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Website #1: The Struggle for Brown Girls vs Instagram

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Website #1: The Struggle for Brown Girls vs Instagram

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There have been several situations that prove that Instagram has always had a negative impact on beauty but there are some positive ones. This website discusses the story Anushka Kelkar and her path to start an Instagram page containing content of an honest representation of Indian women and their relationships with their bodies. The page has gained over 4,000 followers within just a few months of starting and now has over 10,000 followers, This is important because it portray positive messages about the fact that each and every body size there is should be deemed beautiful in it's own certain way. It also allows women to forget about the negative thoughts Instagram can bring and focus on the positive thoughts that this page can bring. This website is extremely significant to my topic as this page positively effects Instagrams reputation and how they portray beauty. Not everything has to be negative and those who strictly seek positivity will eventually find it. This page has shown that women go through struggles that they shouldn't have to and also advises women how to handle certain body shaming situations through out their own life

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If you live in India and are not a fair-skinned, thin girl, it is more than likely that you have received your fair share of backhanded compliments. Statements (and advice) like "You are really pretty for a dark girl" or "If you lost a little weight, you would be really beautiful" are aplenty. These socially-approved norms of beauty, unrealistic and non-inclusive as they may be, have persisted for generations, affecting how women relate to their bodies. It is little wonder then that the women's fairness cream industry in India is expected to rake in revenues of more than Rs5,000 crore by 2023.

Varisha Tariq was only in her first week as a student at Ashoka University in Sonepat when a fellow student counselled her to run every day to lose weight and reduce her bust size. In a post on the Instagram handle Browngirlgazin, Tariq remembered: "When I heard that, I had to bite my tongue hard to stop myself from crying...I hated the comments that were disguised as healthy concerns and were sometimes aimed at my parents. I hated that everybody felt as if they had the right to comment on my body."

The comments on Tariq's post showed that she was not alone in feeling powerless against the scrutiny of the female body. A classmate of Tariq's wrote: "Sending you lots of love and hope....what makes you is not your clothes or body okay? You're beautiful. That's what's important."

The Browngirlgazin handle, started by photographer Anushka Kelkar, attempts to paint an honest representation of Indian women and their relationship with their bodies. The 21-year-old started shooting and posting portraits of women in March, and has, within three months, amassed more than 4,000 followers.

Despite ticking the checkboxes of what is considered beautiful in India, the fair and slim Kelkar never really felt comfortable in her body. "At a very early age I felt like my body was constantly being policed and I felt scared to treat it as something that was constantly growing and changing," said Kelkar. "If I saw myself gaining weight, I took it very seriously and felt like that was a personal flaw. I was always really conscious of and awkward in my body."

College turned out to be a time of transformation. Kelkar, who recently graduated from the Ashoka University, found herself living in a hostel with 30 other women, who all believed they were flawed, were constantly dealing with body issues or who had learned to take pride in their perceived inadequacies. It was there that Kelkar realised that a woman's perception of her body stems from social conditioning.

"Hostel was a pretty uninhibited space," she said. "I heard every single girl talk about ways in which she felt like a personal failure because she didn't measure up to a specific standard. I had a friend who wouldn't go for a dance because she said, 'I look too fat in this dress.' I saw the ways in which these insecurities were crippling, but it was also kind of relatable in how no girl, regardless of what she looked like, felt content in her body."

Kelkar wanted to do something to highlight these issues and chose the photographic medium to do it. She put up messages on her Facebook page and university groups and within 24 hours, 50-odd women responded with requests to be featured.

"People have very different reasons to do this project," said Kelkar. "For some, it is about celebrating their bodies, for some, it is about starting the process of coming to terms with their bodies or features that have been branded as flaws. So before photographing them, I ask them to send me a little write-up on how they see their bodies."

Kelkar decided to use the word brown in the name of the Instagram handle to highlight what it means to be a young Indian woman who doesn't conform to conventional beauty standards. "This constant, unwanted feedback and this idea that the entire community around you can tell you what you can or can't do with your body makes it difficult to take ownership of your bodies and fully embrace it," she said.

Several campaigns, such as Unfair and Lovely, Dark is Beautiful, and Bin the Tube, have dealt with the issue of colourism over the years, acknowledging the obsession with fair skin.

"Outlier voices and projects like Browngirlgazin are important because they spark up conversations and slowly the effect trickles into mainstream media," said Kaviya, a 28-year-old Mumbai-based artist whose works have dealt with themes of body positivity and the changing rules of beauty. The women in Kaviya's art are unabashedly opinionated while flaunting their unshaven legs, stretch marks and all those things deemed "ugly" or "unfeminine."

"Mainstream fashion labels are increasingly using diverse models; sporting a unibrow is no longer an oddity thanks to (actor Deepika Padukone's look in) Padmaavat; short girls take comfort in actor Alia Bhatt being successful, and Tanishq used a dark-skinned model in its wedding ad to stir up conversations about #darkisbeautiful," said Kaviya. "You realise how huge an impact mainstream media can have on minds if only they consciously decide to change the narrative of what constitutes beauty."

The testimonies of the women on Browngirlgazin are varied. The issues are not always related to physical attributes-for some, it's about how their bodies have changed due to mental and physical trauma. In an anonymous post, a woman writes about the scars on her body, a result of long-term physical abuse by her father: "My first memory is of my father burning my leg when I was three because I refused to eat my vegetables. I have lost count of how many times he's hurt me since. As a daughter of an abusive alcoholic, my body holds inordinate amounts of pain. The scars and injuries make me feel ugly, of course, but they also make me ashamed. Walking around with scars is like carrying permanent proof of my worthlessness... I hate that my body has been so altered by him, it is no longer my own."

According to Kelkar, the project has helped her in some ways. "Body positivity is not a linear journey which ends in you feeling confident and beautiful because feeling like that all the time is impossible," she said. "For me, it has become about accepting that your body is alive and constantly evolving, just like you, and the important thing is to have a relationship with it and decode its language."
This post first appeared on Scroll.in. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com.

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On Instagram, brown girls are fighting India's narrow idea of beauty

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If you live in India and are not a fair-skinned, thin girl, it is more than likely that you have received your fair share of backhanded compliments. Statements (and advice) like "You are really pretty for a dark girl" or "If you lost a little weight, you would be really beautiful" are aplenty.

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Website #2: Demi Lovato Making Things Right!!

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Website #2: Demi Lovato Making Things Right!!

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Demi Lovato exposed Instagram for allowing companies that take part in body shaming to advertise on their platform. Instagram allowed a company "Game of Sultans" to advertise their newest game on Instagram's platform. The advertisement consisted of two women standing side-by-side with the left woman being labeled obese and the woman on the right being labeled pretty. This is relevant because Instagram is taking part in allowing companies to body shame on their platform sending a clear message that women have to be a certain weight to be considered "pretty". This is important regarding my topic because it will fill such negative thoughts in the innocent minds of women that use Instagram. It will also change the way how males think resulting in them having an altered mindset and looking at women differently.

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Demi Lovato Knocks Instagram for a Fat-Shaming Ad on Her Feed

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The singer, who is in recovery for an eating disorder, called the ad "disgusting" and implored Instagram to remove it.

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Website #3: Fat Shaming Instagram Account

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Website #3: Fat Shaming Instagram Account

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The website below discusses how an Instagram account was set up to troll other women's accounts. They would edit their shape on their pictures and claim they were representing "#thinnerbeauty". They would lure accounts to follow their page by disguising their own account as a fitness inspiration account that supports girl power. This is relevant to my topic because the shaming these accounts would do would be extremely negative to women and the way they think of themselves. This not only made Instagram bad but also made the online social media platform to look like a risky place to jut post an ordinary picture of yourself because you'll never know how it will turn out. The significance of this website makes women feel ugly and insecure of their pictures because they don't know what will happen to it when they post it online. Will they receive likes and comments from their friends or will it be body shamed and shared to thousands of followers?

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3 years ago
Unfortunately we live in a society where people think their opinion matters more than the respect or feelings of other people.
Then this Instagram account was set up and all the small-minded people of the world decided to troll women's accounts to edit their shape under the ideal that they're simply "about reposting #thinnerbeauty."

Project Harpoon (because why even pretend you're classy from the offset?), trawls the web for images of women above their perceived body ideal and photoshops them to a skinnier version of the photo.

As well as images being created by the page admins, followers of 'the project' are then offered the chance to submit their own handiwork.

If the highly insulting and overall offensive message of photoshopping a stranger's image wasn't enough, the captions accompanying the shots include:

'From Ms. Piggy to Ms Pin up', 'Mom to model' and 'which could keep up on a hike with you?'

Attempting to disguise their accounts as fitness inspiration (they have both a Facebook and Instagram community), many of the snaps include hashtags like "#fitchicks #chickswholift #crossfit #lifetimefitness #lafitness #weightlift #happierwhenskinny #feminism #feminist #girlpower #womensrights #healthy #eatright #gains".

Responding to the online backlash facing the page, the anonymous person behind the movement responded to criticism in the comments by saying:

"If I offend 1,000 people but inspire 1 to lose weight and live a longer happier life then ya that's fine by me."

Such heartwarming messages today make me come right out and say this: Fat Acceptance lies exist to keep you fat so people who are overweight don't feel bad because they have company. That's ALL they are for.

Posted by Project Harpoon on Wednesday, 19 August 2015

While it's important to live a healthy lifestyle for your own health, supporting a positive body image does not include attempts at shaming women or using degrading comments.

Having a healthy mind and feeling body confident is just as important as any number on the scales, and nobody took to photoshop to try and make that point clear.

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This Fat-Shaming Instagram Account Is Editing Women. Prepare To Be ENRAGED | Her.ie

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3 years ago Unfortunately we live in a society where people think their opinion matters more than the respect or feelings of other people. Then this Instagram account was set up and all the small-minded people of the world decided to troll women's accounts to edit their shape under the ideal that they're simply "about reposting #thinnerbeauty."

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This video shows the different challenges done on social media platforms such as Instagram that are very harmful to women. These challenges include
.A4 Waist Challenge: Comparing your waist size to a piece of A4 Paper
.Collarbone Challenge: Women stacking coins on their collarbones
.Bellybutton Challenge: Having women bringing their arm around their waist and to their bellybutton
.Bikini Bridge Challenge: Having a concave stomach and a gap between your stomach and bikini bottom
Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge: Having women sucking their lips in a shot glass to get swollen lips just like Kylie Jenner
All of these challenges are very harmful and are used to determine how beautiful a woman is. Not only can the majority of women not complete these challenges but it is a very inappropriate way to determines a woman's beauty. This relates to my topic because all of these challenges have been done on Instagram at one point. Instagram has not done anything to stop these challenges as it brings them more revenue.

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How Social Media Is Body Shaming You | Beauty | Life Tak

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This video is about curvy blogger who gets body shamed for marrying an extremely fit gentleman with a 6-pack. Jenna Kutcher is a body positive blogger who blogs on all social media platforms including Instagram. Jenna received messages that she was extremely lucky to pull off a man like her man because she was as beautiful as him. This is relevant because many women see Instagram couples and use that the determine who they should be attracted to. This relates to my topic of Instagram having an impact on beauty because it sometimes portrays messages of how you should live you life based off what you see online. This prevents women from reaching their full potential and even prevents them from living happily.

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'Curvy' Blogger Reveals She Was Body-Shamed for Being Married to 'Mr. 6-Pack': He's 'Embraced Every Curve & Pound'

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Below you will find a link to a website which contains a very important video. The video focuses on actor/comedian Celeste Barber and her funny videos. She realized that when models took sexy photos they were not in the moment and that they would struggle to pose a certain way. She compares the models' poses to how she would pose while living her everyday life which is hilarious. This is important because it shows that models pose is a certain way to look a certain way. They just don't have a camera shoot in front of them while they're living their everyday life. The way a model may pose on Instagram may trick an ordinary woman to believe that that model looks like that 24/7 and if you don't you aren't considered beautiful. That is not true because Instagram models use photoshop, oil, themes, lighting, professional photographers, and even filters to look a certain way.

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Instagram feeds do more damage to body image than billboards: study

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A study of 150 Australian undergraduate women has revealed they no longer care about what women look like on the cover of a magazine.

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Picture #1: The Effect of Comments Posted on Instagram

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Picture #1: The Effect of Comments Posted on Instagram

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The right side of the picture below is a picture that a fitness model posted on Instagram just to share her fitness gains with her followers. The left side of the picture is the comments that this fitness model received. All of these comments are related to body shaming as most of them are negative comments explaining how she looks too skinny and unhealthy. The other comments are positive which can also have a negative effect on beauty. The negative comments impact beauty because they can hurt her feelings, lower her confidence, and even force her to feel worth less especially when she only posted this picture to share positive vibes. The positive comment may boost her self-esteem but can also hurt women who read them and look nothing like her. It can make them feel ugly and lower than others just because they don't look like a fitness model.

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Picture #2: Products Advertised on Instagram

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Picture #2: Products Advertised on Instagram

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The picture below is an Instagram posted by the world famous Kylie Jenner who is known to be apart to the Kardashian/Jenner Family. These women are considered beautiful by most women because they are celebrities, have had plenty of celebrity boyfriends, and each own their own make up line. This picture consists of her and her two older step sisters whom all see to be wearing waist slimmers. It looks like this post was sponsored by the waist slimmer's company. By having all three of these world famous women taking a picture wearing waist slimmers portrays the message that a slim waist is a must in today's society. Also by having the description read "Do you want to know the secret to a slim waist?" sends out a message that majority of women can not achieve it but there are ways you can in order to become beautiful. This impacts beauty because women who see this post will believe that they are not beautiful, waist slimmers are the key to beauty even with all the negative side affects, and that only beautiful women have sim waists.

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The picture you see right here consists of a girl wearing workout attire and looks like she has just finished her workout as she is wearing a baseball cap and has her hair braided. This picture is relevant to the topic of Instagram having an impact on beauty because most girls will only post the picture on the left as they feel the picture on the right is too fatty. This is untrue as both pictures are the exact same girl but just in different poses. This impacts the audience because they will see the left picture and think of that as the new standard or even the only way to become accepted by society without realizing that the girl is only super slim because she is leaned back and flexing. This can lead to women falling into depression, living with low-self esteems, and even provide opportunities to develop eating disorders.

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·       What did you learn about the topic that most surprised you?

Before starting this project knew that this topic would be extremely interesting as it is something that happens in our everyday lives and is also something that I have seen my female classmates go through. The thing that surprised me the most is the fact that there aren’t too many sources of help offered on Instagram. Sure, there are helplines, or forums that can help people who have been victims of body shaming but there isn’t much help on Instagram. The only thing closest to it is an Instagram page called "browngirlgazin" which Is a page that I talked about in my Padlet. This page shows women that have been body shamed throughout their life but are still confident enough to share their experience to help other women. I think Instagram should implement a hashtag trend “#NoBodyShameDay” where body shame is recognized for a day as well as the effects and harm it can cause to people. This will help raise awareness and prevent the amount of body shaming that goes on in our society.

·       Provide a real-life example of how this topic is relevant or interesting for you. Relate the topic to your life in some way.

I found this topic interesting to me because I had no idea body shaming actually takes place in our society. This is mostly due to the way I was raised. As my father working away from home, I grew up with my 2 older sisters and mother. I was always surrounded around women which is why I believe all women should be respected and all women are beautiful even though they come in different shapes, sizes, and even personalities. I was surprised to find out that many individuals listen to the media to determine if they are beautiful or not. I was also extremely surprised that users on Instagram shame others for trying their best. I never understood that at all as I find that not only unacceptable but also extremely disgusting.

·       Which research did you find most interesting?  Why?

I found the last research to be the most interesting which was the Website #3 talking about the Instagram account that goes by the name of “browngirlgazin”. This was because during my other research I was always coming across something negative or a blogger putting 100% of the blame on something that is rather an opinion than a fact. When I came across this Instagram account, I was very pleased that this account was all about positivity and spreading positive vibes. Also, the fact that women came together and volunteered to have their story shared on that account was very inspiring to me as it shows that there are many people trying to make a better change for the future generations of women.

·       What are you most likely to remember from this research?

There were many situations within the research project and it was filled with very useful content. I am most likely to remember the entire situation of my Picture #3: The Effect of Comments Posted on Instagram. This is because she was a model that was a victim of body shaming. Majority of society as well as me thought that models lived the best life because they were deemed beautiful. To be completely honest I use to think that models had a free ride for life and were always put on a pedestal and looked up. After learning about this fitness model’s situation, I learnt that body shaming can happen to anyone. Whether you are a model or an ordinary person. Whether you are trying to spread positive vibes or not. No one is really safe from body shaming. It can literally happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

·       How has learning about this topic changed you? Discuss your attitude, practices, etc.

Learning about this topic has definitely changed my attitude and practices. I use to think body shaming was just something that happened to people that were emotionally weaker than others and that half the people who claimed they were body shamed were just complaining. After this project I am proud to say that I was completely wrong because now I know what many women go through in our society. I can ensure myself that I will never think of someone as weak if they are being body shamed. I will also make note that women don’t complain about body shaming just to seek attention. This project will also change the way I deal with this situation the next time I see it. For example, the next time I see a woman being body shamed whether it is my friend or a complete stranger I will stop the situation, let the party doing the shaming become aware of their mistakes, and will also comfort the victim of the situation as well as advising her what next steps to take to better herself.

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Fardouly, J., Vartanian, L. R., & Pinkus, R. T. (2016, December 18). Instagram feeds do more damage to body image than billboards: Study. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/social-media-shots-affect-body-image-because-we-only-show-our-best-side-20161219-gtdsa7.html

Tak, L. (2017, September 16). How Social Media Is Body Shaming You | Beauty | Life Tak. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5H15_yV_aw

'Curvy' Blogger Reveals She Was Body-Shamed for Being Married to 'Mr. 6-Pack': He's 'Embraced Every Curve & Pound'. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://people.com/health/jenna-kutcher-instagram-body-shamed-for-fit-husband/

Demi Lovato Knocks Instagram for a Fat-Shaming Ad on Her Feed. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.instyle.com/news/demi-lovato-calls-out-instagram-fat-shaming-ad

Chaudhuri, Z. R., & Chaudhuri, Z. R. (2018, July 10). On Instagram, brown girls are fighting India's narrow idea of beauty. Retrieved from https://qz.com/india/1324512/an-instagram-account-is-fighting-body-shaming-in-india-one-picture-at-a-time/

Herdotie. (2015, August 20). This Fat-Shaming Instagram Account Is Editing Women. Prepare To Be ENRAGED. Retrieved from https://www.her.ie/life/this-fat-shaming-instagram-account-is-editing-women-prepare-to-be-enraged-251527

Brooks, A. (2018, October 07). 7 Unexpected Ways Instagram Has Changed the World. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/7-unexpected-ways-instagram-has-changed-the-world/539032/

Squier, C. (n.d.). This Is How Instagram Has Changed Our Make-Up Bags. Retrieved from https://graziadaily.co.uk/beauty-hair/hair/instagram-beauty-brands/