Snapchat has undoubtedly changed the way we use social media. It’s offered an alternative way to document and share our lives, possibly being a cross between Youtube and Twitter. It is to no surprise that it’s become a well-known app, currently used by millions. Earlier this year, Snapchat implemented new changes including built-in text, sticker options, and of course, fun filters. These filters have the ability to scan your face and alter your appearance. You can virtually become anything from Viking to superhero, from wide-eyed, to completely deformed. However, I pose the question, do we really know what we are changing into? Do we really know what we are sharing a social platform? I want to especially bring your attention to the dog Snapchat filter. We’ve all seen it, used it, or admired ourselves with it, but do we really understand it in its entirety?
There are plenty of great things about using social media, such as the convenient ability to share, create, and connect with people from all over the world. For some, utilizing social media platforms has been the segway into career paths, for most, social media has been a way to connect to the world that we live in. Both very positive outcomes of being an avid social media user. Yet, we cannot forget that social media, just like any medium, is essentially a space for content and meaning to be created, implied, and misunderstood. There is also the opportunity for cultural codes to be enforced and for the perpetuation of social norms to be issued. Specifically speaking, Snapchat gives its users the option to change their facial features into those of a dogs. The user who chooses this filter will receive long, animated dog ears and a dog-like nose. Their cheeks will also slim out and when they open their mouth, a goofy animated tongue will roll out in place of their natural tongue. This obviously has an appeal to it as dogs are beloved creatures and known for their dumb cuteness.
Though, no one seems to question the animalization of the human face. This is especially concerning when we contextualize this issue and look at the demographic of users who seem to apply this filter the most: women. Already, especially in the media, women are dehumanized, objectified, and hyper-sexualized. This filter casually perpetuates every negative depiction of women, invisibly inserting the same detrimental themes into our subconsciousness while also, quite literally, taking away any and all human identity. By choosing a dog filter, these horrible themes easily go undetected and its users, instead of focusing on how completely offensive the feature can be, are instead being admired or admiring how well they look. Which brings me to another point, the fact that people, woman especially, like how they look with this filter.
It is hard for me, as a woman, to hear my friends speak of how horribly the media depicts the female identity and at the same time share pictures on their social media with dog ears. This seems like quite the contradiction. Many of my friends overuse the tongue feature, activated once Snapchat prompts you to “open your mouth” (disturbing for many reasons already). This is especially disturbing through video as the tongue won’t stop appearing if someone is speaking, exaggerating the sticking-out-your-tongue trend. What I fail to comprehend the most out of the love for this Snapchat filter, is the negative association that has been established between a dog and a woman and how this filter subtly pulls at it. “Bitch” has undoubtedly become the single most humiliating insult anyone can ever refer to a woman by. It is surprising to me then, how we can so easily embrace the literal appearance of an offensive term. I began to think, does terminology relate to representation, and vice versa? Does one not innately imply the other?
The dog Snapchat filter condones a very negative view of womanhood. Regardless if this is recognized or accepted by its mainstream users. In the end, it is hardly any different than any other wrongful depiction of women in the media. The only thing that makes it unique is that its users are the ones embracing it and submitting it onto a media platform. I cannot see a dog-woman on Snapchat without cringing anymore. For me, any progress that has been accomplished for the betterment of women seems lost in a single photo or video. Is this too extreme? Perhaps. Though, it also seems extreme to me that we can so widely accept ourselves as looking attractive, sexy, or cute as what could arguably be categorized as less than human.
