Beauty Standards and Digital Platforms
This social media platform is known for its viral beauty trends and "aesthetic challenges."
What is TikTok?
This fast fashion retailer is infamous for promoting micro-trends on social media.
What is Shein?
This term describes the strategy of brands marketing products using ideals of empowerment and independence.
What is femvertising?
This age group is the primary target of beauty brands on Instagram and TikTok.
What are teenagers or Gen Z?
This online movement encourages authenticity over perfection in social media posts.
What is the #NoFilter movement?
The practice of editing photos to enhance physical appearance before posting on social media.
What is photo retouching or filtering?
Social media influencers are often paid to promote these brief and fleeting fashion trends.
What are micro-trends?
A campaign by Dove focused on redefining beauty standards and embracing natural beauty.
What is the "Real Beauty" campaign?
The rise of hyper-consumerism on digital platforms has contributed to this mental health issue in young women.
What is body image dysmorphia?
Advocates suggest teaching this subject in schools to help young women critically assess social media content.
What is media literacy?
This term describes the societal expectation for women to meet unattainable beauty ideals influenced by digital platforms.
What is the beauty standard?
This term refers to companies producing cheap, mass-market fashion that relies heavily on digital marketing.
What is fast fashion?
This marketing approach uses aesthetic femininity to sell products unrelated to beauty, such as food or tech.
What is pinkwashing or gendered branding?
This term refers to the pressure young women feel to always look perfect online.
What is "curation fatigue"?
Critics argue that brands focusing on individual empowerment often ignore these larger societal issues.
What are systemic inequality or structural oppression?
Social media's algorithm often promotes this type of content, reinforcing specific beauty trends and idealized femininity.
What is algorithmic bias?
This is the term for when influencers are given free products to showcase on their platforms, driving consumer demand.
What is product seeding or PR gifting?
This is the phenomenon where brands align with feminist messaging to increase sales while failing to address systemic issues.
What is commodified feminism?
This psychological term describes the anxiety caused by the fear of missing out, exacerbated by social media.
What is FOMO?
This term describes the responsibility of platforms to regulate harmful content and misleading advertising.
What is platform accountability?
This term refers to the harmful psychological impact of comparing oneself to curated images on social media.
What is comparison culture or social media dysmorphia?
The concept that women are both the consumers and the product on digital platforms, as their engagement is sold to advertisers.
What is prosumerism?
The term for marketing strategies that use gender stereotypes to increase emotional appeal and purchase likelihood.
What is gendered marketing?
Digital platforms reinforce this belief that self-worth is tied to physical appearance and material possessions.
What is appearance-based self-esteem?
This feminist critique highlights how hyper-consumerism commodifies femininity and undermines genuine empowerment.
What is neoliberal feminism?