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[Week 3: Feminism on Tumblr? r/laughable]

Does the #bodypositivity trend still active? Or does society has deemed it toxic and no longer elaborate? Let's find out.

Throughout the history of online social media, one of the significant trend rises for women is the #bodypositivity trend, with the intention of promoting self-love, authenticity and confidence in expressing themselves in any type of body, races, nationalities,... unregards to the traditional "beauty standard" of how a female's body should be.

Started at the late 2010s (Tonic, 2019), the trend attracted countless of teens, women, female, LGBTQ+ to participate, displaying their selves without fear of judgement.

Tumblr, naturally with its guidelines and platform vernacular, quickly became a place for this trend to thrive! (McKelle, 2015).

But of course, challenges appeared

As shown in the experimental article:

“Love the Skin You‘re In” (Reif et al., 2022)

The characteristics of this trend include females uploading their selfies on the social platforms, more often with revealing lots of skins and body parts that considered 'unfit' for the beauty standard in that time, and hoped for appreciations, fame and so on (Reif et al., 2022).

These characteristics were later marked as NSFW content and was taken down by Tumblr due to the platforms guidelines and rules adjustment in 2018. This change of Tumblr severely affect the trend, and many users no longer view Tumblr as a "safe place" to be active, thus lead to many frustration and disappointment from the users' side (Ashley, 2018)

The Downside of #bodypositivity

Apart from being challenged by social media platforms' rules and guidelines about which content can be post and view, many of the female's pictures posted with the hashtag #bodypositivity are still visibly trying as best as they can to fit the "beauty standard" by multiple edits and posing before uploading, inevitably ignored the original purpose of the trend, turning the trend into a "race for popularity" and "appeal to the male's gaze", as shown in the experimental article above.

Moreover, many female users have been "slut-shame" and "ridiculed" by the male community, further discourage new users to participate in the trend as well as the old users, contemplating whether or not they should continue to speak up.

What Happened After?

With all that fuss building up, people have started to mock the trend, specifically the users and Tumblr, and preferred the participants as "Tumblr Feminists" and completely mixed up and doxing people into believing that "Feminism" is corrupted while having little to none knowledge of what the word actually means (Keller, 2021).

"Oh, you're a Feminist? People like you are the cause of equal gender rights!"

Moreover, on the commercial side, many unethical organizations took advantage of this trend and its drama to advertise "Unlicensed Supplements" that helped to achieved a "Dream Body", and bribing celebrities and influencers to promote these product disregarding the harm it actually does to our Bodies, all about the money!

"If this celebrity use this, then I shall too cause' they're my idol and I'll do anything my idol said"

It quickly became a social threat, for the effects of these drugs do to the body are very harmful and many ignorant users have suffered (FDA, 2024). People then associate this public threat as a byproduct of the #bodypositivity trend and the celebrities within it, thus viewed it as "Toxic" and "Inappropriate" and must be shut down (Swami, 2022).

So, Did The Trend Die Out Completely?

Surprisingly, no.

Throughout the decade, people have started to have online precautions (yay), and suitable regulations have been implemented in an effort to allow people to do anything they want within the range of acceptability and safety, thus steering the trend to a more positive and mindful path!

Then, How Can You Effectively Join The Trend?

Be mindful and respectful towards any content, or specifically any body type, when surfing the internet, only participate in an online argument when you have gathered all the insights from every side of the story.

Related to the #bodypositivity trend directly, one of the ways to help you to feel confidence and appreciate your body more is to listen to music! Especially the self-love, self-appreciation songs, since base on research, music affects human's mental greatly, and positive influence can be achieved easily with the right song~ (Coyne et al., 2020)

Also, join hands to create a friendly community and a safe place for this trend to resurface again is also a great idea that require minimal efforts!

In Conclusion, This Is What You Should Do:

Have some basic mindset when using social media

Be respectful to everyone and mindful of anything

Create a safe and appropriate online environment

Be your most authentic self

Thank you for reading this, have a nice day~