy way out for people to constantly blame the media, and nothing but the media. People blame the media for framing stories in certain ways and for photo-shopping and changing advertisement so that supermodels and celebrities will look perfect. I do agree upon the fact that the media, as well as advertisement, needs to be come less perfection-oriented in the sense that this sets outrageous standards for people regarding what to look like and how to behave. However, and I cannot stress this enough, the problem regarding body images and unrealistic standards does neither begin nor end only with the media. Social media; being a relatively new phenomenon, is a large contributing factor for how these images, ideals and standards are set and maintained. Like I told my mom on the phone this morning, it is almost as if every single task which most people agree that the media has gone wrong in handling, are nowadays public tasks — left up to sixteen year old girls, fashion bloggers and fitness-experts to take on. Constantly being surrounded by pictures of what is believed to be normal, namely flat stomachs, huge thigh-gaps and skinny arms will, in one way or another, alter the way in which we perceive ourselves. Prior to the usage of social media these standards were only to be viewed and affected by on TV, in magazines and on billboards whereas today, in this post social media era in which we all exist, these standards are to be viewed on our laptop and cellphone — from the moment we wake up in the morning until the minute we fall asleep at night. This, my friends, is precisely my point of in what way social media in fact is destructive towards societies all over the world.
In conclusion I would like to point out how I desire to keep writing this opinion piece, and how I desire to mention all the teenage girls whose Instagram accounts I have visited, on which they post pictures of their anorectic bodies with captions such as “I am sad to show you how fat I am.” In addition I also desire to write about how I wish that influential people, such as bloggers, understood how influential they actually are, and how I wish that they would use this as a way to inspire young girls to stay healthy and be happy with whom they are and how they look, instead of further enhancing their low self-esteem by setting unrealistic standards. However, there are a lot of things I desire to say but as always, not enough time in which to say it. If I persuaded only one person to think twice about what they are posting or what they are reading, then I have reached my goal today. To those of you who truly feel as if nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, I would like to offer a suggestion of perhaps trying a new restaurant tonight — you have obviously never had Greek food.
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