Self-Objectification & why it’s sinister.
Social media bombards us with thousands of images daily. Check out your explore feed and you can scroll endless images of highly sexualised and idealised bodies.
Dig a little deeper and you will find a subtext that reads: this is what beautiful is, this is what it means to be valued, to be successful, to be happy. You need to look like this to be valuable, worthy, successful and happy.
This is the lie diet culture sells – if you just follow these steps, you can achieve the beauty ideal too and you will be successful, happy and beautiful.
Before we get into it, I’d like to add that this post isn’t to judge anyone or tell you what you can and can’t do, that’s not my role. It’s simply for the purposes of getting curious and perhaps giving ourselves some space to question what we might otherwise take for granted as the “norm”.
What is self-objectification?
When we self-objectify ourselves, we internalise these values. We become to see our worth and value as to how close we can get to the one socially constructed beauty ideal. We see ourselves as just physical bodies from the outside and evaluate ourselves based on our looks. In doing so, we reduce ourselves to instruments or tools, rather than as a whole person with feelings, purpose, values, passions, interests and relationships to name but a few.
When we self-objectify, we move from seeing our bodies as the home of our essence, spirit and the vehicle that enables us to connect with the world and make a meaningful difference, to a space to perfect for the viewing pleasure of others (most commonly for the male gaze). We may engage in risky behaviours to change and manipulate our bodies including withholding food and compulsive exercise.
You may notice younger girls becoming increasingly sexualised and taking images, selfies or Tiktoks in a way to mimic what they deem to be a way to exhibit worth and value through images they have seen shared in the media and social media. The liking and commenting serve to continually reinforce this rhetoric that our physical appearance is the most important thing about us.
In a recent article for the Mail Online, Eve Simmonds explored the fitness industry’s hyper-sexual transformation. Eve talks about how female’s posting fitness content or #fitspo online tend to be wearing a full face of makeup and angle the camera at certain angles to show off cleavage, abs and buttocks. Many of the images are somewhat pornographic.
Eve goes on to explicitly mention how individuals who view this type of content are more likely to self-objectify themselves, rather than to see movement or exercise as part of being in the body and as an activity that can enhance mind-body connection. Psychologist, Susie Orbach, author of “Fat is a Feminist issue” went on to add, that this may also explain why five-year-old girls may stick their hips out and pout when being photographed.
Ultimately, the process of self-objectification may disconnect us from our true selves, embodied self-care and our mental and physical needs. Self-objectification is also likely to increase body dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety disorders, self-harm and of course Eating Disorders and disordered eating.
Self-objectification is pervasive on social media and can be an underpinning factor that fertilises the terrain for eating disorders to develop and thrive.
So perhaps this might be an invitation to get curious about your Instagram feed or images you view on social media and check in on how these images make you feel and the sinister subtext that’s often lurking beneath.