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catswin · 1 year

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Week 7: Body Modification on Social Media, Pornification on Instagram

On social media, many women who are content creators present a sexualized version of themselves online in order to attract followers so that they can therefore monetize their social media account. This is most commonly seen with the social media application Instagram. Female content creators on Instagram often post sexual imagery conforming to the heteronormative standards of beauty, openly subjecting themselves to the male gaze online for money. This concept may be referred to as pornification, which entails a porn chic aesthetic and sexual posing in images online. They may also modify their body through filters and photo editing to enhance their physique.

Instagram users that subject themselves to pornification are known as boosters. In the text “Sexualized labour in digital culture: Instagram influencers, porn chic and the monetization of attention’ Drenten defines a booster as: “influencers who promote access to self‐marketed products and perform sexualized labour to exploit the attention of social media followers for monetary compensation” (Drenten et al. 2018, p. 56). Instagram creators post provocative and almost nude images online in order to promote products. Furthermore in “Aglorithmic Hotneess", Carah states “the escalating capacity of social media platforms to calibrate flows of attention depends on users' work in curating flows of "hot" body images" (Carah & Dobson, 2016, p. 1).

On Instagram, pornification is monetized through the use of advertisements. Advertisements on Instagram may look like regular posts however they are promoting a product. For instance, many creators may take sexual images on a beach in a bikini they were sent by a brand, therefore it is a brand deal for them. They may post a porn chic photoshoot wearing the bikini, which will receive a lot of likes, and then they are paid for it. However, they may also promote their own products in a similar way: “boosters mark a shift toward access‐based influencer labour as they create and promote their own products or services, such as swimwear, clothing, make‐up, sunglasses and fitness guides, among others” (Drenten et al. 2018, p. 56). Once they have created a strong following by posting sexualized images, they may begin to do so for their own products as well.

Lastly, many of the overtly sexual images seen online are edited and modified. Users can edit their bodies to enhance their curves, erase any blemishes, darken, or lighten their skin and add filters to their images to present the perfect 'hot' body. Additionally, users can undergo plastic surgery procedures on their faces and bodies such as nose jobs. According to statistics from 2017 “42% of surgeons report that their patients are seeking aesthetic surgery to improve their appearance on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and other social media channels” (Dorfman, Vaca, Mahmood, Fine & Schierle 2018, p. 332). The use of body modification on social media creates an unhealthy and unrealistic beauty standards for users and may increase their insecurities within themselves leading to dangerous disorders.

References:

Carah, N., & Dobson, A. (2016). Algorithmic hotness: Young women’s “promotion” and “reconnaissance” work via social media body images. Social Media + Society, 2(4), 205630511667288. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116672885

Dorfman, R. G., Vaca, E. E., Mahmood, E., Fine, N. A., & Schierle, C. F. (2018). Plastic surgery-related hashtag utilization on Instagram: Implications for education and marketing. Aesthetic Surgery Journal, 38(3), 332–338. https://doi.org/10.1093/asj/sjx120

Drenten, J., Gurrieri, L., & Tyler, M. (2019). Sexualized labour in Digital Culture: Instagram influencers, porn chic and the monetization of attention. Gender, Work & Organization, 27(1), 41–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12354

#mda2009 #pornification #body modification #instagram

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