How is ‘influence culture’ affecting young women online?

It’s 2021: women have it easy now, right?

We got the vote, we have reproductive rights and we can’t lose our jobs if we have a child. 

Sadly, that’s not all there is to it. 

Since the rise of mainstream social media began in the mid 2000s, women have begun to face a mass of added pressures (aside those already presented to us in the real world) to have the perfect body, the perfect teeth, hair, nails, skin, even home, family and lifestyle, and surveys conducted over the last decade have shown men experience this considerably less - likely due to the widespread media campaigns and online efforts aimed at women; promoting, selling and endorsing products for weight loss, image ‘enhancing’ and retaining youth.

Anyone would describe that as absolutely exhausting! 

A lot of this comes from influencers, online personalities who have a track record for using ad sponsorships to promote products that often turn out to be dangerous & compromising for health, such as so-called ‘skinny’ teas, appetite suppressant gummies & lollipops, and other various forms of diet pills. 

One classic culprit for all of this comes in the form of the Kardashians: most of the family are regular social media users and have promoted their fair share of controversial products using ad campaigns, particularly on Instagram.

Back in 2018, Kim shared a promotion discount with a company called “Flat Tummy”, encouraging her followers to purchase their appetite suppressing lollies - this was met with widespread criticism, especially because of the number of people suffering from the effects of eating disorders in the UK reaching 1.25 million

The fact is, many young girls look up to women like these, and take their every word as gospel, because they’re impressionable and ultimately, easily influenced by their words and actions. Influencers like Kim Kardashian should be taking this knowledge onboard, and do justice to their fan base & followers online by considering the negative effects of such paid sponsorships and whether a conflict of interest comes into play by encouraging young women to purchase something that could negatively affect their health and potentially push them into feeling a sense of body dysmorphia. 

Social media all too often portrays only the “perfect” life, and that goes for everyone - we only share the best parts of our lives, leading others to believe the lives we live have no flaws or faults.

This is not true for anyone, so we should never look at what's portrayed on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat for a representation of real life, no matter who it is. However, celebrities like these, people in the public eye should consider far more carefully the negative impact that they could be having on the wider public, and by not doing that, we can suggest that they are contributing to a mass increase of mental health issues amongst girls and young women.

Look out for my next post in this mini-series on gender politics online, where I’ll be discussing sexism and misogyny towards women online & the unfortunate rise of ‘incel’ culture.