#digitised dysmorphia

[fiftypercentpassrate]

Instagram Filters, Snapchat Filters, You name it they got it

Filters. Filter. Filters.

This new and non-psychical form of modification was first introduced to Instagram when posting a picture or video, you could change the hue or contrast of the image or video chosen to post. But now a days filtering has changed dramatically, such as peoples skin tone, changing body shapes such as how wide their hips are, their breast size, digital nose jobs, altering their face to “fit in” with influencers and social media lights.

Isabelle Coy-Dibley has outlined and identified a new form of body dysmorphia, known as “Digitised Dysmorphia” (2016). Coy-Dibley defines this digital disease as “created through the use of digital modification apps”. The study goes on to study its impact on the problematic relationship many women have with their body images, and how digitized dysmorphia has/is occurred within Western Society, particularly among young women in such a digital age.

Jessica Barker’s study “Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of Snapchat” goes on to further explain the implications and downsides to filters. Filters follow trends and reinforce beauty ideals related to those circulated by the cosmetics industry. Filters are the digital ages make-up. “For women who attribute filter use to a desire to appear made-up, delight is often tempered with complex feelings towards their natural beauty. And not all lipstick-and-lashes filters are well-received; the inclusion of makeup in certain filters has been considered inappropriate, and users articulate frustrations about seeing their skin whitened”.

While it all used to be fun to put a filter on to look silly or muck around, the new “natural” filters or modifications really harm women’s perspective and self esteem as they believe they are expected to look a certain way, whiter, prettier, skinner. Better.

This is not healthy and frankly one of the biggest causes of body dysmorphia and insecurity with one’s image.

Coy-Dibley, I. (July, 2016). “Digitised Dysmorphia” of the Female Body: The Re/Disfigurement of the Image, Palgrave Communications. 2:16040 doi: 10.1057/palcomms.2016.40

Barker, Jessica. (2020). 'Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of Snapchat', Fashion, Style & Popular Culture. 7. 207-221. 10.1386/fspc_00015_1.

Rettberg J.W. (2014) 'Filtered Reality', In: Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137476661_2

[rowenawilliamsdigitalcommunities]

Week 7 - Filters

In 2015 Snapchat released a feature on their app that would influence social media visuals for the foreseeable future. Filters, more specifically face filters, allowed for users to superimpose/change their face into fun and interesting visuals. 

Other social media platforms followed suit, such as Instagram, and a large majority of social media users were using the filters as funny imagery to share with friends. In Tiffany Ferg’s Youtube video Filters Ruin Our Self-Perception (Snapchat Dysmorphia), at the three minute mark she discusses the shift from fun use to aesthetic use. Labelling them ‘Beauty Filters’, Tiffany discusses the reliance that users started to have on these filters to enjoy the way they looked. 

The popularity of these filters led to the creation of apps specifically designed to “perfect” photos of yourself, apps such as Facetune achieved this. These apps and reliance on them caused issues such as “Digitised Dysmorphia” as coined by Isabelle Coy-Dibley. “I suggest that digitized dysmorphia exists on a spectrum with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), but as a socially conditioned dysmorphia, shaped collectively by societal pressures, constructs of beauty and the technology presently available to attain these standards in image form.” (Coy-Dibley, I. 2016). Without the filter, major body image issues have sky-rocketed to become serious mental health issues. 

Not only have these filters caused generalised body image issues among many people, these “beauty filters” have showcased a different issue that Tiffany discusses at minute eleven in her video. These filters have been set to showcase westernised beauty standards to the extreme. Whitened skin, wide eyes, rosy cheeks, all of these have been programmed into these filters and have caused major body image issues for People of Colour who do not fit these standards in everyday life. Although these filters started as fun colourful images, changed and showcased issues within the Western world and how we view ourselves. 

References:

- Ferg, T. 2019. Filters Ruin Our Self-Perception (Snapchat Dysmorphia). Link posted above. 

- Coy-Dibley, I. 2016. “Digitized Dysmorphia” of the female body: the re/disfigurement of the image. Palgrave Communications

[dorsa-b]

The detrimental impact of filters and photoshop on causing the standard of beauty to be so unattainable!

"...Not only do we critique our bodies in mirrors, but now we can digitise our dysmorphia by virtually modifying what we dislike..." (Dibley I, 2016) referring to filters created on social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat contain filters which can completely deform facial proportions to unattainable standards however there are other apps such as photoshop, face-tune including many other photo editing apps which allows the user to modify their proportions.

The idealised standard of beauty is accessible anywhere including the general media such as the fashion industry the front cover of magazines or high-profile editorials have models go on major diets, workout and follow a strict program however it is clearly not enough since the photographs taken are still analysed, dissected and heavily edited to the extent where at times the models seem almost unrecognisable causing people to complain and question their own natural beauty and consider using those enhancing filters, or editing apps for their own photos, example is Khloe Kardashian's unedited photo being posted without her permission the public had been shocked however positively since it was a candid image she had received a lot of positive feedback regarding her natural beauty however some left hate since they realised how manipulative her posts convey her compared to real life her vulnerability was at such a level that she posted a few paragraphs explaining herself and the unattainable beauty standard which she is also a part of by continuously manipulating her followers with her posts. This video is a great representation of the unattainable standard of beauty and what is shown to the public from the beauty industries constantly altering the vision of what is beautiful but what is hidden is the filters and photoshop used before the public see the image and the effect it has on this girl who experiences body dysmorphia from constantly being surrounded by all the posts, media and commercials. 

Influencers using filters that completely alter their face or body to an unattainable standard of beauty and constantly for each single post behind the scene: editing, filtering and perfecting all their natural flaws, the end result of all that work done on the image is portrayed for their followers on social media manipulating their followers to desire in order to replicate what that influencer does in order to look like them also is a successful benefit for businesses in the beauty industry like businesses producing shapewear, cosmetic surgeons, commercials hair, makeup, body image, and fashion which in the influencers posts they are sponsored by these industries to sell their image to promote the brands product and encourage their followers to purchase in order to look like them. for example, the Kardashians, even though they were naturally curvy however they have had numerous works done to create a heavily hourglass figure extenuating further and masking that work done by advertising waist trainers, shape wear even though these products are made for those who want to alter their shape the result will not replicate the filtered posts and the surgical work done on The Kardashians behind the scenes.

(Adkins A, 2018)

Reference List:

Papaleo J, the medium.com, Beauty is in the hands of the plastic surgeon, 28.03.2018 cited 23.04.2021,

<https://medium.com/fhsaplang/beauty-is-in-the-hands-of-the-plastic-surgeon-b7fd2e03cf5a>.

Le E, Image; Snapchat Dysmorphia, Exo, 10,08,2018, cited 23.04.2021, accessed at.

<https://www.exoplatform.com/blog/2018/08/10/snapchat-dysmorphia-when-snapchat-filters-encourage-cosmetic-surgery/>.

Two images; Adkins A, The Lexington line, how social media contributes to body dysmorphic behaviours 9.05.2018 cited 23.04.2021.

https://www.thelexingtonline.com/blog/2018/5/7/how-social-media-contributes-to-body-dysmorphic-behaviors

Donia Art Therapy; Cartoon Movie- plastic surgery, 17.03.2019, cited 22.04.2020,

<https://youtu.be/0uu3RAz9GWs>.

Coy-Dibley, I. (July 2016). “Digitised Dysmorphia” of the Female Body: The Re/Disfigurement of the Image