What do we see in the mirror? Today society, body image has become a problem that many women are impacted by. We tend to put norms of what is the ideal image that women and girls must have. Society argues that through the use of media, magazines, and each other, we put the pressure of having the perfect body image. Others argue we use these platforms to demonstrate positive body image. The implications of what society says can impact the way women and girls view themselves. Due to society pointing out women’s differences as flaws, it lowers a woman’s self-esteem When we stare at a mirror, we don’t usually point out our best qualities instead, we focus on the qualities we believe are flaws while ignoring the positive views on body image.

Social media has become the dominant source and platform of our world today. Scrolling down and up looking at posts in social media has shown that there is a connection with body dissatisfaction. “This increase in usage of social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, may negatively affect adolescent girls and young women regarding their self-confidence and body satisfaction” (Makwana). Women and young girls are being influenced by what they see in social media. Yet the influences they are looking up to are not always the reality. We have so many types of women that all look different but are not being represented. Due to the lack of reality in social media, girls assume that being skinny, tall, and white defines beauty. Causing girls to have low self-confidence and body satisfaction. According to Bindal Makwana, and her other colleagues wrote an article on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook having an impact. The Guardian’s Mahita Gajanan interviewed various girls and came to learn that many young women associated the number of “likes” with whether or not their photos that they were posting in social media reached people’s satisfaction. “It was a common theme that women were dedicating extensive amounts of time to thinking about what image to upload, photoshopping it and regularly checking their personal page to see the updated “like” counts, which in turn increased their own insecurities”(Makwana). It does not come as a surprise when social media and opinions of others have become a regulated thing in our lives. Wanting to be accepted and fit in with the norms can impact our lives mostly making women insecure. Therefore, not only are women looking for acceptance, but they are also looking for the ability to say they have such a large number of followers and trying to be on top. For example, when we see celebrities’ posts and notice that we do not look like them, it can have a mental impact on how we view ourselves, and what we see is wrong. It comes back to social media having a connection with body dissatisfaction. According to Makwanathere has been proof of a link between Instagram and body dissatisfaction. For example, Makwana states, “Emily Bryngelson, an associate designer at Ann Taylor, who admitted to struggling with an eating disorder as a teenager, revealed that she deletes selfies if she doesn’t receive enough “likes” (Fleming, 2014). She explains, “Instagram makes me so anxious. I’m always looking at other women thinking, ‘I wish I looked like that,’ or ‘I should get more in shape.’…I mean, young girls can now follow Victoria’s Secret models and see what they look like in the ‘every day.’…That has got to make any woman, let alone a 13-year-old girl, feel unsure of herself.” Many women look at social media platforms and looking at one photo can cause a negative feeling towards how they look. 

However, social media has also become a platform where many women have shared positive body image empowerment. For the purpose of boosting up other girls and women’s reflection of their body image. For example, “The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), who works with various social media platforms to ban certain hashtags, remove unhealthy and dangerous feeds, and provide a link to their website along with an advisory warning when certain hashtags or links are clicked”. NEDA has used the social media platform to get across to girls about their message of having a positive outlook towards body imaging. They have done this by creating a website called the Proud2BMe, to encourage healthy body image and a relationship with food (Tackett Brittany). According to Tackett, Instagram has become a community where individuals are able to express their experiences with others to build support and inspiration for positive body imaging. Acknowledging that social media has an impact on girls can help girls find models that display a positive body image. For example, Mazu wrote an article with a section of body-positive role models. One of the role models is Yulianna Yussef who has congenital melanocytic nevus. Which means that she is covered by large birthmarks. She states that it hasn’t stopped her from wearing what makes her feel good, and helping others understand what nevus is. Yussef herself states “On my social media feed I try to post fancy photos that showcase how confident I am about my birthmarks, self-acceptance and how I’ve learned to live with my giant Nevus.” Models like her can help other young girls have role models that do not look like the typical body image you would see in social media or magazines.

Magazines are a platform that displays the beauty standard for a woman. You flip the pages of a magazine and you most likely see what society says is the definition of a woman is beautiful. In terms of body type, skin color, hairstyles, and even ethnicity. Looking through those magazines and noticing that most of us do not look like the models being presented in them makes women feel unincluded. “Magazine and Body Image”, is an article that shared their study on how well magazines diversified what beauty looks like across 35 publications. Their study was based on studying over 3,700 magazine covers across the U.K. and U.S. According to “Magazines and Body Image”, “At least one study found looking at a magazine for just 60 minutes lowered the self-esteem of 80 percent of female participants”. Magazines not being able to represent all types of women can send the wrong message to the girls and women who look at those magazines. We quickly start looking at the differences between the photos and our reflections of ourselves in the mirror. Society creates the segment that if we are not tall, white, skinny with perfect skincare and hair, we do not meet the definition of what society believes is beauty. We then call “imperfect” skin, hair, body type as flaws. The reality is that most of the time what we see in those images is not real, just in social media. Due to editors not being satisfied with how models look, they photoshop and use image manipulation tools to create the ideal women’s standards of how they are supposed to look.  What then happens is that young girls look at these pictures and think of how they are supposed to look and in reality, there should not be a definition of what beauty is.  

On the other hand, as more people speak out about body image, we start to see differences in platforms like magazines. For example, “In 2013, 84 percent of magazine covers…featured Caucasian models, actors, actresses, and pop culture icons. 2017 found 78 percent of magazine covers featured white cover models compared to only 10 percent black and 12 percent combined Hispanic, biracial, and any other ethnicity”. Magazines are making the effort to represent all types of women. An example that showed this is when we started to see plus-size women being featured in magazines. For instance, model Ashley Graham, who was featured in the cover of American Vogue (Garcia Laia). Having models like Graham who are plus size can have a positive impact on girls who like her because they are seeing them in magazines where we only see the size zero types of girl.  According to Garcia, “there are still stylists and industry insiders willing to put in the work so that the plus-size women we do see in magazines reflect the same level of aspirational glamour as their straight-size counterparts”. Magazines are a platform that influences many of its young women and girls. Showing the different body images can help many girls and women come to realize that their “flaws” are not imperfections as they think. 

The use of social media and magazines have become platforms where society has used to show representations to the public about women and body image. Whether they are getting unrealistic images of how they are supposed to look. Or the other side of where women are embracing the flaws that society does not consider beauty. Either side women should know in reality our society is built from women being different sizes, skin color, hairstyles, and many other physical features. We all should be represented equally in any platform seen as beautiful because the message that we should get across is, what makes us beautiful is uniqueness not the standards we are put up with. 

Work Cited 

Garcia, Laia. “Why Are Magazines Still Not Letting Plus Women Actively  Participate in         

Fashion?” Refinery29. 22 December 2017. Web

Mazu. “Body Positivity-Using Social Media for Good” Medium. 2 January 2018. Web 

Makwana,Bindal,  Lee, Yaeeun, Parkin, Susannah & Farmer, Leland. “Selfie-Esteem: The     

Relationship Between Body Dissatisfaction and Social Media in Adolescent and Young Women.” In-mind Magazine. Print

“Magazine and Body Image” ZAVA. N.D. print

 Tackett, Brittany. “Social Media and Body Image” Projectknow. Web