Today, we as a society tend to often associate negativity with social media, which there is definitely some truth too. However, we as a society also tend to forget that social media is also a great platform to promote positivity if only we used it differently and American Eagle has done just that. A few days ago I was scrolling through my Instagram feed like I always do, seeing and looking at the same things I always do: parts of people’s bodies no one should be seeing, weight loss teas, waist trainers, selfies, the occasional meme, etc. Then something out of the ordinary caught my eye as i was scrolling. It was a photo posted by the American Eagle account that I follow. I immediately fell in love with the photo for so many reasons, the main reason being because the phone was of something that is sort of a taboo in our society, but why?
I always see the same things on social media. Nudity, weight loss teas and vitamins, waist trainers and different celebrities and “models” with unrealistic, surgically enhanced/made bodies. All female focused industries or are mostly geared towards females. All of this promotes negativity because with all of these being geared towards females, its portraying the idea that only women are body conscious or have struggle with body image, which isn’t true. Also, social media makes female body image worse because it is constantly flashing all of these things like the teas and waist trainers so much that it affects our subconscious without realizing it and puts certain ideas into society’s heads as well.
Ideas like men aren’t body conscious like women aren't true because we all are or have been at some point. Men are body conscious too, it just isn’t portrayed in the media or society to the extent it is when it comes to women. In a society where men are supposed to show no emotions or signs of weakness, in other words be the alpha-male, what man is going to admit to struggling with body image? The fact of the matter is, men can be just as self-conscious as women can. Same way men expect women to have a pretty face, slime waist, big boobs/butt, etc., women are the same way, they expect the perfect body with handsome face to match. Us women are always self-conscious of our bodies, even when others may feel like we don’t have a reason to be. We also expect others, especially men, to be mindful of these issues we have within ourselves, so why aren’t we doing the same for men? I think that this is something that people don’t think or talk about or even want to for that matter. And of course men aren’t going to admit to anything, being that they think showing any emotion is a sign of weakness. It is like men and body image are a taboo in the media. This is why I think it is so great what American Eagle has done!
American Eagle has created a body positive underwear campaign for men and I think it is great for so many reasons. For starters, it shows that women are not the only ones who can be body conscious. Also, the same way plus-size models represent for women a reality of what most of us actually look like, so do this for men, too. It is bold and it is brave of American Eagle, because this is really the first of anyone doing something like this and on such a large scale. They are breaking stereotypes and setting trends. This is also bold, brave and grounding breaking of the men who were courageous enough to join the campaign. One of the male models has even the phrase, “plus-size body positive man model” to describe himself in his Instagram biography. If that isn’t the epitome of having a positive body image, than I don’t know what is!
