Vol 1 Issue 4 | January-March 2022

The Tyranny of Beauty

Text and art by Priyanka Paul

Social media and body image

Studies show that the constant exposure to thin, fit and “idealised” body types and features on social media tends to negatively affect body image, particularly in young women, who tend to compare themselves to other women they see on social media. It seems that the more hours one spends on social media platforms, the worse you are likely to feel about your body.

One way to counter this trend is to unfollow accounts that idealise only certain types of bodies and follow body positive (ones that celebrate a diversity of body types) or body neutral (ones that neither celebrate nor despite bodies) accounts. Better yet would be to limit your use of social media!

On the bright side, the internet on the whole has had the net positive effect of exposing more and more people to a large variety of people from around the world which has, over time, led to a broadening of the ideals of beauty from beyond the Eurocentric ideal.