It's A Woman's World Too
#BringBackOurGirls. #MeToo. #WomenShould. #SarahEverard.
These hashtags were used to raise awareness for women’s rights, safety, and gender equality. They have been retweeted millions of times and reached millions of people at exponential speeds. Though this awareness begins online, its impact is not confined to the internet.
To be harassed, sexualized, and exploited, is the reality of a woman in today’s world. I learned that at age 14. I am walking home from the Q27 bus stop three blocks from my house. As I turn onto my street, a small car slows down and turns with me. The man driving leans over to look out the passenger side window.
He must be looking at the street sign, I hoped. Out of precaution, I slow down.
If he keeps driving at a normal speed, I won’t reveal where I live. He didn’t keep driving.
2 more blocks.
The car stops at the end of the next block. My mind panics but my legs carry me forward. As the distance between me and the red car closes, the car door opens. He steps out.
Why is he walking towards me? After a few more steps, we almost passed one another. For a second, I think maybe he won’t talk to me. I was wrong.
“Hey, you live around here?”
“Yeah.” Damn it, Fiona, you should’ve said no. But he caught me off guard, and I’m not good at lying.
“You’re beautiful. Wanna go to a hotel or something? How old are you?”
“14.”
“Oh damn. Sorry, my bad. You look older.”
“Haha… it’s okay.” Why did I laugh? It wasn’t okay.
That day, I learned strange men don’t always bother girls under 18. I have always wondered what would have happened had I been 18 and did not lie about my age. Would he have been more aggressive? If I said no, would he have forced me to go with him anyway? He went through the trouble of stopping and getting out of his car just to talk to me. Who knows how far he would have gone? Fortunately, I will never have to find out.
In January 2012, the Susan G. Komen Foundation announced they would cut their annual funding to Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides women’s reproductive health services. In just a few days, #standwithPP was retweeted hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter. By the end of the week, Komen reinstated their funding.
On March 03, 2021, Sarah Everard was kidnapped and killed by a policeman as she walked home, the very person who took an oath to protect citizens like her. Her body was found seven days later. As the circumstances of her death spread on social media, #SarahEverard and #SheWasWalkingHome began to trend. That following Saturday night, “thousands attended her vigil in London” to pay her respect and to protest violence against women. Peaceful attendees were met with excessive force from the police. Officials later justified the police’s behavior by deeming the gathering illegal as a violation of COVID-19 restrictions.
These two events highlighted the pivotal role of the internet in fourth-wave feminism, in which, citizens from around the world rallied together and utilized social media to support women’s rights. Social media gives women the space to tell their stories and empower one another. Tangible impacts of hashtag activism include reinstating funding for important causes, organizing protests, passing legal reforms, and having honest, vulnerable conversations behind closed doors. Yet, despite this championing of women’s rights and safety, women remain unsafe on the internet.
The main features of social media platforms include: posting an image or video with a caption, responding to people’s posts through likes and comments, and receiving instant notifications for new interactions. This system displays likes and comments as trophies, where the winner is the profile with the most engagement. The power that likes on social media holds in this system instills a false sense of validation, inactive users According to Northwestern Medicine, “receiving likes on social media sets off a dopamine rush, the same neurotransmitter that is released when eating chocolate or winning the lottery,” This reaction, however, does not align with reality. The person who liked the post probably spent no more than a few seconds viewing it, and they may have even been victim to a “liker’s trance”—mindlessly scrolling and double-tapping.
The dissonance between reality and one’s own emotions is more likely to occur in women. Though the gender makeup of social media is leveling out, women on average will receive five times more likes than men on Instagram. One theory explaining this statistic is that women value likes more than men; thus, they will take additional measures to ensure greater engagement. However, regardless of why this disparity exists, these numbers indicate that women are more likely to be mentally and emotionally affected as their engagement rates fluctuate. Additionally, Northwestern Medicine claims, “certain types of social media use are associated with anxiety, depression, disordered eating, and low self-esteem.” An example of unhealthy social media use is the deleting then re-uploading of posts. Typically, people delete and re-upload when they believe a post of theirs did not receive sufficient levels of engagement, hoping to receive more likes and comments the second time around. This behavior highlights both the value of likes and the association of one’s worth with their online status. Social media perpetuates a toxic cycle where women internalize likes as a form of approval, continuously desiring more of them — which can imperil their mental and emotional health.
Additionally, the human tendency of comparing oneself to others has been magnified on the internet. Individuals used to only compare themselves to the few hundreds within their communities, schools, and workplaces. Now, one lines themselves up against millions of other people, cultivating impossible standards. Gone are the days of low-resolution photos taken straight from the Instagram app. Today, photos that make it to Instagram have gone through multiple stages of editing and rigorous debate amongst friends. This trend indicates people nowadays compare themselves to picture-perfect lives that are not representative of reality. When they cannot live up to this artificial lifestyle and supposed happiness, they enter a cycle of low self-esteem and depressive thoughts.
Essena O’Neill was a teen influencer who recognized this toxic system and ultimately deleted 2,000 posts from Instagram. She later left social media, calling it “contrived perfection made to get attention.” She then began a project in recaptioning remaining posts with the real backstory of each shot. In one example, O’Neill took pictures in a gorgeous white dress by a body of water during her school formal. The updated caption reads, “NOT REAL LIFE - I didn’t pay for the dress, took countless photos trying to look hot for Instagram, and the formal made me feel incredibly alone.” Without this new insight, one may look at this seemingly effortless snapshot and envy her. Many other influencers have since followed suit. Through O’Neill’s honesty and vulnerability, it is clear that reality is neither as glamorous nor as happy as it is portrayed on social media.
As social media platforms lower their users’ self-esteem, they simultaneously market products to remedy users’ new insecurities. As a result, social media is becoming a marketing and shopping platform. According to BusinessofApps, “55% of all marketers intend to advertise their goods and services on Instagram in 2021.” Since women in the U.S. hold more than “60% of all personal wealth,” they are undoubtedly the primary targets of these ads. Additionally, studies show that “84% of sponsored Instagram posts are from women female influencers.” What better way to profit off of women than by first instilling insecurities, and then enticing them to purchase products that promise to fix their newfound problems.
Lowering self-esteem and marketing products go hand-in-hand on social media but are rarely viewed in conjunction with one another. Studies show “86% of women shoppers say they are more likely to buy a brand they’ve never purchased when they begin to interact with that brand on social media.” Hence, companies have every motive to shift the purpose of these platforms for their monetary gain. Furthermore, it is important to consider the role of social media in this exchange since, on these apps, the user is the commodity. These platforms get paid to distribute advertisements to their users. In turn, the amount of money earned correlates to the time users spend on their apps and the number of advertisements they can churn out. Algorithms online are more focused on getting women to spend money than on women’s wellbeing. This subtle exploitation is a result of a capitalistic mindset which views women solely for their purchasing power, not their humanity.
Another perspective to consider is what, or rather who, influences which images are better than others. In Chandra Feltman’s dissertation, she explores the effect of the male gaze on social media. Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze claims women in media are portrayed from a male’s perspective, specifically, as a way to maximize pleasure for the heterosexual male. Despite high awareness of the male gaze theory, it continues to persist in the media today. Sofia Coppola’s 2003 film, “Lost in Translation,” begins by panning the female protagonist's rear end. The production of such a scene from a female director demonstrates the normalization and influence of the male gaze. Additionally, only 16% of cinematographers in 2020 were women. As women consume media made by men and for men, they subconsciously internalize these unrealistic expectations as the standards of beauty. Inevitably, this internalization is repackaged and spewed back onto social media. This subtle cycle of objectifying women seeps from the media we consume, and into the media we produce.
Dating platforms are another corner of the internet in which women are unsafe. The fundamental structures of social media and dating apps take advantage of women and do little to curb the harassment they face. Despite the physical safety afforded behind the screen, there are few safeguards against online harassment. A 2019 survey found “57% of women between ages 18-34 have received an unsolicited “sexually explicit message or image” through dating apps.” Younger women are more often the target of sexualized forms of harassment. “By the age of 17, a third of girls will have “received [unsolicited] sexually explicit images,” the survey adds. Before these girls can legally drink or vote, they will have been subject to online sexual harassment.
It may not be surprising, then, that “American women… only make up 27% of U.S. dating app users.” This gap exists across all dating apps, even on Bumble, a female-centered platform with a base of more than 80% males (in the U.K.). Bumble’s founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, began her career co-founding Tinder. After leaving in 2014, she filed a lawsuit against Tinder for sexual harassment. She and another Tinder executive were dating at the time. This experience led to the creation of Bumble. Bumble only allows women to initiate the conversation, which heavily guards against unwanted images and puts women in control. According to MarketWatch, Herd also urged for legislation to criminalize online sexual harassment saying, “You look at government right now, it only protects the physical world. But our youth are spending a lot more time in the digital world than they are in the physical.” As lives transition onto the web, one must be aware of the dangers in these spaces, especially for women.
I never told my parents about that incident with the strange man in the car. If I had known they would never feel at ease watching me walk out the front door. Frankly, I worried enough for all of us anyway. My experience in the physical world is a result of a society that has allowed women to feel uncomfortable and unsafe. This same society now dwells online.
It is naive to believe that the internet is a safe space for women merely because of the activism cultivated and the promise of physical security behind the screen. Within a few scrolls, one may find women praised and empowered, but also torn down, and attacked. If you are a woman, these stories and statistics may sound all too familiar to you. They may even hit a little too close to home. With all my heart, I hope there comes a day when we can call this world ours too and experience it without fear. If you are a man, know that your mother, sister, significant other, or daughter have or will one day experience this grim reality.
Is this the future you want?
By Fiona Shi
Illustrations were done in collaboration with the New Media Artspace at Baruch College. The New Media Artspace is a teaching exhibition space in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Baruch College, CUNY. Housed in the Newman Library, the New Media Artspace showcases curated experimental media and interdisciplinary artworks by international artists, students, alumni, and faculty. Special thanks to docent Maya Hilbert for creating artwork for this piece.
Check the New Media Artspace out at http://www.newmediartspace.info/