Social Media's Impact on Women in 2019

Garielle Sadej

Professor Shaw

WGSS

9/26/19

Social Media's Impact on Women in 2019

Instagram feed of fouryearparty 

When you are watching tv, scrolling through social media, or even driving down the road and see a billboard of a woman, how is she depicted? Is she smiling, is she looking at the camera with a devious look, or maybe she’s even in limited attire? These are all depictions women in social media, but do you notice a trend? All of the women are over sexualized, and their roles are minimized – almost as if they are being condensed. Let’s start by examining social media platforms such as Instagram. It is one of the most commonly used apps among young girls, especially those of girls anywhere from middle school to college. Popular pages, clothing sites, and even college-based pages all post similar images. You see a woman dressed in clothing that is either tight, fitted, or skimpy but most of these posts are cut off before you can see the models face. Rather than showing the models faces, they show off their bodies. Some accounts also use pictures of girls that would appear to show the model or girl doing some sort of activity, but again, her face is cut off and you only see her body. Some images even go as far as only posting images of select body parts rather than a full image. FourYearParty post pulled from their Instagram page with the models face and location scribbled out for privacy.

Another aspect of women’s representation in media is in movies and tv. Aside from social media’s representation of over sexualizing the body, which movies do as well, studies have also found that male actors get twice as much screen time and twice as many lines compared to female actresses. This study tells us that it can be perceived that women speak less in real life as well. Another aspect that this study covers is that more often than not, women’s bodies and behaviors are very unnatural when compared to reality. A popular example would be Jessica Rabbit who’s body is unachievable but it also tells us that animated versions of women (which can be reflected onto real women) is that they are expected to have larger chests, small waists, and false depictions of females in general. One of the other interesting aspects of this study was the lack of leadership of women in media. Aside from a few shows, like Gray’s Anatomy where females are heads of surgery and play an important role in the show, there tends to be a lack of that in other movies and series. Often women don’t have positions in STEM careers, they tend to be executives or employees of companies, which isn’t terrible by why is there a lack of diversity in careers for women in media?

Love My Body Campaign - but only one body type featured?

My third and final point of women’s representation in media is how social media directly affects women’s mental health. This study, which was done in 2018, found that if women spend up to an hour a day on social media, no matter the platform, their self-esteem is lowered and they end up disliking their body. Researchers have found that many women think that thin and slim women are more attractive and when they see themselves, they find reasons to want to change their bodies. This doesn’t just affect their relationship with their bodies either, but it also impacts their relationship with exercising. Movies or a tv are easy to turn off, but you can’t really turn social media off. There is a fear of not being connected to others, friends, family, or celebrities. So, these images are everywhere and are often unavoidable. Something to consider when it comes to these talks about body image also include discussion of who is most likely to develop eating disorders and how that impacts there overall health as well. Most people who are on diets are doing them in a safer way, but people who are insecure are limiting their diets and hurting their bodies instead of helping them reach a goal.

Another aspect of social media that is alarming is the fact that it isn’t just one group of girls that are affected by social media and how it portrays women. More often then not women of ethnic groups are either over sexualized or fetishized. This is dangerous because it creates a stigma and portrayal of women in those groups that harms them in the real world, not just one screen. While there is no way to really solve social media’s portrayal of women, there are ways we can begin to beat it. By following and supporting each other, posting body positivity of all women – all genders, all races, all ethnicities – could begin to solve and fix the many issues that social media has created.

Additional Links to check out: 

1. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305118786727

2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2018/03/13/how-media-portrayal-affects-women-and-what-geena-davis-is-doing-about-it/#5b5088892962

3. https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20180504/too-much-social-media-may-harm-a-womans-body-image#1