If you’ve been on social media at all this week, chances are you’ve heard of 18-year-old Australian model Essena O’Neill, who is retiring from Instagram star status because she feels social media is creating a “brainwashed generation.”
Through her edited Instagram posts telling what really went into creating her image and her website Essena has declared an all-out war on social media. But is Essena targeting the real enemy?
The trouble with Essena’s view is that social media is not the enemy. The very people who like Essena’s re-captioned Instagram pictures and share her Vimeos on Facebook are the same people who followed her before her “revolution,” and still likely follow at least one other of the hundreds of sponsored Instagram accounts that show the same heavily-Photoshopped images of half-naked, skinny white girls. So what is the real enemy? There are two – culture and capitalism.
Social media is a vehicle for culture. Before her war against social media, Essena was merely a symptom of our current culture – blameless, maybe, but still propagating unrealistic ideals for young girls. Her seemingly effortless pictures reflected what nearly all media told young girls they should be – stick thin, impossibly tan, perfectly made-up with immaculate skin and trendy clothes. Essena wasn’t the problem, and neither was the platform she used to show off her manufactured image. The problem is in the culture that tells girls they have to look like Barbie dolls.
Essena may have been fighting the culture by revealing all the make-up and Photoshop that went into making her image, but I don’t think that swearing off social media is going to fix anything. Going on a social media fast isn't going to make young girls suddenly develop a positive body image. This “Barbie Girl” ideal of culture is like a hydra – cut it off in one place and it comes back in another. Sure, by deleting your Instagram you won’t see it there, but look at any magazine or billboard or TV show and it pops up again.
Why does this impossible ideal for girls keep popping up? Because it’s what sells. The sad truth is that popular culture is driven by what the consumers want. Why did Essena become famous in the first place? She was a brand, and people kept buying. She amassed a loyal group of followers, and then capitalized by placing products in her heavily-edited pictures. And people couldn’t get enough. The half-naked, skinny white girl image pops up everywhere in the media because consumers keep buying into it. Straight white men drool over it, young girls aim to become it. Advertisers capitalize on the image, which more firmly roots it in American culture. If we can change the culture we can change the market.
How do we change the culture? Essena is starting with the first step. Make people realize how unrealistic the image is. She is peeling back the layers of photoshop and makeup to show what really goes into her brand. I would even take this a step further. Realize, the Essena as she presents herself on Instagram is not a person, she is a brand. She is selling products through sponsorships and getting paid for it. This has become a common practice on social media sites like Instagram and Twitter, and it's leaving uninformed consumers defenseless to advertising ploys.
When posts are sponsored it should be clearly stated, and any retouching should be disclosed. This should go for all ads, social media or otherwise. Third of all (and probably the trickiest to implement), advertisers and the media should include real women in their ads – women who are not all white and size 0. Some fashion brands and TV shows are already making strides to show more realistic-looking women and more POC, but it’s not enough. Sign a petition. Support POC models. Make a change.
And this brings me to my last point – culture is driven by the consumer, so protest by stopping consumption. Unfollow accounts that promote unrealistic ideals of womanhood. Stop watching movies that don’t have a diverse enough cast. You don’t need to delete your social media accounts altogether, there are plenty of people out there who promote a positive self-image and other great issues.
Social media is a powerful tool, and can be used to spread information that can take down establishments. Twitter played a vital role in the Egyptian Revolution that took down the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Black Lives Matter protestors took to social media to organize protests and advertise their cause. Social media reflects the current culture as well as providing a means of changing it. Can Essena change the culture through her campaign? Maybe, but I think she needs to look at the underlying problem that is the culture we live in. Perhaps instead of just railing against social media, she can use it as a tool to make a positive change.
