Insta-Body Love? | Is Body Hate Being Banned On Social Media?

Progress is always an awesome thing to see! When I  recently read this article about a recent ban from Instagram I must admit that I felt excited about the possibility of change.  According to the article by Cleo.com, the social network Instagram has taken a firm stand against a long list of hash tags that are used to encourage “thinspiration”.  Thinspiration is a social movement that has been encouraging people, mainly women, to go to unhealthy lengths in order to be unreasonably thin.  Quite often, you will find pictures of deathly thin, or very unhealthy people accompanied by words of “thinspiration”.  The National Eating Disorders Association  (NEDA) gives this information about the issue:

“Pro-ana, pro-mia and thinspo are short for pro-anorexia, pro-bulimia, and thinspiration, respectively. These terms refer to web content that intentionally encourages or glorifies dangerous behaviors characteristic of those who struggle with the eating disorders Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa, which can be life-threatening.”

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NEDA started  a movement to demand “Responsible Media Coverage” of eating disorders and health related issues.  As a result of that, the major social networks, such as Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr for their policies.  Thanks to the action of NEDA and other organizations, Instagram has responded responsibly with new policies that forbid the promotion of eating disorders through photos and hash tags.  Instagram now removes the photos, and will frequently replace them with healthy NEDA information.

I think this is AWESOME! Although it is not the solution to all problems, I do believe it is a step in the right direction.  Social media is such a powerful tool used to influence girls and women alike when it comes to body image.  What we see  in social media constantly influences how we feel about ourselves.  If we can curb some of these detrimental images, and replace them with more self affirming images, we may be able to move more people towards authentic body love.  Organizations like See Body. Love Self. are here to support the facilitation of healthy body image messages on social media.  You can always look for the #SeeBodyLoveSelf hashtag on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr to see our body love messages in action!  So, what do you think?

I’d love to hear your opinions on this topic, please share your comments below or chat it up with us on social media!

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