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Picture perfect: how social media's pressure to be beautiful can exacerbate body dysmorphia in women

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Picture perfect: how social media's pressure to be beautiful can exacerbate body dysmorphia in women

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PICTURE PERFECT

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA’S PRESSURE TO BE
BEAUTIFUL CAN EXACERBATE BODY DYSMORPHIA IN WOMEN

By

Ashley Orona

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR
COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)

August 2022

Copyright 2022 Ashley Orona

ii
Acknowledgments

A special thank you to my committee members Professor Allissa Richardson, Professor
Alison Trope, and Professor Lisa Pecot-Hebert. I appreciate the guidance and patience
throughout writing this piece.
I am eternally grateful to my parents for the endless support and love they give me. I
hope to continue making them proud. To my sisters, for being my best friends.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………...ii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...iv
Chapter One: What Is Body Dysmorphia?........................................................................................1
Chapter Two: The Pressure Coming from Social Media…………………………………….…….3
Chapter Three: Profit over People…………...…………………………….…………………...….7
Chapter Four: The “Cyborgian Face”.............................................................................................10
Chapter Five: Unrealistic Beauty Standards for Women………………………………….....…...15
Chapter Six: Impact on Women of Color…………………………………………………………16
Chapter Seven: Keeping Social Media Companies Accountable……………………..………….19
Chapter Eight: Pushing Back………………………………………………………………...…...20
References………………………………………………………………………………………..22

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Abstract

Historically, mass media has played a role in pushing unrealistic beauty standards on
women. With more people having access to social media platforms, social media has played a
role in pushing beauty standards on women more intimately. The pressure from social media to
post aesthetically-pleasing content and increased access to photo manipulation applications can
exacerbate body dysmorphia in women. This article showcases how social media’s practices can
push content that negatively affects users' self-esteem and how these pressures have recently
increased the desire for risky cosmetic procedures that will likely not solve body dysmorphia
sentiments.

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Chapter One: What is Body Dysmorphia?

I was in fourth grade waiting in line to go into Ms. McGough’s class after lunch when a
classmate and I were arguing about who knows what. She points at my forehead and says, “well
at least I don’t have a unibrow.” Stunned and confused, I asked, “what’s that?” I see her finger
come closer to my face; I cross both my eyes looking to my forehead. “That right there,” she points
at the hair between my eyebrows. That evening, I went through my mom’s make-up bag, picked
up her tweezers, stood in front of a mirror and plucked my eyebrows away.
I remember playing basketball during recess under the hot Los Angeles sun, my face was
red from the heat and sweat was dripping down the sides of my forehead but I refused to take off
my sweater. The sweater helped me hide the thick black hair on my arms. The boys in my class
would sometimes point it out and make fun of me.
When I was younger I was embarrassed of the hair on my body, sometimes I still am. I
would spend hours in front of the mirror secretly wishing I could wave a magic wand and get rid
of the hair on my face and body. I developed habits, like casually extending my arms and
pretending like I am stretching, when I was with someone to make sure they were at least an arm’s
length away from me so they would not notice the fuzz on my face. For years, my wardrobe
consisted of only t-shirts and long pants to hide my body.
Society has always pushed unrealistic standards of beauty, especially for women, including
expecting them to be virtually hairless, despite it being something natural on our bodies. A lot of
women are conditioned to believe that body hair is “gross” and the idea of anyone seeing us with
hair on our body is shameful. Women with lots of hair are also frequently portrayed as masculine.
Some dissatisfaction with one’s appearance is common, however, excessive concern with
certain facial or body attributes can be a sign of an underlying disorder such as body dysmorphia,

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according to an article by Neelam A. Vashi, MD (2016). Body dysmorphia, also body dysmorphic
disorder, is an anxiety disorder of self-perception. It is an obsession with perfection, defined as
being impaired and preoccupation with a nonexistent or minimal flaw in one’s physical
appearance, she says (Vashi 2016).
A study (Himanshu et al. 2020) that assessed body dysmorphia among 16 to 18-year-olds
concluded that there is a surgence of body dysmorphia in adolescents. The results showed that
both males and female participating students show dissatisfaction with their body image, but
female students were more dissatisfied. Female students were more discontent about body fat,
facial hair, height and complexion, whereas, males were more discontent with muscular body,
acne, height, weight, and hair thinning.
People with body dysmorphia complain of supposed deformities, ranging from warped
eyebrows to oversized nostrils that make them feel excruciatingly ugly, according to Vashi (2016).
Living with this disorder can debilitate people from living a normal life for it can make them
depressed and become preoccupied with the perception of something being wrong with them
physically, according to Emmanuel Maidenberg, clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA School
of Medicine (2022).
“The patient is measured by the amount of time that one spends monitoring the physical
appearance, [improving] it, trying to camouflage, or hiding certain features,” said Maidenberg
(2022). Patients might sometimes make the choice to not participate in social interactions, avoid
being seen in a particular light, or spend a long time hyper analyzing themselves in the mirror,
according to Maidenberg (2022).
For users who suffer from an anxiety disorder or have body image issues, social media can
exacerbate body dysmorphia, according to Maidenberg (2022). Social media can push unrealistic

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beauty standards and a desire to achieve perfection that can be difficult to keep up with, he says
(Maidenberg 2022).
“I think social media is likely to be a strong contributing factor to people who already have
a vulnerability or sensitivity to [body dysmorphia],” said Maidenberg (2022). “By virtue of
presenting body images or physical appearance images that are hardly achievable or sustainable
by most people.”
Chapter Two: The Pressure Coming from Social Media

Studies have found that mass media such as print magazines, advertisements, and television
push a particular standard of body weight for men and women, according to a book, “Body Image:
Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children,” by Sarah Grogan (2021). For
years, popular media has pushed images of women who are abnormally slim and images of men
as a slender but muscular body type; pressures to conform to these ideals may produce an increase
in body dissatisfaction and self-esteem issues for both genders, she says (Grogan 2021).
No longer do people have to buy a magazine or turn on the T.V. to see a particular set of
beauty standards being replicated; we are now consistently being influenced at the tip of our fingers
through access to social media on our phones. Today, around seven-in-ten Americans use social
media daily to connect with one another, receive news content, share information, and
entertainment, according to a Pew Research Study (2021).
The difference between traditional media like television and magazines compared to social
media is that social media is much more interactive and personal, according to an article by Richard
M. Perloff (2014). Social networking sites are available for viewing, content creating, and editing
24/7, on mobile devices, allowing for exponentially more opportunities for social comparison and
surveillance of pictures than conventional media, wrote Perloff (2014).

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Evidence shows that spending time scrolling on social media in an endless cycle of
negative news, or dooms-scrolling (Buchanan et al. 2021), is associated with poorer mental health.
Similarly, being exposed to images that may make users feel bad about their appearance can also
have a negative impact on their mental health.
People that are conventionally beautiful get more likes and comments. Likes and comments
on social media are seen as measures of social acceptance and validation (Butkowski et al. 2019).
The more interaction it gets it gets pushed more into another user’s newsfeed.
Social media platforms such as Instagram use a variety of algorithms, classifiers and
processes to curate a personalized experience for their users. Instagram tracks their users' activity
and keeps track of what they post, what content they like, comment on, share, and save to make
educated guesses about more content they might like, according to an article by Adam Mosseri
(2021), head of Instagram.
If a person may already be dealing with body image issues and they search images of
weight loss on Instagram or click on a picture of someone they perceive as attractive, Instagram
will learn this behavior and flood a user's timeline and “explore page” with advertisements and
content that replicate that specific image. This can create a cycle where users are constantly
exposed to images where they compare themselves and feel bad for not looking a certain way, thus
lowering their self-esteem.
Studies (Bergaagna and Tartaglia 2018) have suggested that people with lower self-esteem
tend to compare themselves to others more and use social media at higher rates as a tool of
comparison. According to Leon Festinger’s social comparison theory (1954), it is a human instinct
to compare oneself to others for that is how we acquire information. Social comparison takes place
when individuals compare themselves to others on abilities and personal traits, such as

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attractiveness. It is a natural tendency for people to compare whether they are more or less
attractive. People who are considered more attractive reap certain benefits such as being seen as
more trustworthy (Dorsey 2006).
We often compare ourselves to celebrities in magazines and T.V. with glowy skin and
bouncy hair. However, social media has created a digital space where people not only compare
themselves to celebrities but also their classmates, coworkers, or friends, according to an article
by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery (Susruthi, Maymone, and Vashi 2018). When we see a co-worker
or friend post an image on social media and they receive affirmation through likes and comments,
it is difficult to not compare ourselves to them and measure our beauty and achievements in
comparison to theirs. When people compare themselves to celebrities, many are aware that
celebrities have access to the best dermatologists, personal trainers, and stylists to keep them
looking their best. However, when people compare themselves to their peers, who have the same
access to resources like local gym and products, receive hundreds of likes and comments it can
make them feel worse about their self-esteem.
Instagram is known for its aesthetically pleasing posts. Avid users carefully pick a
background with the right symmetry, flattering lighting, color coordinate their outfits, and usually
take hundreds of photos hoping to get the perfect shot, all while trying to make it seem like it was
done effortlessly. When users only post the manicured version of themselves and not when they
are having a bad hair day or unflattering angle, it makes others believe they are doing better than
them. It can lower people’s self-esteem and pressure to live up to unrealistic expectations. Research
(Siibak 2009) suggests that the social comparisons college women might make between
themselves and the idealized version they have created on social media of themselves can be
daunting because it is unrealistic to keep up with.

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Image-based platforms like Instagram can be more harmful to body image concerns than
text-based platforms like Twitter because our brains trust visuals more than text; our brains tend
to believe photographs are more realistic and convey more emotions, according to a study (Sundar
2008).
The pressure to look perfect can push people to use editing apps like Facetune and pre-set
filters first popularized by Snapchat. Facetune not only allows users to enhance their pictures and
videos by editing the background and changing the hues but it allows them to make microcosmic
changes to their facial features and body. Users can make their eyes, nose, and mouth bigger or
smaller; they can also reshape their bodies to be slimmer or curvier. These apps have made photo
manipulation skills accessible for everyday people, but they have also caused people to create a
version of themselves that is unrealistic.
For people who suffer from body dysmorphia, using editing apps can be triggering because
people can compare themselves to a version where they have altered their perceived flaws.
“Snapchat dysmorphia” (USA Today 2018) is a fixation with an imagined or minor flaw in your
appearance based on selfies or apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facetune.
The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) warned
plastic surgeons in a 2019 press release that more patients are seeking facial plastic surgery because
of social media. The AAFPRS warned plastic surgeons of the “dark side” of using makeover apps
and photo filters saying that it can foster “unrealistic expectations about the results of a procedure
and possibly triggering body dysmorphic disorder in susceptible individuals.”
More than half of plastic surgeons reported that they have seen a rise in patients seeking a
cosmetic procedure due to dissatisfaction with their social media profile and 57% of plastic

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surgeons reported patients seek procedures to look better in selfies, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook
Lives, and other social media sites, according to the press release (AAFPRS 2019).
Chapter Three: Profit over People

Companies are increasingly using social media to promote their products and services to
consumers. Recent studies (Koay et al. 2022) reported that more than 75% of marketers rely on
social media to share information about their products, with more than 65% of global brands
planning to allocate more budgets into social media marketing.
Companies are taking advantage of social media’s reach and practices to target their
consumers in intimate ways. Unlike mass media, which cultivates a large homogeneous audience,
social media caters to smaller communities of like-minded individuals, says Perloff (2014).
Influencers were born out of social media. They are leaders who exert influence on other
individuals by sharing their experiences, usually in a niche of interests such as beauty, fashion,
and identity. Influencers are a modern way of advertising. No longer are companies relying on
magazines ads and television commercials but they are utilizing people in a community that users
trust.
Many companies use social media influencers to market their products. In 2021, brands
spent $3.7 billion on influencer marketing in the United States alone, a 33% increase from 2020
that is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, according to the America Retail report
(Pitta 2021).
Like traditional advertisements, influencers do not only sell products and services but they
sell ideals and values. Influencers have played a special role in perpetuating unrealistic beauty
standards. Many influencers are open about the cosmetic procedures they have gotten and even
blogged about their experiences getting the procedures. TikTok influencers and sisters Charli and

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Dixie D’Amelio both got nose surgeries to correct previous injuries, they say. They both uploaded
videos to their YouTube channels and shared the process of getting the procedure, including clips
of the surgery itself. Together, the videos have been viewed over 19 million times.
Recent studies (Gesto et al. 2021) have found that the use of social media is associated with
increased acceptance of cosmetic surgeries. They found that viewing images on Instagram of
someone who has undergone cosmetic enhancements directly can affect young women’s desire for
cosmetic surgery. The study also suggested that body dissatisfaction is one of the factors involved
in the decision to surgically modify one’s body. People may consider cosmetic surgery as a means
to obtain both a higher self-esteem and social rewards deriving from appearing more attractive to
others.
For someone with body dysmorphia, getting cosmetic procedures might not be the answer
and can exacerbate their condition. Normalizing cosmetic procedures on social media minimizes
the risks that these procedures can cause on a person’s physical and mental well-being. Like any
type of surgery, cosmetic surgeries carry risks. Cosmetic surgeries can result in complications such
as being dissatisfied with the final result, scarring, or death.
In the last five years, at least 19 women have died after getting a Brazilian butt lift (BBL)
in South Florida, eight women just in 2021, according to an NBC 6 investigation (Masihy 2022).
South Florida is considered the capital of the BBL surgery as many women fly across the country
to undergo the popular procedure.
Last year, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen exposed information about
Facebook, owned by Meta platforms, which revealed that the company knew its platforms cause
its users harm to their mental health but refused to do anything about it.

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Haugen shared the internal documents with the Wall Street Journal who published a series
of investigative pieces named the Facebook Files (Wall Street Journal 2021) that reviewed internal
documents, presentations, and reports, identifying some of the problems within Facebook. The
documents revealed that Facebook knew its platform, Instagram, is harmful for many of its users,
especially young girls, but downplayed the negative effects.
In 2020, teenager Anastasia Vlasova (Wells, Horwitz, and Setharaman 2021) started seeing
a therapist. She had developed an eating disorder and believed her time on Instagram contributed
to it. Since joining the platform five years prior, Vlasova said she eventually spent up to three
hours a day on Instagram being bombarded with pictures of people living seemingly perfect lives
and bodies of fitness influencers.
“When I went on Instagram, all I saw were images of chiseled bodies, perfect abs and
women doing 100 burpees in 10 minutes,” Vlasova told the Wall Street Journal (2021).
Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that they felt bad about their bodies and Instagram
made them feel worse, according to a presentation slide posted on Facebook’s internal message
board (Wall Street Journal 2021). They concluded that comparisons on Instagram can change how
young women view and describe themselves.
The presentation revealed that teenagers blamed Instagram for increases in rates of anxiety
and depression, with 6% of American teenagers tracing the desire to kill themselves back to
Instagram (Wall Street Journal 2021). Instagram is the second highest used platform by teenagers
ages 13 to 17, according to Pew Research (Schaeffer 2021). Younger users also reported visiting
the platform every day several times a day (Schaeffer 2021).
Expanding the platform’s base to young users is vital for the company’s more than $100
billion in annual revenue, the report says (Wall Street Journal 2021). Acknowledging the platform

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causes harm to young users and intervening could potentially jeopardize users' engagement with
the platform.
Haugen says that Facebook has repeatedly shown it “chooses profit over safety” (Mac and
Kang 2021).
Facebook has consistently downplayed the app’s negative impacts on teens and has not
made their research public or available to academics or lawmakers who have asked for it, according
to the report (Wall Street Journal 2021).
Chapter Four: The “Cyborgian Face”

From a young age, women are bombarded with images of conventionally beautiful
women in advertisements, movies, and shows. The women in the images tend to have a flawless
complexion, no blemishes or vellus hair in sight, and thin bodies. Before social media and photo
editing applications, these images were only achievable by professional make-up artists and
people with Photoshop skills. Now, everyday people can achieve this look.
Instagram has become a space where strict standards of beauty for women have been
amplified. Instagram has a reputation among people for putting pressure on users to only post
perfect content. The pressure to post perfect photos and access to free apps that make digital
manipulation easy, can push people to strive to look like their digitally altered pictures in real life.
If you scroll through Instagram, you are likely to see women replicate what is referred to
as the Instagram face (Tolentino 2019). The look includes a young face with poreless skin and
plump, high cheekbones, catlike eyes with long eyelashes, a small nose, and full, lush lips. Jia
Tolentino refers to the look as a “cyborgian face” in her article (Tolentino 2019) in The New
Yorker.

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A cyborg is defined as a superhuman who may have been replaced or enhanced by
electronic components. Referring to the Instagram face as “cyborgian” demonstrates how artificial
the beauty standard has become. The look is a mesh of plastic surgeries and digital alteration that
is difficult for many to attain naturally. It is a compilation of features considered to be attractive,
popularized by celebrities such Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, and Emily Ratajkowski.
In the science fiction novel, “Uglies” by Scott Westerfeld (2005), everyone is considered
an “ugly,” but then turned “pretty” by extreme cosmetic surgery when they reach the age of 16.
The government-funded cosmetic surgeries turn people into what society considers to be the
beauty standard. The goal is to create a utopian society where its citizens are the same. Netflix
(2020) will be creating a film adaptation of Westerfeld’s “Uglies.”
Similarly, it feels like many people striving for the Instagram face are also striving for this
sameness. People undergo cosmetic procedures and edit their images hoping to look like an
idealized version of themselves they see replicated on social media.
“We do notice there's an increasing trend of, you know, patients coming in requesting
certain procedures that they've seen online or on Instagram,” said Dr. Dung Nguyen (2022),
clinical professor at Stanford and director of the adult reconstructive clinic at Stanford Healthcare.
“As opposed to the traditional route, which is being referred by, you know, a colleague or
physician, or through the newspaper and ads.”
More women are getting minimally-invasive procedures with quick recoveries like
botulinum toxin and soft tissue fillers, said Nguyen (2022). There was a 459% (ASPS) increase in
Botox procedures from 2000 to 2020.
In 2002, the Federal Drug Administration approved Botox (ASPS) to temporarily smooth
frown lines between the eyebrows. Since then, Botox has been expanded to other uses such as

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severe underarm sweating, and reshaping eyebrows, chin, and jawline. These procedures are less
expensive than surgery, with the national average costing $466 (ASPS) in 2020. There is no down
time or recovery time required for this procedure. You can get Botox during your lunch break and
go back to work.
Procedures like nose jobs, liposuction, and breast augmentation are among the top five
cosmetic surgical procedures, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons 2020 statistics
(ASPS). But there has been a noticeable increase in buttock augmentation with fat grafting, also
known as Brazilian butt lifts, according to Nguyen (2022). In this procedure, fat is taken from other
parts of the body like the stomach and injected into the butt and hips for an hourglass shape.
Brazilian butt lifts are among the most dangerous cosmetic procedures because they carry a really
high risk of complications of fat embolism and people could die from it, says Nguyen (2022).
Many women are undergoing the procedure and risking their lives for big butts. Last year,
mother and daughter, Libby Adame and Alicia Galaz (LAPD 2021), were arrested and charged in
Riverside, California for murder after performing an outlawed cosmetic buttocks augmentation
which resulted in the death of Karissa Rajpaul, an aspiring adult film actress. Neither are a licensed
medical provider in California and their clients were recruited through Instagram. It was apparently
the third time Rajpaul was undergoing the procedure with the duo and it is believed that there
might be more victims.
It has become common that non-medical providers are performing these procedures taking
advantage of the high demand. Nguyen (2022) emphasizes the importance of patients going to
board certified doctors for they are trained to know who are good candidates for procedures. But
many women go out of the country for procedures for cheaper options or because they cannot find
a doctor willing to perform the surgeries they want. Among the countries women most frequently

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go to are Mexico, Turkey, and Colombia, which saw the highest portion of foreign patients in
2020: 28.2%, 25.8%, and 21.8%, respectively, according to a press release by the International
Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (2021).
“I, in my opinion, [I think] it’s [a doctor’s] ethical responsibility to refuse surgery and
procedures to some patients. If we really think that what they’re asking for is harmful for them.”
said Nguyen (2022).
Although cosmetic procedures overall decreased in the United States in 2020 due to
COVID-19 restrictions, more people have been seeking procedures as a consequence of the
pandemic, according to an article (Davis 2021) by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
The article states that people spend more time looking at themselves through a computer
since people are working from home and using online video calling apps like Zoom. When looking
at ourselves more often, we might start hyper analyzing our appearance and realize that our left
eyebrow might be more arched than our right one or that our skin creases a certain way when we
smile.
This becomes more difficult when the image we are seeing on our screen is not even real.
A study (Ward et al. 2018) found that the distance at which we take photographs and different
camera lenses can distort images. The results found that taking selfies at a shorter angle changed
the proportions of one’s nose compared to a portrait from a farther distance. When someone suffers
from body dysmorphia uses selfie images as a reference point it can be detrimental to their
wellbeing because they are comparing supposed deformity to an image that is not accurate.
Those with body dysmorphia might seek cosmetic procedures to correct their alleged
imperfections, however, numerous experts, including Maidenberg (2022), highly advise against
that.

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“Many people experience immediate relief if they like how they look after the procedure,”
said Maidenberg (2022). “In most cases, the attention [shifts] to another imperfection or [the
fixation] continues with the same imperfection even though there was a procedure done.”
Many cosmetic procedures are not permanent either. The effects (ASPS) of Botox usually
last three to four months, as the effects fade, patients will be required to undergo more treatments.
As our bodies fluctuate in weight and age, surgeries like breast augmentations (ASPS) and butt
enhancements (ASPS) may require additional surgeries.
“Plastic surgery, in general, can be addictive,” said Nguyen (2022). “As the eyes and our
minds adapt to the new change, we don’t see that change anymore. And so we tend to want more…
I think it’s human nature.”
Many patients get multiple procedures at once or keep coming back for more after their
initial procedure. In 2020, 77% of cosmetic non-surgical patients are repeat patients and 60% of
patients have multiple procedures at the same time, according to the American Society for Plastic
Surgeons statistics (ASPS). Getting certain cosmetic procedures can launch people in a cycle.
“Once [body dysmorphia] gets to the point it starts interfering with one's life on a social or
professional level, that's a good time to seek help,” said Maidenberg (2022). “Behavioral therapy
is very effective in helping people who have that condition and meditation can be very helpful as
well. So seeking a professional consultation is a good first step.”
Maidenberg (2022) also recommended minimizing any and all activities that seem to be
harmful. If people notice that spending time on social media is making them feel bad about
themselves or that following certain people makes them feel bad, then, decreasing screen time or
unfollowing those people can help.

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Chapter Five: Unrealistic Beauty Standards for Women

Traditional gender roles in society, girls and women have internalized emphasis on giving
importance to their physical attractiveness rather than their inner qualities and are more attuned to
conform to stereotypes and attractiveness ideals, according to Perloff (2014). Social media can
emphasize those gender roles and push more women to develop dissatisfaction with their
appearances.
Women use social media at higher rates (Pew Research Center 2021) than males, 78% of
women have at least one social media account compared to 66% of men. They also report suffering
higher amounts of depression and anxiety about their body image when using social media.
A study (Feltman and Szymanski 2017) demonstrated that women who use an image-based
social media platform like Instagram tend to compare their appearance more to other users, which
may cause higher rates of self-objectification and body surveillance.
Objectification theory provides a framework to understand what it means to be a woman
in a society that constantly sexually objectifies womens’ bodies. Objectification may take place
when a woman’s body, body parts, or sexual functions are evaluated separtely from the woman
herself, according to Feltman and Szymanski (2017). This objectification may manifest itself in
habits such as body surveillance where women regularly monitor the appearance of their bodies,
they add. Self-objectification and body surveillance have been linked to appearance anxiety and
poor mental health outcomes.
Female users also find it more important to present themselves in aesthetically pleasing
photographs on social media; the importance of looking attractive is possibly due to pressures
already placed on women to adhere to strict and unattainable standards, according to Feltman and

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Szymanski’s study (2017). Furthermore, it can be daunting for users to keep up with the idealized
version of themselves they have constructed online.
It might come at no surprise that women represent 92% of all cosmetic procedures,
according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons statistics (ASPS).
Chapter Six: Impact on Women of Color
Social media is pushing beauty standards, such as the Instagram face, that can be deemed
as problematic. Some of the features that are currently considered as attractive are features that
have historically been demonized and shamed on Black and brown women. These features are now
being praised on white women who are credited for pioneering the look and making money off of
it.
“The face is distinctly white but ambiguously ethnic…,” Tolentino (2019) wrote. “If every
American of the future were to be a direct descendent of Kim Kardashian West, Bella Hadid, Emily
Ratajkowski and Kendall Jenner.”
In 2015, the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner family, Kylie Jenner, came clean about
having temporary lip fillers after months of denying it. Since then, Jenner is praised for making
big lips a trend. Many people, especially young women, try to emulate the look by getting lip fillers
and using specific make-up techniques.
The initial craze behind’s Jenner’s new lips created a disturbing trend on social media
called the #KylieJennerChallenge (Andriakos 2015). Many young people, especially girls, tried to
recreate Jenner’s famous pout by sucking into a shot glass or bottle which would create temporary
large lips. Doctors condemned (CBS News New York 2015) the challenge calling it dangerous as
it can cause trauma to the lips, including breaking blood vessels and causing cuts.

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Her own cosmetic dermatologist, Dr. Simon Ourian, credits (Strugatz 2017) Jenner for the
uptick in lip injections. The controversy allowed Jenner to capitalize on the moment when she
launched her lips kits to consumers who wanted to replicate her look. She has now expanded to
selling more than just lip kits and created a multi-million-dollar makeup company, Kylie
Cosmetics.
People of color, especially Black folks, have been ridiculed for their natural full lips, hips,
eyes, hair and much more. Non-Black people used blackface makeup to portray caricatures of
Black folks, which contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes. The makeup usually included
exaggerated features like red lips.
Many non-Black celebrities and influencers have already been called out for blackfishing
(Karimi 2021). Public figures such as the Kardashians, Iggy Azalea, and Ariana Grande have all
been accused of aggressively tanning their skin, wearing traditional hairstyles and clothing trends
popularized by Black women.
“Instead of appreciating Black culture from the sidelines, there’s this need to own it,”
Wanna Thompson told CNN (Karimi 2021), the journalist who coined the term blackfishing. “To
participate in it without wanting the full experience of Blackness and the systemic discrimination
that comes with it.”
Escher Walcott wrote about her struggle to love her lips on Refinery29 (Walcott 2021).
Growing up as a Black woman in a predominantly white school in northern London she says she
would be bullied for her big lips. From being called a “monkey” by a bully at school to not being
able to find lipstick in her shade.

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“The adoration shown towards influencers who emulate Black women’s natural features
only serves to highlight society’s separation of Black women from our beauty,” Welcott (2021)
wrote.
Erasing Black people from beauty ideals links back to a long history of racism, she says.
Beauty standards have historically favored white European features. White skin, blonde hair, and
light-colored eyes have been deemed as more desirable.
The irony is that white women are the largest ethnicity to pursue cosmetic procedures, with
66% (ASPS) of procedures. Now that features like big lips and curvier bodies are being seen as
attractive, many white women are paying money to look like many Black and women of color and
credited for the look.
Body image among Black women is poorly understood, according to an article (Wilfred
and Lundgren 2021). Literature about body image has been exclusively around the experiences of
white individuals and by academic researchers who are overwhelmingly white, they say.
Black women report experiencing pressure to fulfill two different beauty standards: one
white and one Black, the study says Iwilfred and Lundgren 2021). W.E.B. Du Bois termed the
dilemma that Black individuals experience when negotiating white and Black culture double
consciousness. Black women reported experiencing distress between fulfilling two body ideals
that are often contradicting. Black participants preferred a curvier body shape than white
participants who preferred a thinner body shape (Wilfred and Lundgren 2021).
In the Latino/a community, influencers like Louie Castro, Jen_ny69, Alondradessy, and
Laura Mellado have all gathered a following on social media with each having over a million
followers on Instagram.

19
Every single one of these influencers have gotten cosmetic surgeries, specifically A BBL,
and all have videos on their YouTube channels talking about their experiences. Influencers like
this have an impact on trends and impressions within the Latino/a community, especially when it
comes to beauty.
There is a stereotype that all “Latinas have curves,” we see this in representation of
Latino/as in the media by Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek, Sofia Vergara. However, being Latina is
not confined to tan-olive skin tone, brown eyes, brown hair, a big butt and large breasts. Latinas
can be ethnically diverse and of various sizes.
For these Latino/a influencers to normalize cosmetic procedures and a very specific look,
it can perpetuate these stereotypes.
Chapter Seven: Keeping Social Media Companies Accountable

Angela Lee (2022) is a PhD candidate in media psychology at Stanford University and a
curriculum associate at My Digital TAT2. Lee believes that social media companies like Facebook
have a responsibility to ensure their platforms are safe for its users. Social media companies have
acquired an enormous amount of data about human behavior and should use this data ethically,
she says (Lee 2022).
“[Social media companies] created a marketplace of ideas,” said Lee (2022). “[The
companies] created [these] platforms, [they] should help operate them.”
The Facebook whistleblower called on Congress to regulate Facebook and require more
transparency from the company and its practices. She also urged lawmakers to reform Section 230
of the Communications Decency Act (Congressional Research Service 2021), which shields
internet companies from legal liability for content posted by its users.

20
She urged lawmakers to revise Section 230 for lawmakers to make Facebook responsible
for its algorithms. She believes this will eliminate how Facebook ranks higher engagement-based
content, which feeds into a cycle of harmful, inflammatory or misinformation to its users.
“Modifying Section 230 around content is very complicated because user generated content
is something that companies have less control over,” Haugen told Congress (C-SPAN 2021). “
[Facebook has] 100% control over their algorithms. And Facebook should not get a free pass on
choices it makes to prioritize growth, virality and reactiveness, over public safety.”
But we cannot wait until Congress decides to, if they decide to, make Facebook and other
social media companies accountable. With just 20% of the American (Pew Research Center 2020)
public trusting the federal government to make the right decisions, users should also learn how to
navigate social media safely in a way that does not negatively impact their mental health.
“I don't think we can wait for companies to figure out how to regulate this stuff on their
own,” said Lee (2022). “We need to teach people and everyday users and especially kids and you
know, young children, how to grow up and navigate this kind of world safely.”
My Digital TAT2 is an organization that teaches students, parents, and professionals how
to engage and build healthy habits with technology, including social media platforms. They have
a curriculum that includes helping students think critically about how to self-regulate their
technology usage and the importance of managing their presence online and leaving behind a
positive digital footprint.
Chapter Eight: Pushing Back

TikTok, formerly known as Musical.ly, has risen in popularity among Generation Z
audiences. TikTok has more than 100 million active American users today, an 800% increase from

21
Jan. 2018 (Sherman 2020). Although TikTok is not immune to promoting toxic trends and body
image issues (Weekman), for many it is an escape from Instagram’s unrealistic expectations.
Users have taken to TikTok to complain about Instagram’s pressure for perfect content.
Some women have shared their experiences growing up and being shamed for their body hair, like
I was. TikTok user Ariana Moscoso published a video of herself in a green strapless bikini showing
off the hair on her arms and stomach. Like Moscoso, there are other users who post videos
flaunting their body hair as a way to relieve the stigma and promote body positivity.
I think I would have benefited from seeing other women actively showing off their body
hair when I was younger. I would have known I was not alone. For years, I compared myself to
women in the media with smooth hair-free skin and felt ashamed for something that naturally grew
on my body and wasn’t harming me. Seeing women in the media or peers resist shaving or waxing
can allow for it to become normalized, especially since women were not always expected to be
hairless.
Women in the United States were not expected to shave their bodies until the early 1900s
(Herzig 2015). The Gillette Safety Razor Company introduced the first razor to women (Herzig
2015). The company pushed the expectation on women to shave in order to sell them products. It
pushed these ideals through advertisements that shamed and embarrassed women for having body
hair.
Representation of different body types and features in traditional media and social media
can have a positive impact on people. We should be appreciating people’s unique features instead
of pushing them into a narrow set of unrealistic and dangerous standards.

22
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Asset Metadata

Creator Orona, Ashley (author)

Core Title Picture perfect: how social media's pressure to be beautiful can exacerbate body dysmorphia in women

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism

Degree Conferral Date 2022-08

Publication Date 08/05/2022

Defense Date 08/04/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag body dysmorphia,cosmetic procedures,gender roles.,Instagram,OAI-PMH Harvest,social comparison,social media,unrealistic beauty standards

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Richardson, Allissa (committee chair), Pecot-Hébert, Lisa (committee member), Trope, Alison (committee member)

Creator Email oronaa@usc.edu,oronash@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC111376143

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