How is Instagram Changing Beauty?
Instagram is driving the diversity movement forwards and drastically altering the definition of beauty
What is Beauty Today?
Ask yourself, what is beauty today? Traditional beauty standards imply that we must have a tall and slender figure with even skin-tone and symmetrical features. A trend on the rise in today’s rapidly changing society is diversity and inclusivity. As we progress, the standards of beauty have moved towards a more representative domain, and although we are hardly all the way there yet, we have made leaps of progress in the past decade with Instagram being a driving factor. While there’s no hiding the fact that Instagram can lead you into a spiral of envy, by looking at photos of what society has conventionally deemed beautiful, we must reconsider the definition of beauty and how it is communicated to us. After years of various media outlets and companies, all sending the same “look perfect” and “get skinny quick” messages, Instagram has opened up a stage for diversity. Demographics outside the norm, who have been vastly underserved for decades have found Instagram to be a base for relatable sharing of information, to improve their own well-being and gain public acceptance.
The Role of the Influencer
To begin, let’s consider the the Instagram influencer and their effect on women’s body image and overall well-being. Influencers are a new communication channel for reaching society; they provide a credible source of information through “social proof” –the more followers and shares — that people can relate to (Fastenau, 2018). People trust influencers as they can choose someone who is similar to themselves to communicate information, as opposed to having a corporation decide who will share it with them. As a result, influencers are able to reach demographics, that have previously been untapped by marketers and society alike. A specific application of this is in the fitness market. In “Finding a More Inclusive Vision of Fitness in our Feeds” published in the New York Times, Jenna Wortham (2017) shares her challenges with her body image and her journey to accepting her own body. Wortham found most fitness platforms overwhelming and aimed at a market already well on their way to achieving what was considered an “ideal” body type. Instagram’s platform for fitspiration — “[a] person or thing that serves as motivation for someone to sustain or improve health and fitness” (Fitspiration, 2019) — provided a more inclusive base for Wortham to seek out information, through perspectives of people outside traditional beauty standards.
Working two-fold, not only does Instagram serve as a sharing platform of information for other users following a certain profile, Instagram has become an outlet of sharing for the owners of these profiles. Arias Massy, a personal trainer on Instagram — who now boasts a following of 2.5 million (Massy, 2019) — started sharing on the platform as a way to treat her depression. Holding herself responsible by posting online, is what she attributes to her success in improving her lifestyle and perception of herself (Wortham, 2017). Furthermore, while many argue against Instagram as a platform inspiring positive influence on body image, a study conducted by researchers at the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England measure the effects of Instagram’s fitspiration movement on body satisfaction, body appreciation, and self-compassion (Diedrichs, Slater & Varsani, 2017). The study (2017) carefully considers these three factors as separate entities; body satisfaction relates to satisfaction with weight and body weight; body appreciation considers feelings towards one’s body and its relation to overall self-worth; and self-compassion meaning patience and care towards perceived flaws. Results from this study were contrary to common belief, and it was found that exposure to fitspiration photos had no significant negative effects on body image; in fact, the sparse incorporation of positive mantras and quotes alongside “fitspiration” photos — commonly posted amongst this content — resulted in a more positive sentiment towards participant’s self-image. This positive sentiment and communication platform for appreciation and understanding, is what has been missing in previous fitness platforms. As a result, many people who were unable to find motivation through conventional sources, such as gyms, exercise tapes, and traditional personal training, have been able to progress further with Instagram, as they are able to relate to the person sharing the information.
Diversity as a Trend
In addition, through the constant exposure to diverse body types Instagram is pushing the inclusivity movement forwards into other industries and as a result, is allowing women who once did not fit into the standard of beauty to gain public acceptance. In an interview on Bloomberg’s “Walk The Talk” segment, Eva Chen (2018), Instagram’s Head of Fashion Partnership’s explains that Instagram has shown that there is no longer one look. It is driving the standard of beauty into reform; there are as Chen puts it there are “800 million standards of beauty”. Instagram’s power is shown through it’s ability to bring diverse beauty to the forefront, with women such as Ashley Graham, and Winnie Harlow — a plus size advocate and spokesperson on the vitiligo skin condition, respectively — sharing their experiences on Instagram; they’re ending up on runways and in magazines (22 Words Staff, n.d.). Instagram has allowed the voice to shift directly into society as a whole’s hands, and provided many demographics with a voice, as opposed to a few people making decisions from the “top”.
The expectation in fashion is now inclusivity, you can no longer put one type of woman or body type on the runway without backlash. The inclusion of diverse models on the runway has more than doubled when considering several aspects in the past three years (Tai, 2018). Plus-size model castings have tripled, while transgender and non-binary model castings have increased by fifteen times the amount in Spring 2016, while New York hosted the most diverse fashion week with nearly 50% of models being women of colour (Tai, 2018). Fashion reflects the sign of the times and moves it forward, with major movements starting on Instagram such as the #MeToo campaign, trending through fashion and spans into our political channels (Delgado, 2018), Instagram’s power is clear. Given that Instagram has the capability to allow anyone to share their thoughts online, it is not without its opponents, however the significant influence Instagram has had on the fashion industry and in turn our beauty standards, will lead us to general respect and acceptance for one another.
Final Thoughts
Instagram is driving inclusivity. It has provided a platform of communication and sharing for multiple demographics, that have been ignored for too long. Instagram allows for society to relate to each other, and as a result learn from each other, to better our lifestyles whether it be physical or mental health. Instead of allowing negative messages to inundate our feeds online, we must continue to focus on the individual perspectives of beauty we are exposed to, and encourage the recognition from society of these standards, to change personal expectations from comparing yourself, to accepting yourself.
