he body positivity movement has been influential in society for pushing back against beauty standards, but is that influence all so positive? A study published in Computers in Human Behavior explores how sexualized representations of body positivity may serve to increase body surveillance and acceptance of plastic surgery.
Beauty ideals have been influential in popular media for a long time but have been expanded by the rise of social networking sites. An incredibly high number of adolescents and young adults utilize social media daily, using it to share and view pictures and videos, many of which serve to enforce beauty standards and exacerbate insecurity and body dissatisfaction in consumers.
The body positivity movement aimed to push back against these popular beauty ideals by emphasizing acceptance and appreciation of “every body, at every size.” Despite the respectable cause, there have been some accusations of a dark side of the movement, which can be exclusionary and/or sexualized. This study sought to explore the effects of sexualized images being used for body-positive social networking.
For their study, Giovanni Schettino and colleagues utilized 493 Italian women between the ages of 18 and 30 to serve as their sample. Participants were recruited through social media and were predominantly heterosexual and unmarried. Participants completed measures detailing their demographic information, body surveillance tendencies, body satisfaction, acceptance of cosmetic surgery, Instagram usage, and frequency of viewing sexually objectified body-positive selfies on Instagram.
Results showed that viewing sexualized body positivity images was associated with higher levels of body surveillance, a preoccupation with monitoring one’s own physical appearance. Additionally, viewing this sexualized content was associated with lower body satisfaction, which is the opposite of the intent of the body positivity movement.
