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Body Image
Volume 14, June 2015, Pages 54-61
Bones, body parts, and
sex appeal: An analysis
of #thinspiration
images on popular
social media
Jannath Ghaznavi , Laramie D. Taylor
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.03.006
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Highlights
• We examined thinspiration images,
intended to inspire weight loss, on
social media.
• Images tended to be sexually
suggestive, with thin, bony, scantily-
clad women.
• Twitter images were characterized
by more segmented, bony content.
• Sexually suggestive images tended
to have greater social endorsement.
• Results support the self-
objectification phenomenon and
social cognitive theory.
Abstract
The present study extends research on
thinspiration images, visual and/or textual
images intended to inspire weight loss, from
pro-eating disorder websites to popular photo-
sharing social media websites. The article
reports on a systematic content analysis of
thinspiration images (N = 300) on Twitter and
Pinterest. Images tended to be sexually
suggestive and objectifying with a focus on
ultra-thin, bony, scantily-clad women. Results
indicated that particular social media channels
and labels (i.e., tags) were characterized by more
segmented, bony content and greater social
endorsement compared to others. In light of
theories of media influence, results offer insight
into the potentially harmful effects of exposure
to sexually suggestive and objectifying content
in large online communities on body image,
quality of life, and mental health.
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Introduction
The proliferation of thin-ideal imagery referred
to as thinspiration across social media websites
like Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter has received
significant media attention in recent years
(Bahadur, 2013, Columbia Broadcasting System
New York, 2012, Public Broadcasting Service,
2014, Spiegel, 2013). Thinspiration is thin-ideal
media content (i.e., images and/or prose) that
intentionally promotes weight loss, often in a
manner that encourages or glorifies dangerous
behaviors characteristic of eating disorders
(Lewis and Arbuthnott, 2012, National Eating
Disorders Association, 2013). Such content is
frequently accompanied by explicit
encouragement or advice on losing weight and
staying thin (Lapinski, 2009). The link between
exposure to thin-ideal media content and body-
related self-discrepancies, body dissatisfaction,
and eating disorder symptomatology,
particularly for young women consuming
Western media, has been demonstrated in
numerous studies across a variety of
methodologies including experiments (for a
meta-analysis, see Groesz, Levine, & Murnen,
2002; e.g., Homan, McHugh, Wells, Watson, &
King, 2012) and longitudinal and cross-sectional
surveys (e.g., Bell & Dittmar, 2011; for a meta-
analysis, see Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008).
Although content specifically labeled as
thinspiration has traditionally been found on
pro-eating disorder (pro-ED) websites that
encourage or advocate disordered eating for
weight loss and image management (Lapinski,
2009), it is now widely shared and endorsed on
popular social media websites (Columbia
Broadcasting System New York, 2012).
Social media websites are online communities
and social networks in which people can
interact with one another and create, share, and
exchange information and ideas (Kietzmann,
Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011). These
websites are characterized by interactive
features that differ from earlier forms of media
and have been found to hold different
psychological outcomes for users in terms of
body image concerns (e.g., Fardouly and
Vartanian, 2015, Teodoro and Chang, 2014,
Tiggemann and Slater, 2013; for a review, see
Perloff, 2014). Given the harmful effects
associated with thin-ideal media content (Grabe
et al., 2008, Groesz et al., 2002), the ease of
access to such images on social media (Columbia
Broadcasting System New York, 2012), the
degree to which these websites facilitate
interaction with a community of like-minded
users (Amichai-Hamburger, 2007), and the
increasing and widespread use of these channels
by a younger, vulnerable audience of preteens
and teens (Bahadur, 2013, Duggan and Brenner,
2013), further research into the nature of
potentially problematic content on social media
websites is warranted. In this study, prior
research into thinspiration content was
expanded upon by documenting patterns of
representation across thin-ideal imagery posted
on popular social media. Specifically, the extent
to which figures in thinspiration images are
objectified, sexualized, and endorsed by other
users, and the nature of the other labels or tags
(i.e., terms used to label the image and organize
it under various categories) connected with
these images were examined within the context
of social media.
Previous studies examining thinspiration
content in the context of explicitly pro-ED
websites focused on user network
characteristics, terms associated with such
content, textual themes, and types of figures
depicted within images like celebrities and
models (e.g., Borzekowski et al., 2010, Lapinski,
2009, Lewis and Arbuthnott, 2012, Yom-Tov et
al., 2012). A majority of pro-ED websites contain
media images overtly labeled as thinspiration
that feature photos of thin models, celebrities,
real people and/or athletes (e.g., Borzekowski et
al., 2010, Lapinski, 2009, Norris et al., 2006).
These images are often accompanied by poetry,
song lyrics, or quotations encouraging
disordered eating behaviors (Lapinski, 2009,
Norris et al., 2006). An analysis into the photo-
sharing behavior of pro-anorexia and pro-
recovery (i.e., recovery from an eating disorder)
communities on Yahoo's photo-sharing site Flickr
revealed that the term thinspiration was among
the tags (i.e., labels used to mark and categorize
images) with the highest probability of usage by
pro-anorexia users (Yom-Tov et al., 2012).
Further research has indicated that terms
thinspo and thinspiration tended to be associated
with the most harmful content, including,
graphic images of emaciated models and active
encouragement of pro-ED behavior through tips
and tricks (Lewis & Arbuthnott, 2012).
Although this research offers insight into where
thinspiration content can be found, what it
generally consists of, and the terms associated
with this material, researchers have generally
not attended to the physical characteristics of
the figures within the images across various
types of websites. As young adults, teenagers,
and women have come to rely increasingly on
the Internet and social media (Bair et al., 2012,
Lenhart et al., 2010), researchers have focused
increasingly on the relationship between social
media use and body image concerns (e.g.,
Chrisler et al., 2013, Fardouly and Vartanian,
2015, Tiggemann and Slater, 2013).
Several theories of media influence suggest that
thinspiration images on social media may
negatively influence the attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors of individuals who view them. These
theories also suggest that the likelihood of such
effects depends on exposure, and the nature of
the effects depends on the particular character
of the content. Both objectification and social
cognitive theory offer insight into how exposure
to and interaction with these images,
particularly in a social context such as social
media, may result in negative outcomes for
viewers.
Objectification refers to the conceptualization of
an individual as an object, generally for the use
and pleasure of others (Fredrickson & Roberts,
1997). When individuals, principally girls and
women, are socialized to internalize an
observer's perspective as a primary view of their
physical selves, they tend to think of themselves
in this way, as objects to be looked at; this
phenomenon is known as self-objectification
(Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). This self-
objectification occurs, in part, when women
view objectifying images or video of other
women (Aubrey, 2006). Objectifying images
include those that feature a woman in a manner
that reduces her to an instrument of other's
pleasure or use, such as those that isolate,
emphasize, or evaluate specific body parts,
particularly with regard to sexual appeal and
appearance (Bartky, 1990, Fredrickson and
Roberts, 1997).
Self-objectification is associated with a range of
negative outcomes. Girls and women who
experience self-objectification adopt a third-
person perspective in evaluating themselves,
leading to preoccupation with self-monitoring
and negative self-evaluations (Curry & Choate,
2010). Exposure to objectified images portraying
the thin ideal has been shown to increase self-
objectification, weight-related appearance
anxiety, body dissatisfaction, and disordered
eating (Harper and Tiggemann, 2008, Morry and
Staska, 2001, Murnen et al., 2003). Additional
mental health risks associated with self-
objectification include depression, body shame,
appearance anxiety and sexual dysfunction
(Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).
The risks associated with exposure to
thinspiration content, in particular, may be, if
anything, even more pronounced. Thinspiration
content serves the express purpose of
motivating conformity to a thin appearance
ideal. The images are created, posted, shared,
and often sought out with the goal of promoting
thinness. Their purpose is to motivate and guide
self-scrutiny based on appearance. The manner
in which they do so is likely to shape, at least in
part, the degree to which they induce self-
objectification. Inasmuch as they overtly call
attention to appearance evaluation, isolate
specific body parts, and depict or describe the
body as something to be seen or used, they are
likely to hold the potential for relatively greater
harm. The first research question, then, explores
the nature of the visual characteristics of
thinspiration content as well as accompanying
text that may suggest or guide the meaning
likely to be derived from that content.
RQ1: What are the characteristics of
thinspiration content on social media?
Within many social media sites that facilitate
photo sharing (e.g., Pinterest, Twitter), users
have the option to label images with multiple
tags (e.g., #proana, #fitspo) that allow images to
be classified and more readily searched.
Multiple tags allow the image to appear in
multiple search results (e.g., a search for
“fitness” images would lead to thinspiration
content also tagged with the word “fitness”).
Understanding what tags tend to co-occur with
thinspiration-related tags can offer insight into
likely patterns of exposure to this content
(Bahadur, 2013). Given the potential for wide
exposure, the second research question explores
how images are categorized through the use of
tags.
RQ2: What additional tags are used to categorize
thinspiration content on social media sites?
Social cognitive theory also suggests that
exposure to thinspiration content is likely to be
harmful. Social cognitive theory proposes that
people learn from modeled behaviors and are
more likely to imitate such behaviors when they
can relate to the model and when the behavior
is rewarded socially or otherwise (Bandura,
2009). Idealizing and striving toward a thin ideal
is a behavior often modeled in media content;
this modeling often takes the form of imagery
similar to that found in thinspiration content
(for a review, see Perloff, 2014). Learning such a
thin ideal ultimately affects beliefs, attitudes,
and behavior involving food, eating, and the
desirable weight and body shape (Dittmar et al.,
2006, Harrison and Cantor, 1997, Levine and
Smolak, 2006).
Thinspiration content on social media may
provide a particularly influential model owing to
its social character. The endorsement of
behaviors by others can serve as a form of social
reward that further encourages learning from
and adopting modeled behaviors (Bandura,
2009); this has been shown to contribute to the
internalization of the thin ideal (Borzekowski et
al., 2010). Social media websites typically allow
users to endorse images through various
features, including “repins,” “retweets,” “likes,”
or “favorites.” These endorsements are visible,
both individually and in aggregate, by other site
users. Vulnerable users, then, may be more
likely to adopt thin-ideal messages due to
repeated exposure to images of successful media
figures embodying the thin ideal and the
apparent social rewards accruing to those
images in the form of endorsement of these
images by peers (Borzekowski et al., 2010). Such
repeated exposure may result from accessing
social media websites and being directly or
indirectly exposed to thinspiration content.
Given that social endorsement of thinspiration
messages coupled with repeated exposure to
accompanying imagery may ultimately
influence adoption of the thin-ideal, the third
research question asks whether certain visual
characteristics and/or messages of thinspiration
content are particularly endorsed.
RQ3: What type of thinspiration content elicits
social endorsement on social media sites?
Of course, social media sites are not all the
same. In addition to varying in their specific
practices and options, they likely differ in the
characteristics of their users, including those
who share and view thinspiration content. The
demographic characteristics of users tend to
differ by age and gender, for example, across a
variety of social media websites (Lenhart et al.,
2010). Facebook and Pinterest users, for example,
are generally older than Twitter and Instagram
users (Lenhart et al., 2010). Age differences
matter when it comes to body image.
Individuals most prone to the negative effects of
media images promoting the thin-ideal tended
to be those who younger than 19 years old (for a
meta-analysis, see Groesz et al., 2002). Inasmuch
as user characteristics of social media websites
differ outcomes of viewing may also be
different. In addition, different audiences may
select, promote, and endorse different content.
The fourth research question examines potential
differences in thinspiration characteristics,
additional tags and forms of endorsement across
both social media websites.
RQ4: How do characteristics of thinspiration
content differ across different social media?
Finally, the tagged terms thinspiration and
thinspo (a common abbreviation for
thinspiration) were found to be associated with
the most harmful content on pro-ED websites
and have been used synonymously in past
research (Lewis & Arbuthnott, 2012). The last
research question looks at whether image
characteristics differ across the two tagged
terms given the emphasis on the term
thinspiration in the news and concern about
intentions to limit or censor thinspiration
tagged material.
RQ5: How will characteristics of thinspiration
content differ between the tags thinspiration and
thinspo, if at all?
Section snippets
Sample
The sample was collected through a systematic
random sampling of posted images from photo-
sharing website Pinterest and social networking
website Twitter. These particular social media
websites were chosen for their popularity,
function, and features. Next to Facebook,
Pinterest and Twitter are the two most popular
social media websites used by U.S. women (25%
of female internet users above the age of 18) and
teens (8% internet users ages 12 to 17) (Duggan
and Brenner, 2013, Lenhart et al., 2010…
Results
The final sample consisted of 300 images from
Twitter (n = 150) and Pinterest (n = 150), with
half of the images from each website tagged as
thinspiration and the other half tagged as
thinspo. Both of these search terms yielded
significant overlap in their results. An analysis of
the images labeled under either tag revealed
that thinspiration content typically features a
bony, partially clad, and sexually provocative
image of a woman with the focal point of the
depiction on her pelvis and abdomen.…
Discussion
Based on relevant theoretical frameworks, the
type of image typical of thinspiration content on
social media is the type of image likely to
increase self-objectification, promote unhealthy
standards of beauty, and encourage the
sexualization of women by contributing to an
increasingly segmented view of one's self and
pressure to appear more sexual in one's
demeanor and attire. Although this
phenomenon cannot be assumed to strictly
pertain to females, the content in question
overwhelmingly…
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