How does social media affect our body image?
What is the ideal of beauty according to today’s media?
The woman is tall, with long legs, a narrow waist, breasts neither too small nor too big, fuller lips, long hair, perfect complexion and skin without any flaws. A man must have a beard with a pronounced sharp jaw, a darker complexion, defined shoulders, a six-pack, and masculine arms and legs. Such ideals of beauty are imposed on us from a young age through, for example, the dolls we play with.
Social media can affect people’s perception of beauty in a number of ways. One major way is through the proliferation of idealized images of beauty on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. These images often depict people who have been professionally made up, Photoshopped, and styled, and can make people feel inadequate or self-conscious about their own appearance. Additionally, the constant exposure to these images can also contribute to the development of unrealistic beauty standards and can lead people to engage in harmful behaviors, such as extreme dieting, over-exercising, or seeking out cosmetic procedures to meet these ideals. Another way social media can affect beauty is through the use of filters and editing tools which can alter people's appearance in photos. This can create a false sense of reality and can make people feel pressure to look a certain way in real life too. It’s important to remember that beauty is a subjective concept and social media’s portrayal of beauty is not always realistic or healthy. It’s good to take a break from social media and remind yourself of your own self-worth and your own unique qualities.
Instagram is probably the main social network that often promotes unrealistic standards of beauty of the human body in addition to promoting “perfect” lives. This, especially among young people, leads to the creation of constant comparison with others and negative self-perception, which ultimately results in complexes and a lack of self-confidence. Research indicates that excessive use of social networks can lead to feelings of loneliness, dissatisfaction with life and oneself, and eventually even depression and other mental health problems. Surrounded by perfect photos of perfect bodies, perfect facial lines, and excellent make-up, we become obsessed with our appearance, we look for flaws, and when we find them, we become obsessed with them, trying to correct them or at least hide them.
In the following, I will present several campaigns that consciously set inappropriate beauty standards and shamed those who did not fall into that beauty frame.
- Wife gained weight? No worries — just cheat!
It’s unsurprising that a site that encourages marital betrayal can occasionally hit below the belt with its ad campaigns, but this example still came as a shock. “We call it as we see it” screams the text, which hovers above two women — one thin, one fat — laid out in lingerie. Naturally, the bigger model has a big red ‘X’ next to her — because as they claim, who would willingly have sex with a fat woman?
2. Save the Whales, Lose the blubber
It’s doubly surprising that PETA has a controversial reputation for its offensive campaigns. This campaign apparently aims to ‘save the whales’ and help us all ‘lose the blubber’. The company itself admitted that the ad was controversial and gave no other explanation, replacing the billboard with a less divisive endorsement that stated that vegetarians lose weight. It may be scientifically proven that veggies tend to weigh slightly less, but is there really no way to communicate this point without fat-shaming?
3. THE PERFECT “BODY” — Victoria’s Secret campaign
It’s fairly obvious that not all of us are Victoria’s Secret models, but it’s also fairly obvious that perfection is subjective — maybe why this ill-advised ad was so controversial. A row of scantily-clad glamazons is accompanied by the label “The Perfect Body”, although this slogan was later changed to ‘A body for every body’ after the Internet rightly lost its shit over the original. There is no such thing as a perfect body; to argue this case is dangerous and can have serious effects on the self-esteem of women and girls worldwide. Even more dangerous is the implication that new underwear can help achieve ‘perfection’.
4. LOVE. WITHOUT THE HANDLES.
Katy Perry’s ads for the brands were less intentionally controversial, but still, deserve to be questioned. Posing in exercise gear, the star is accompanied by the tagline “Love. Without the handles” as she apparently substitutes actual weights with two bags of low-calorie snacks. The implication is that her body is aspirational and 100% achieved by a sole diet of Popchips — the rest of the chubbies should fix up and follow her lead.
When we talk about the consequences that such unrealistic standards of beauty have on women and girls, we should not forget the other side as well. Beauty standards are also imposed on men that are difficult to meet, which causes negative feelings and dissatisfaction with their own bodies. Boys grow up with the belief that a muscular body is the only and main characteristic of a real man. In the desire to achieve such a body, both boys and girls often end up in a vortex of eating disorders, steroid use or excessive forcing of exercise in the gym, which can be a very big problem, especially when it comes to boys and girls who are still in puberty. and they develop.
I believe that many influencers are not to blame for young people’s insecurities and complexes, but they certainly contribute to it when serving ‘perfect lives’ and some wrong principles. Young people should possibly use social networks as a source of inspiration, but they also need to read a lot, educate themselves and work on self-building. In this way, they will not allow the false world, that is, Instagram, to affect them and how they feel, and especially they will not measure their life based on someone else’s life through Instagram, because 90% of it is just a lie.
In conclusion, on social media, body shaming can take many forms, such as negative comments on a person’s posts, photoshopping images to make someone look thinner or larger, or creating memes or GIFs that mock someone’s body. Body shaming can have serious negative effects on a person’s mental and emotional well-being, and it is important to be aware of the impact that our words and actions can have on others. If you witness or experience body shaming on social media, it is important to speak out against it and to support those who have been affected by it.
Literature
1. https://caclapeer.org/social-media-cyberbullying-body-shaming-and-trauma/
3. https://www.insider.com/guides/health/mental-health/how-social-media-affects-body-image
4. https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2021/04/social-media-effects-on-body-image-and-eating-disorders/
5. https://emotionmatters.co.uk/2018/10/04/how-does-social-media-influence-body-image/
