Introduction:
As Malala Yousafzai’s quote reads, “when the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” For centuries, women have been taught to act and dress like girls, be submissive to male figures, stay in the kitchen, and raise children. In the 1800s, for example, women performed household tasks such as cleaning and cooking for their husbands/children without having a voice, a career, or a confidence that enabled them to explore their talents and do something with it. The first wave of feminism began in the mid 1880s (exactly at 1848) at the Seneca Falls Convention with the female leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. More than a century after the birth of this powerful movement-which initially seeked basic women’s rights such as the liberty to vote, in 1997 the first social media platform was developed.
With this development, society was given an innovative and dominant platform that allowed individuals to speak their minds, share content related to their day-to-day lives, and most importantly, influence others. Social media has opened the doors to countless social movements, giving a voice to victims and delivering powerful messages to a broad audience. For the purpose of this research, new media-more focusedly social media platforms will be linked to feminism, which waves after, is still a main component in the world today. Women are still subjects of male harassment, women of color still do not have the same rights as white women, and societal stereotypes are still dominating numerous households around the world.
Guiding questions for my research include but are not limited to: Is new media’s representation of women truly advancing? Is feminism as a social issue being promoted truthfully? What are some of the patterns existing in digital platforms today in regard to female and body images? Are young girls using this platform likely to get influenced by feminist ideas or rather grow self-disgust attitudes based on criticism?
As McLuhan noted in his influential work, The Medium is the Massage, “all media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us un- touched, unaffected, unaltered” (26). Media is everywhere, it is significant and powerful.
While social media platforms have the power of influencing a diverse audience, giving women a voice to share their experiences and build connections, it is important to evaluate the affordances and limitations of these network pages in order to get a better understanding of its essence. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to evaluate social media sites (particularly Instagram and Twitter), through the aspects of hashtag feminism, photo alterations features, and superficial femininity.
The Essence of Hashtags- Do they help build connections or rather promote criticism? Perhaps, both?
For more than a decade, hashtags have been used by social media users to emphasize various aspects related with the posted image. For example, a picture of a couple is most likely to be posted under #love. Scrolling through this hashtag, endless images of couples, romantic quotes, and kisses can be found. Considering the power of this trend, social movements have used it to promote their ideals and hopefully, educate audiences from all around the globe, with the goal of inspiring change. The feminist movement is linked to many popular hashtags such as #feminism, #freethenipple, and #heforshe. In addition to these hashtags which in a nutshell are all related to the basic rights demanded by the feminist movement, hashtag feminism began using campaigns such as the #MeToo movement and #WhyIStayed that allow women to share their experiences as victims of domestic abuse, sexual harassment at social settings, and so many more raw realities that women face. As Clark-Parson highlights, “to tweet #MeToo, regardless of the rest of the message, was to perform a public demand for recognition on behalf of the staggering number of sexual violence survivors worldwide” (8).
It must be noted that as a free platform that welcomes all types of opinions, judgement is inevitable especially from those who cherish the ideals female activists are trying to change. Not all women experience the same level of abuse in emotional and physical aspects nor do they all receive the appropriate help and support needed to survive these haunting experiences in the least possible traumatic ways. While some women use their strength to share with the world about the realities they experience (or have experienced), others fear speaking out as it may result in further abuse coming from unknown individuals who criticize or negatively comment on the victim’s experience. As reflected by the tweet below, celebrities are also using these public campaigns to share their experiences and seek to inspire or be the voice for those women who aren’t given the opportunity to speak out.
In her article, Clark-Parsons evaluates the affordances and limitations of the #MeToo campaign through an in-depth observation of tweets published by users using the platform as a site of feminist visibility. The author states how the campaign “focused more on the stories of white celebrities’ experiences and activism” (Clark-Parsons 4). This connects to the Crow’s tweet above, as it can easily be noticed that tweets published by known females are most likely to get more responses from the public. However, this then affects how women in countries such as India, striving to share their stories, get their message across. Reality is, social media tends to connect ideas with certain audiences-models are mostly white, tall, and blonde; therefore, this impacts the essence of the campaign as it must be evaluated whether it is inclusive of all members of society.
The second hashtag, #WhyIStayed is focused on presenting testimonies of domestic violence survivors on the reasons why they stayed in toxic, abusive relationships. Many claim it is as easy as simply exiting the door, but it must be understood that every situation is different and leaving takes a lot of strength and support, things that women aren’t considered to have as society have connected the female sex with weakness. In the same manner as the #MeToo campaign, users sharing their experiences under this hashtag may find themselves as subjects to further penalization by a society that considers their reasons for staying as excuses and fails to ignore the real, broad, and serious issue. As highlighted by Linabary et al, “this type of victim-blaming by those closest to victims/survivors often discourages those who face abuse from voicing their experiences” (1834). Women stay in abusive relationships for common reasons such as threats to be killed, their children, fear of starting over (losing everything) and countless private experiences that are unknown to those outside their home’s closed doors.
The Effects of Photo Modifications in Social Media Accounts: Prettier or Less Confident?
As alarming as this may sound, while scrolling through a regular Instagram feed one may find more than one young girl using filters to alter their physical appearance. From bigger lips to blue eyes, to no acne, female users are influenced to believe they must meet certain standards of beauty in order to be accepted and perceived by other users as beautiful. One can see stories of female users relying on filters that make them appear as if they had a full face of makeup waking up from bed. Analyzing the effects that this crucial aspect of social media sites has on feminism’s idea that women’s bodies aren’t meant to be sexual objects used to please the perceptions of others is necessary to arrive at a conclusion on the medium’s limitations and affordances. In her article, Vendemia explores the effects of female users relying on photo alteration features in order to seek positive feedback from society. She notes how, “people strive to appear favorably and consistent in their self-representations” (75). Beyond being platforms meant to produce communication means, social media platforms are teaching women that it is necessary for them to look like those around them. Importantly, this could have a dangerous effect on the person’s mental health as more usage of photo alterations features can be linked to lower self-esteem levels within women therefore, causing discomfort with one’s own physical appearance (Vendemia 76).
The impact of filters and other photo alteration options is further evaluated by famous plastic surgeon Anthony Youn who claims, “this trend is concerning, because filtered selfies can pre- sent an unattainable appearance and blur the line between reality and fantasy for some patients” (2). As supported by the ideas manifested by both authors, users who use filters are more likely to seek cosmetic procedures such as rhinoplasty or Botox to continue pleasing unknown individuals and assimilate to the altered images on their respective profiles. Youn mentions the impact of Snapchat Dysmorphia in which individuals ask to look exactly like their filtered images on Snapchat (2). It is crucial to note that it is young girls, as early as thirteen years of age using filters to alternate their appearance. How will this affect them twenty years in the long run? To answer this question, it can be predicted that female users will most likely undergo plastic surgery procedures to enhance their appearances and continue appealing to male users.
The Role of Superficial Feminism- Are the Real Points Delivered Properly?
Aesthetics is a crucial element in Instagram pages today, users select a theme or genre to present cohesive content for one’s followers to see. While some pages are designed to attract female users such as fashion profiles, others rely on sexualized content of women to attract male users and as a whole promote anti-feminist ideals. In her research, Crepax highlights how feminism as promoted by social media platforms tend to overlook the essence of the movement therefore not validly conveying feminist messages (73). The author alludes to philosopher Walter Benjamin’s statement on the political exploitation of the arts which “can be resisted through a corresponding politicisation of aesthetics” (72). Contemporary companies and political campaigns used feminist ideals to attract more people to their content therefore removing the essence of real messages of the movement and instead being promoted as a marketing tool (Crepax 74).
False representation of a movement, person, and/or idea leads to blurry interpretations of the main message being sent to the audience. Shockingly, the number of Instagram profiles dedicated to promoting sexualized content is growing daily. These pages promote females as weak, submissive, bitchy, and sexy objects meant to be used as best considered by men. Profiles such as Four Year Party and College Nationwide, as explored by Davis, post sexualized content of female college students and attract more than 81,500 and 57,600 followers respectively (2). These pages are altogether a false representation of the female gender which promote sexist ideals towards women. Not only is this a violation of the individual’s privacy as most of the time, but pictures are posted without their consent. As highlighted by the author, “women’s bodies are shown as gifts to be given, received, and exchanged by men” (Davis 6). In these posts, women wear sexy lingerie, photos are taken using provocative angles, captions are used to enhance the sexist messages, and mocking comments are made towards women of color or older women who aren’t sexy enough due to their age. Another crucial point made by the author is the idea of women given the respect they deserve as social media creators as it must be mentioned that “historically, women were solely consumers of media” (Davis 2). It is this false representation that serves as a barrier between old sexist ideals and change. In order for women to be perceived as respective creators and regular human beings capable of the same things as any man, the female body must be separated from the ideas of sexuality and pleasure. Women are more than that and the media, many times, fails to present it this way.
The 2011 film, Miss Representation takes in-depth observations in media messages about feminism while manifesting various testimonies. A point made in this visual highlights the role of criticism and more specifically, female rivalry in social media pages. Previously, the role of criticism was explored through hashtags; however, it is alarming to notice how a great portion of this negative feedback comes directly from women themselves. The film highlights how the media manifests the “notion of women as natural enemies, aiming for the price of being more beautiful than the rest (00:36:00-00:36:20). Relating back to a point made by Crepax, “feminism seems to be equated to being confident, having fun, being a girl’s girl and supporting other women through friendship” (78), it can be argued that the false representation of women by media reflects, in some manner, the ways in which women today view one another. For example, when images of Victoria Secret’s models- who broke the norm of sexy, tall, skinny Angels-were published in social media, many of the negative comments were from women themselves critiquing the physical appearance of the models.
Conclusion
In this essay, the effects of new media on the feminist movement was explored through the aspects of hashtag feminism, photo modifications features, and false representations (superficial feminism). As a whole, it can be concluded that the limitations of social media platforms in regard to the feminist movement are alarming and require additional research to develop the most beneficial ways in creating an all-inclusive and accepting medium in which women are no longer deemed as sex objects but rather as powerful and equal individuals.
“A Rapist in Your Path” by Las Tesis
The patriarchy is a judge
That judges us for being born.
And as women we are punished
By the violence you don’t see.
The patriarchy is a judge
That judges us for being born.
And as women we are punished
By the violence we have seen.
The crime is
femicide.
The judges let the killers go.
They make the women disappear,
The crime is rape.
And the fault it wasn’t mine,
Not where I went or how I dressed.
And the fault it wasn’t mine,
Not where I went or how I dressed.
[Repeat verse]
We know the rapist is you.
We know the rapist is you.
It’s the cops.
The judges.
It’s the state.
The President.
It’s the state that’s our oppressor,
It’s the rapist government.
It’s the state that’s our oppressor,
It’s the rapist government.
We know the rapist is you.
We know the rapist is you.
“Sleep very soundly,
Girl so innocent.
And don’t you worry
About the bandit.
Your loving cop
Sees your sweet smile,
And watches over you
While you dream.”
We know the rapist is you. [Repeat 3 more times.]
Works Cited
Anthony Youn, MD, FACS, What Is the Ideal Instagram Filter?, Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum, Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2019, ojz019, https://doi.org/10.1093/asjof/ojz019
Clark-Parsons, Rosemary. “‘I SEE YOU, I BELIEVE YOU, I STAND WITH YOU’: #MeToo and the Performance of Networked Feminist Visibility.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 21, no. 3, May 2021, pp. 362–380. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/14680777.2019.1628797.
Linabary, Jasmine R, et al. “Feminist Activism in Digital Space: Postfeminist Contradictions in #WhyIStayed.” New Media & Society, vol. 22, no. 10, 2019, pp. 1827–1848., doi:10.1177/1461444819884635.
McLuhan, Marshall, Quentin Fiore, and Jerome Agel. The Medium Is the Massage. New York: Bantam Books, 1967. Online.
Roco Films Educational (Firm), et al. Miss Representation. 90 min. version; customized educational footage. Ro*co Films Educational ; Girls Club Entertainment, 2011.
Rosa Crepax. “The Aestheticisation of Feminism: A Case Study of Feminist Instagram Aesthetics.” ZoneModa Journal, vol. 10, no. 1S, May 2020, pp. 71–81. EBSCOhost, doi:10.6092/issn.2611-0563/10555.
Stefanie E Davis. “Objectification, Sexualization, and Misrepresentation: Social Media and the College Experience.” Social Media + Society, vol. 4, July 2018. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/2056305118786727.
Vendemia, Megan A., and David C. DeAndrea. “The Effects of Engaging in Digital Photo Modifications and Receiving Favorable Comments on Women’s Selfies Shared on Social Media.” Body Image, vol. 37, June 2021, pp. 74–83. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.fiu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edo&AN=150695185&site=eds-live.