Despite society’s shift in the attitude and perception between women and males (source), the presence of social media have been attributing to the high beauty ideals that individuals now have.
For this project, Viena and I would like to focus on females, as we are personally motivated to dig deep into this topic. On one hand, there is an online movement where there is a celebration of different body shapes, ethnicities and ages. Such as the following posts below:
But on the other hand, social media has further fuelled the pressure of females needing to fit into the higher/unattainable beauty standards, such as these posts/challenges below:
This was a craze from China that showcases women holding up sheets of paper which width fits their waist, showing off the tiny waists that they have.
We all might know about the collarbone coin challenge where females showcase their slender and feminine bodies by fitting a row of coins on their collarbones. But here is the next level to that challenge, where now individuals are to place fishes instead. The Butterfly Foundation CEO Christine Morgan says the collarbone challenge promotes eating disorders (source).
Search “Fitspiration” or “fitspo” hashtag on Instagram and one is able to see toned and athletic bodies that promotes health and exercise. However, these are still female bodies represented in the most idealised form. On top of it, it is just another standard of beauty that is placed on the women’s body. Health experts warned that social media accounts promoting fitspo, fitness models and activewear labels could be triggering obsessive exercising among young girls.
According to a study by South China Morning Post, young women are more likely to feel dissatisfied with their body based on the influence of friends and social media.
On top of this, Clinical psychologist Andrew Adler said he had seen several female adolescents who were “extremely dissatisfied with many parts of their bodies” because of constant comparisons with images on social media.
Hence, for this project, Viena and I want to dive deeper into the topic of beauty on the social media space by investigating the idea of female beauty on our own social media platform.
Check out our Miss Beauty 2018 video here!