Sexualization and Social Media: Examining the Reproduction of the Sexualized Feminine Ideal and the Regulation of Girls' and Women's Behavior

     The Internet, smartphones, and social media have saturated virtually every aspect of the lives of children and teens, and the true extent of the impact that this has on socialization and the development of identity is... [ view full abstract ]

     The Internet, smartphones, and social media have saturated virtually every aspect of the lives of children and teens, and the true extent of the impact that this has on socialization and the development of identity is not yet known, given the constantly-changing landscape of modern technology. Further, the phenomenon of self-objectification is exacerbated by social media, which has created a virtual space in which girls and women are nearly constantly sexually objectified or evaluated based on their appearance. This creates a culture in which girls are hyper-aware of their peers’ capacity to survey, evaluate, and consume their images. For teen girls in particular, who now rely on social media as their primary mode of social interaction, the effects of this space need to be interrogated. This paper argues that through the mediating effects of sexualization and self-objectification, social media functions to influence and police women’s behavior by reproducing on a massive scale normative, idealized standards of beauty, behavior, and femininity to which girls and women feel pressure to conform. Moreover, social media has created an environment that encourages the hypersexualization of girls and women in pursuit of this ideal. The mechanisms through which social media perpetuates these standards will be explored in order to demonstrate the disciplinary capacities of social media over women’s bodies and behavior.