Body positivity: Instagram a.k.a the double-edged social media

Hey everyone! Ever heard of body positivity ?

Artist : Tyler Feder

You scroll every day on it. You like, comment and share publications with your friends. Instagram has become one of the most used social media by young people. You can find everything and everyone on Instagram from your closest friend to Kylie Jenner and what she did yesterday at 9:21 because she posted a story on her account. Therefore, Instagram has become a place where people can expose their everyday lives, like and comment about it. However, Instagram is also a place where body positivity is both accepted et rejected.

Indeed, body positivity on Instagram has improved over the past few years as people with many followers, called influencers, claim body positivity. Plus size models or influencers create Instagram accounts and promote body positivity to their followers and other Instagram users as something that everybody should acknowledge about themselves or others. Their message is clear: love yourself. This applies to any body type, skin color or hair type. Body positivity can be seen as a trend for some people who do not understand what it really is about. Body positivity is the solution to the shame some people receive on social media.Instagram may be seen as the perfect place to express body positivity however we have seen that fat or skinny shaming is still something present on Instagram. But first of all, what is fat and skinny shaming? Fat shaming is the act of insulting, usually with mockery or critics, someone because they are seen as fat or overweight. Skinny shaming is the same as fat shaming it’s the action of mocking or judging someone because they are seen as "too skinny".Fat and skinny shaming is often seen in comments of Instagram users who are not "fitting in the norm of the society" and some comments are sometimes really rough and harsh about those people:

Body positivity is something that is widely spread every day with Instagram users and the influence they have on their followers, however, some ignorant users of this social media are constantly dragging down people who are in the process of accepting themselves and making this social movement evolve and improve.

-Julie