Body-Positivity and tumblr.

                Blogging has established itself as a unique method in which people can independently voice their own opinions, and spread their ideals to the largest audience possible. The blogging platform Tumblr has provided an easy way for users to create their own blogs, as well as to follow blogs that appeal to their interests. While many users use this service to look at funny pictures, and read interesting news, there is a large portion of the website’s population that is interested in the Third Wave Feminism movement. Tumblr has become a modern platform to spread awareness of issues facing women in the present. Along with these issues, there is a focus on female portrayal in media. Specifically, the physical expectations for women to conform to. Through these blogs, there is an attempt to raise questions to the expectations of female appearances, and create a counter-culture of body positivity. However, due to the vast population of users on the website, not all people agree with the attacks on modern beauty myths.

                Tumblr has almost become synonymous with the concept of feminism, to the point that it is parodied. While some users take their political beliefs to unrealistic extremes, the website still works as a platform for spreading information and ideas. It has made it much easier to directly put an advertisement, or a screen grab from a piece of visual media, and immediately add personal commentary. A common criticism is that the media, whether it be a movie, or more commonly, an advertisement, is that it creates an unrealistic expectation for women. Doctored pictures of celebrities paired alongside the original photographs show how the media works to create this unrealistic representation. The posts are then reposted to thousands of blogs, increasing the amount of people that will see them, exponentially. The website then becomes a real-time representation of the public’s feeling regarding these beauty myths.

However, these stereotypes of feminine beauty have been around for hundreds of years, as Naomi Wolf pointed out in her book The Beauty Myth. In her book, she states that “Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West it is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact” (12). In this passage, she refers to the constructed myth of beauty as being created by those that perceive it, and due to its widespread nature, it enforces male dominance. As these strict notions of feminine beauty are continually advertised to young women, they begin to believe it fully. The ways in which feminine and masculine beauty standards are portrayed in the media are grossly uneven. The focus on feminine beauty as being simply physical further emphasizes male dominance, in that respect. This fact is where tumblr takes a stand. They refute the standards of feminine beauty, claiming it to be a remnant of patriarchal society. The concept of beauty as being confined to the models that are pasted in magazines no longer has a hold on these bloggers. Hundreds of blogs, which function as independent websites, have been created in order to spread the idea of female body-positivity. This counter-cultural movement stresses that beauty isn’t confined to a Hollywood check-list, but instead comes from positivity. These blogs offer an alternative view to the women that feel overwhelmed by the beauty ideals they have been fed their entire lives. Instead, they are taught to love the way that they look, and reject the idea that they must conform to those ideals to be beautiful. Unfortunately, there are others who do not believe this, and instead, continue to force the ideals of feminine beauty, but in a more extreme way.

Pro-ana blogs, ana being an abbreviation for anorexia nervosa, are blogs that promote eating disorders as a way to conform to feminine beauty standards.  These blogs idealize the idea of not eating, and starving oneself, and almost glorify it. With artistic shots of women with concave stomachs and bulging hipbones, they create an ideal beauty based around unhealthy activity. Luckily these blogs are generally thought of as harmful, and are condemned by most tumblr users. Though, this does not exclude them from the general tumblr movement. Those who fit into the ideal are not excluded, but instead are treated as equal. There is no disdain for those who strive to look like the models in advertisements, only for those who believe that it increases their worth as a human being. The movement to disregard personal appearance when evaluating the worth of a person, and framing all appearances as equal, creates an opposite culture than that which is enforced through the media.

The concept of body-positivity is by no means new, but it adds an interesting twist onto the way in which people perceive beauty myths. The primary focus of this particular culture is to spread the idea that it’s okay to look like the models in the advertisement, but it’s also okay to look like yourself. The promotion of this idea aims to reduce the amount of young women which undergo drastic changes to their lives, in order to change their appearance. With the number of young women, as well as men, who suffer from eating disorders, the concept of body-positivity can help promote healthier lifestyles, and hopefully change the way in which the public perceives objective beauty.