The Real “Thirst
Trap”: Self-Objectification, Body-Comparison, and other
Weapons Against Women
in Social Media
Warning: This document has
triggering information for anyone with issues regarding eating, weight, body, or
food. Images and language may be triggers.
It
is a well known fact in modern culture that mass media contributes to how we
see the world and ourselves. Plenty of documentaries and articles have been
written about the damage that the objectifying of women and unattainable ideals
portrayed in advertising can do to the psyches of women of all ages (Newsom;
Harper 649). Magazines, TV commercials, and
summer blockbusters--all perpetuate the image of one female body type, and one
purpose for women to exist—to be looked at. When women are spoken of as
“empowered” in the media, it is for their blatant sexuality, not for their
intellectual accomplishments (Newsom).
As this standard permeates our culture, what are the casualties? And
what about the ways we represent ourselves?
What lengths will girls go to for “likes” on Instagram, Facebook, and
other social media? Because the damage
from mass media has been addressed frequently in research already, I’d like to
address here a newer danger in media--social media, and the very real effects
it has on the health and mental health of young women. I will prove that social media is taking more
time and attention of the public than any other form of media, and that women
are particular susceptible to it. In addition, I will show how social media in
particular, is creating a culture of increased body-comparison,
body-dissatisfaction, and self-objectification in women. By linking these two
points and illustrating a bit of lack of academic research in the area of
social media and body image, I will demonstrate that more awareness on this
topic is needed.
Social
media, as a relatively new part of our lives, has taken over fast and
furiously. Social media is “the use of
dedicated websites and aplications to interact with other users, or to find
people with similar interests to oneself.” (OED Online)
Facebook is the most popular social
networking site (SNS), and was created only 10 years ago in 2004 (Wikipedia). Since
then, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, among others, have launched, and
people are spending more time on social networking sites than on any other
internet activity, including work, school, or email. This adds up to nearly 6
hours a day for men and 8 hours a day for women (Klein). It is clear that women
are receiving more information through SNS, and are potentially more
susceptible to any effects that might exist, due to more exposure.
Previous
conceptions were that young women were largely affected by images in mass
media, such as actresses on TV, and models in magazines when it came to
thoughts of body comparison and dissatisfaction. Recent studies have shown that
young women are more likely to compare themselves and their bodies to those of
their peers, girls at school and on social media. Girls are internalizing images and talk from
girls their own age and forming their body image and health habits from these
images. A study done for the International Journal of Eating
Disorders found that
“adolescent girls reported comparing themselves with immediate friends and
other girls at school more frequently than they compare themselves with models,
actresses, or family members.” (Wertheim qtd in Stice 110) The truly scary
thing about social media is that it comes home with teenage and young adult
women when they come home from school—the comparison to other girls never
stops. We are constantly online.
The
accessibility and pervasiveness of social media platforms create a dangerous
cycle for young women. Because they see unrealistic ideals from birth, and
insecurities become set in so early, young women can tend to turn to SNS for
“inspiration” or validation for their insecurities, and end up trying to cure
them in unhealthy and unproductive ways.
Pinterest, for example, is a social media platform where women can
collect visual bookmarks (pins) from throughout the web, and organize them onto
pinboards that share a theme. Of all social networking sites, Pinterest is the
most overwhelmingly dominated by women; 90% of its users are female. (Klein) If
women feel they need to lose a few pounds, they can find millions of ways
through a simple search on Pinterest, adding them all to their “My Skinny
Motivation” pinboard, for example. Whether
any of these ways are healthy or not, is a risk that might be taken. Pins are not regulated, besides copyright
holders being able to remove content with request (Pinterest.com; Wikipedia),
and it is common knowledge that not everything on the Internet can be trusted
as true. In addition, if young women
want to beat themselves up (as they are so use to doing) as a tactic to work
out more and eat less, there are endless images of protruding clavicles and
ribcages to be pinned to “Thinspo” boards. This is where things get scarier.
“Thinspo” is short for “thinspiration.” These
are not yet real words in the English language, but they are used rampantly in
social networking communities, mostly by young women. The definition is easy to infer from the
words used to make up “thinspiration”—thin inspiration. This seems innocent
enough, but a few searches of this term will show a darker side. To shed some
light, the Urban Dictionary definition gives a clearer picture: “Thinspo is
used by people suffering from eating disorders to help keep them inspired (to
resist treatment)… Thinspo is usually of
photos of skinny or bony celebrities or models. Ie: I look at thinspo of Mary-Kate every day to make sure I don’t binge.” (Urban Dictionary) When I googled thinspo, I
found images of dangerously thin girls, superimposed with text reading things
like, “Hungry to Bed, Hungry to Rise, Makes a Girl a Smaller Size,” and “Every
time you say no to food, you say yes to thin.” (Google Images) There were over 680,000 images of this
nature. Many originate from Pinterest,
and another SNS, Tumblr. When I searched
thinspo from within Pinterest, the following notice is listed: “Eating disorders are not
lifestyle choices, they are mental disorders that if left untreated can cause
serious health problems or could even be life-threatening. For treatment
referrals, information, and support, you can always contact the National Eating
Disorders Association Helpline at 1-800-931-2237 or www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.” (Pinterest.com) Beneath the
notice, there are the expected photos rail-thin girls, and hunger-cheering
mantras. While I don’t believe that
these photos cause eating disorders,
I do believe that photos like these contribute to disordered eating and can
deepen some eating disorders, especially EDNOS or Eating Disorder Not Otherwise
Specified. EDNOS is not anorexia nervosa
or bulimia nervosa, which are the major dangerous eating disorders that we
first learn about in school. EDNOS is characterized by food or calorie restriction,
excessive dieting or exercise, fear of “unclean foods,” rapid weight loss, or
bingeing or purging (perhaps both). (Klein; nationaleationgdisorders.org) A person
may have any or all of these symptoms, but not have them all together, and so
no one notices. They may also maintain
a normal body weight because they restrict food for several days and then binge
in secret. Any of these habits are not
healthy and deserve attention. (nationaleatingdisorders.org) These habits
reflect an unhealthy body image that may be worsened as girls with depressive
thoughts about themselves and their bodies delve deeper and deeper into
“thinspirational” quotes and images on social media. The International Journal of Eating Disorders claims that the fact “that peer pressure
to be thin apparently increases body dissatisfaction is alarming, because body
dissatisfaction has emerged as one of the most potent risk factors for onset of
eating pathology. (Stice qtd in Stice)
The
National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) says on their website that 35-57%
of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting,
diet pills, or laxatives. Those are scary numbers. And all of those behaviors fall in line with
symptoms of EDNOS. NEDA also lists that mortality rates are higher for EDNOS,
than for other major eating disorders, at 5.2% for EDNOS, 4.0% for anorexia
nervosa, and 3.9% for bulimia nervosa. If close to one half of teenage girls
border on an unspecified eating disorder, with potentially the highest mortality
rate of all disordered eating patterns, any contributing factors for disordered
eating are worth looking into.
In a study
at the University of Strathclyde, Dr Petya Eckler found that although time
spent on social networks does not cause eating disorders, it does contribute to
increased negative body image. She found that “the more time women spend on
Facebook, the more they compare their bodies with those of their friends, and
the more they felt negative about their appearance.” (BBC.com) She added “These
comparisons are much more relevant and may hit closer to home. Yet they may be
just as unrealistic the images we see in traditional media.” (BBC.com) These
images are just as unrealistic, due to filters, Photoshopping, and editing that
is easily done with a swipe of a finger on a smart phone. Another study
suggests that women are more depressed after looking at images of attractive
people on social media, and in a better mood after looking at images of
unattractive people. (Klein) This is due to the comparisons that women
subconsciously make with the images against themselves.
The comparisons
women subconsciously make and even seek out through SNS are also potentially
more damaging than those targeted at men.
Through social media, women, and especially young women, begin to
compare themselves to filtered, enhanced photos of friends, friends of friends,
girls mainly in their age group, who seem to be always smiling, fashionable,
traveling, happy, and put-together. I would argue that these kinds of images of
“normal girls like me” can be more psychological detrimental than photos of
faraway, though still aspirational celebrity bodies. On social media, there is a tendency to put
our best foot forward, only presenting what will receive the most “likes” and
“re-tweets.” No one posts pictures of
themselves curled up on the couch depressed and eating cookies. Everyone posts pictures of themselves on the
beach with a spray tan, a Photoshop App, and a filter. A teenage or college-age girl might start to
internalize, “If that is what my classmate looks like on the weekend, what is
wrong with me?” These internal messages will lead a girl to post and pose in
photos of her own that will receive an increased amount of attention or
“likes.” This may be the real demon in social media—self-objectification.
Self-objectification
is acted out in social media when women tailor their posts, whether consciously
or sub-consciously, to create an increased sexual response. Rachel Calogero, in her study on
objectification and social activism, explains, “Self-objectification occurs when the objectifying gaze is
turned inward, such that women view themselves through the perspective of an
observer and engage in chronic self-surveillance.” (312) Self-objectification is a symptom of
constant sexual objectification of women through mass media, social media, and
other outlets. When women feel like objects, they act like objects. Calogero
goes on to say, “Sexual objectification may be the most pernicious
manifestation of gender inequality, because under a sexually objectifying gaze,
women’s bodies become—even just for a moment—the property of the observer.
Research has demonstrated that, compared with men, women are perceived as being
more similar to objects and less human when their appearance is emphasized.”
(312) Objectification is so damaging and pernicious because of the results;
basically, women will self-objectify to attract or maintain the “positive”
attention from men or sexual partners. Women are culturized to view the attention
as flattering, validating, and even necessary for success. (Calegaro 313)
The damage
of self-objectification gets worse. Calegaro found in her study that because
objectification focuses on appearance, not action, women who self-objectify
become likely to perpetuate objectification culture, as opposed to
participating in social activism that might combat this detriment to women. Her
study focused on college age females. She basically had two groups of young
women; one group was asked to write a paragraph about a time they felt sexually
objectified, and one was asked to write a paragraph about a neutral subject,
such as their plans for the weekend. Then both groups were asked questions
about how likely they were to participate in gender-based social activism, like
attending a workshop, signing a petition (in person or online), circulating a
flier related to women’s rights (in person or online), or fund-raising in the
next 6 months. Here is the interesting
part: Women in the self-objectification condition group reported significantly
less willingness to engage in gender-based social activism than did the women
in the control condition group. (Calogero 316)
This is
frankly frightening. My intuitive
reaction would be that after being objectified, a woman would want to fight
back. But it is human nature to repeat the status quo. (Calogero 316) Sadly,
images become internalized. Thoughts become reality. This is why social media
can be a weapon—women are inundated with objectifying images, and then they act
them out on their own Facebook and Instagram profiles all day everyday. “Given
the number of opportunities for women to experience self-objectification in
their daily lives, it is troubling that such experiences appear to thwart
women’s engagement in activism on their own behalf.” (Calogero 316) Troubling indeed.
Although
objectification theory contends that sexual objectification will socialize
women to engage in self-objectification, (Harper 650) there has to be another
way. Social media isn’t going anywhere, but perhaps there is a glimmer of hope
to be found in the images of women out there in the scrolling masses. There is
a community to be found of “body positive” and feminist pages on Instagram,
Facebook, and Pinterest, among other platforms. Katie H. Willcox founded a
movement called “Healthy is the New Skinny,” as well as Natural Model
Management, a modeling agency for fashion models of all sizes. She posts pictures of healthy, happy women,
with rosey cheeks and fat rolls, doing active things, eating and playing
outdoors. She says on her Instagram, “I don’t know where any of this will go, I
just know it is my job to create my vision and honor my passion. All I can do
is my best to make a difference in the world. That is all any of us can do and
it adds up.” (Willcox, Instagram) Another inspiring ‘grammer is Honorine
Hachey, best known for the #honormycurves movement on Instagram. She posts daily that every woman’s body is
her own, completely unique, and should be honored no matter what. A recent post read, “I’m body positive, in
that I’m POSITIVE I can do what I want with MY OWN BODY. I’m also body positive
in that I extend that same courtesy to each of you, in all your glorious forms,
without judgment or criticism… we are all beautiful…” (@honorcurves,
Instagram) The positive messages are out
there if you look. Social media can be a weapon, but it can also be a shield.
The unique
thing about social media is that it is like a Choose Your Own Adventure
Book—the user is more in control of the content they view and receive than they
are with other media outlets. By searching out and following uplifting content
that doesn’t objectify women or perpetuate body-comparisons, we are voting. We
are in control. If we don’t want to be
objectified, we can object. We can create a network, our own social network, of
the images we want to see everywhere of healthy, strong, independent, activist
women.
By becoming
aware of the affects social media has on our culture and society as a whole, we
can see the specific damage that it has on women specifically, since women are
its major users. (Klein 58) When we learn the nature of the effects of viewing
content on social media on a constant basis—body-comparison with peers—we see
the damage that so much social media usage can do. The damages include increased
body-dissatisfaction and a propensity towards eating pathology in young women.
(Stice; neda.org) In addition, the
unique culture of desiring attention and “likes” via social media leads to
increased self-objectification and likelihood to perpetuate the objectification
cycle. (Calogero; Harper) The damage can
be undone through awareness and seeking out a social network of positive role models
and images, in addition to strict avoidance of female objectification while
using social media. Strict avoidance
sounds difficult, but it is a start. In the words of Katie Willcox, “That is
all any of us can do, and it adds up.” (Instagram)
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