_Cela is a sophomore journalism major at MU. She is an opinion columnist who writes about daily life for The Maneater._

While social media can act as a beacon of hope and acceptance for some, its dark underbelly is threatening for users.

As the digital generation, Generation Z reaps the rewards and risks of social media. Young girls especially are susceptible to influences from social media emphasizing a single beauty ideal: skinny with curves, symmetrical bone structure and conventionally feminine.

Social media is a double-edged sword in its ability to promote self-love and acceptance, while also introducing new flaws people should fix about themselves. By promoting an ideal body type or facial structure, social media categorizes physical traits.

A defined jawline, ski-slope nose, thigh gap, hourglass figure, strong cheekbones, full lips and straight, white teeth are all praised and desired. Features that deviate from this are deemed undesirable.

As social media evolves, so does society’s perception of flaws. Social media presents bodily features such as hip dips, cankles, lower belly fat and arm fat as things that can and should be fixed. It does so under the guise of helping an individual fix their “problem areas.”
Every January, there’s a rise in fitness and health commercials, urging people to become the best version of themselves. If that doesn’t work, the threat of summer and being “beach body ready” spurs individuals to work out with renewed vigor.

Fad diets and exercises designed to create instant results do not work and only cause individuals to become disillusioned about their own efforts and self-image. Although engaging in exercise and health is beneficial for the body, working out should be voluntary with the goal to make oneself feel better, not due to societal pressures to achieve a certain ideal body type.

When scrolling through TikTok, there are a ton of exercise videos designed to target certain “problem” areas like hip dips and round cheeks, although research shows that it’s impossible to target fat loss. I had no idea what hip dips or cankles were before social media told me that I should be ashamed to have them. Side profiles and back profiles have become a new source of insecurity.

Coming to the “rescue,” social media posits that these “flaws” can be fixed through dieting, working out and, if all else fails, plastic surgery. Instead of embracing the diversity of human features and appearances, social media presents “solutions” to suit a more homogenous beauty standard.

It’s also important to recognize how often Eurocentric beauty standards govern what is deemed beautiful. The European “ski-slope nose” with a narrow bridge is often idolized and is the model used for plastic surgery.

The ideal body type changes over time as well. In Mean Girls (2004), Regina George associated having a fat ass with the end of the world, but today she would be praised for it. Society’s preference for pale or tanned skin, thicker or thinner eyebrows, an hourglass shape or boyish figure or any other ideal body characteristics depends on the trends of the time.

Society is so quick to reduce people to their body parts, as if the best butt or legs or jawline is more important than the sum of the human being. This practice is prevalent in commercials and toxic body culture. Basing an individual’s worth on a perceived flaw or ideal dehumanizes them.

When googling these features, information about each of them is accompanied by a flurry of articles on how to get rid of or reduce them. While these characteristics can be a result of a health issue, they are mostly cosmetic and non-life threatening.

All body parts have a purpose. Lower belly fat cushions reproductive organs, provides insulation, stores energy and produces and releases hormones. Hip dips are not a sign of poor health, they are based on the shape of the pelvis. Having extra fat around the ankles or “cankles” can be due to weight gain, fluid retention or simply genetics.

Instead of recognizing fat as an essential part of the body, society treats fat as taboo and tries to ignore it. Oftentimes, fat people are told that they’re not fat, they’re beautiful. Being fat and beautiful are not mutually exclusive. The first step to self-love is acceptance, not ignorance.

Even in a wave of self-love and body positivity, social media finds something new to criticize about an individual. Bodies are bodies, and we should let them be. They cannot be squeezed into molds or smoothed over, no matter what social media says.

Anything on social media should be taken with a grain of salt, as social media lies. Before and after pictures have as much to do with progress as they do with posing and lighting. Influencers are masters at simulating a perfected image that does not reflect reality.

Now is the time to reject the so-called “flaws” that social media imposes. Replace hours spent in front of the mirror inspecting and critiquing with hours spent doing daily affirmations, journaling, meditating or doing other productive activities. There are no problem areas, only problematic people. Embrace your body because it is yours. It’s strong, capable, dependable and, above all, worthy.

_In pursuit of racial and social equity, The Maneater encourages its readers to donate to The Movement for Black Lives. M4BL is a coalition of over 150 organizations and focuses on coordinating actions, messages and campaigns between the many organizations. Donate at: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/movement-4-black-lives-1_

_Edited by Sydney Lewis | slewis@themaneater.com_