SOCIAL MEDIA'S CONTRIBUTION TO WOMEN'S MENTAL CHARGE : THE POSTPARTUM APPEARANCE
Social media tends to consider users as nothing more than consumers. However, the internet can affect some people more than others. The unrealistic representation of the postpartum body depicts how unhealthy social media is for new mothers and how their appearance can either become a source of anxiety or, for the more fortunate, that of fame.
From a very young age, children are assigned with specific gender roles and mindsets that remain during adulthood. Girls are mostly congratulated for their physical appearance, whereas boys are praised for their behavioUr as well as their intellectual qualities. This social phenomenon follows women throughout their entire life, including during pregnancy and after delivering a child, which is reinforced by the notions of “dad bod” and “mom bod”. According to Men Health, a man with a “dad bod” evokes a “relatable, warm kind of dude”, when a “mom bod” refers to a woman who has “let herself go” after giving birth and for whom pregnancy has changed “her physical appearance to the point where she no longer looks like herself”. How come women are bullied for the way their body looks when they have been carrying a human life for 9 months? Body shaming women is a theme that social media is very fond of, which is shown by the over representation of thin bodies as “goals” to live up to. The number of posts showing skinny celebrities wearing fitness clothes and embracing their slim postpartum body whilst revealing their secret to lose pregnancy weight raises questions on the authenticity of their advocacy for body positivity. Beyond the stress of taking care of a new-born and adapting to the new life that is parenthood which most of the time involves sleep deprivation and severe anxiety, women also have to be concerned about losing the weight they gained during pregnancy in order to “convert back to a very similar version of themselves [...] before conceiving”. Among many others, the podcaster and yoga instructor Hilaria Baldwin perfectly portrays this unrealistic goal by posting a picture of her postpartum body on Instagram on the 14th of September 2016 and inviting other women to join her on her yearly quest of “getting back in shape”.
Social media has an immense impact on the perception we have of ourselves. The lack of representation of women’s bodies’ diversity contributes to self-consciousness regarding body image, especially after giving birth. Numerous scientific studies have shown that during their postpartum period, women are significantly more likely to be affected by what they witness on social media. In June 2021, Institutional Human Ethics Committee researchers Bincy Mole Baby and Balakrishnan Kalamullathil have lead a psychological case study with the participation of 100 new mothers revealing that “92.5% cases show that they are under the strong influence of media” and that 81.35% testify being “disappointed with their self-perception” after using social media. The nearly absent representation of accurate postpartum bodies, with the flaws that they may involve on the internet, leads women who just gave birth to think that their physical appearance is abnormal, unpleasant or even repulsive. However, this portrayal of pregnancy feeds a false vision of maternity and implies a certain image of what it should look like for every woman. The Guardian indeed revealed that out of 600 Instagram posts using the hashtag #postpartumbody, only 5% were “focused on bodies bearing stretch marks, cellulite, sagging breasts or scars” when it has been proved that “women of reproductive age are among the highest users of Instagram”, therefore the main targets.
To counterattack that trend, some celebrities have tried using their influence and notoriety by posting realistic pictures of their daily postpartum life. On the 8th of June 2019, comedian and actress Amy Schumer decided to reveal her new routine on Instagram wearing hospital underwear a few weeks after giving birth. In response to that post, some users seemed outraged by the appearance she exposes, commenting words like “You’re hopeless” or “Nothing about this is attractive”, as if women’s activity on social media was targeted at the male gaze. However, beyond the insults, many women replied positively to this rare but authentic representation of maternity, which highlights the amount of women experiencing this social pressure and the need for more accurate content on the internet.
By Myrtille Praire.
To go further, on our March file dedicated to feminism, you can read our Society and International Relations sections' articles on our blog.
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