“Access this journal, Social Media and Society, and read one article from the current issue that appeals to your interests. In a blog post, provide a brief description and an analysis of the article of your choice. Do you agree with the authors? If not – why not? (350-400 words).”
Source: The Spectrum
As a woman who uses Instagram extensively, the October-November issue of “Social Media and Society” in the article ‘Non-Sexualized Images and Body-Neutral Messaging Foster Body Positivity Online” stood out to me for analysis. Like many women, I tend to compare myself to photos of women online which causes me to become critical of my appearance, therefore the idea of online body positivity movement that promotes self-acceptance and love of one’s appearance is appealing. So appealing, that as of July 2023, on Instagram (the largest platform for body positivity content) the hashtag #bopo had 1.2 million tags (Cohen, Irwin, et al., 2019; Cwynar-Horta, 2016; Instagram, July 2023).
As a decentralised user-generated movement, body positivity posts aim to empower women to hold a positive attitude regarding their bodies, but these types of posts are varied in their styling and messaging. The article sought to compare the mainstream appearance-oriented body positivity posts that emphasise a love of one’s physical body against those posts promoting body neutrality – which seeks to disconnect a women’s perception of her worth from her physical appearance. In addition, they analysed if the choice of platform changed how participants viewed the messaging (Instagram vs Flickr vs a blog).
I predicted that posts promoting body neutrality were favoured by women over mainstream body positive posts as the latter is often only a slight variation from dominant Western beauty ideal, young, thin, and white (Brathwaite et al., 2023). These types of posts could show a woman with stretch marks or body hair but still not showing any diversity in age, race a body size. Often, these posts can be promoting a product to “fix” the issues in the photo, suggesting these posts are more about self-interest and financial gain the empowering women to feel good about themselves.
Therefore, the results were unsurprising, confirming my own views that body neutral messaging felt less self-interested and more morally appropriate, in turn causing women to embrace a more inclusive beauty standard. Interestingly, the social media platform used to show participants the images did not change the perception of the images. I had assumed that women who post body positivity content on Instagram, being the main platform for body positivity content, would be judged as more self-interested than those from Flickr or a blog, but the study shows no significant differences (Brathwaite et al., 2023, p.9).
(389 words).
References
Brathwaite, K. N., DeAndrea, D. C., & Vendemia, M. A. (2023). Non-sexualized images and body-neutral messaging foster body positivity online. Social Media + Society, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305123120785
Cohen R., Irwin L., Newton-John T., Slater A. (2019). #Bodypositivity: A content analysis of body positive accounts on Instagram. Body Image, 29, 47–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.02.007
Hi Cat. I found this post interesting. It is an aspect of social media I should stop and think about more often. As a middle-aged man I get to avoid most of these body issue pressures. I’m sure there are many men who experience body image pressures from being on social media, but overall, I imagine the pressure is less than it is for women. The body positive and body neutrality dichotomy is something I had heard of but did not previously understand. I will have to have a chat with my wife and find out her experience.
The success of the bopo hashtag is impressive. The few times I put up a social media post, I rarely add a hashtag because it feels like a waste of time. I underestimate the potential power of the hashtag.