#HealthyEating #EatClean #FoodPorn

For many years women have always felt the need to be very considerate of their appearance and have been living with the mindset of constantly trying to “look good”, whether it was for men or for themselves. From the era of corsets to diet-related hashtags on social media. This has been a remaining issue that has been around for quite a while now. It has been this constant need to have ‘the perfect body’. With the two lines on your stomach marking the abs, a perky butt, a thigh gap, and prominent collar bones. It has caused all sorts of issues, like how it can form an obsession that eventually leads to eating disorders.

The main question is, ‘what is the ‘perfect body’? All women have different perceptions on what they would classify to be a ‘perfect body’. On websites like ASOS, they would have categories of clothing sold for people with particular body types. The three main ‘perfect body’ types that women aspire to have (depending on their body structure) would be ‘petite’, ‘curvy’ and ‘tall’. ‘Petite’ would be the girls that are less than 5’4. ‘Curvy’ are those with the hour-glass body type. Lastly, the ‘tall’ category would be the girls with long legs, long arms, long everything.

In the past people have approached me and told me that I have put on weight. Which is something you would not like to hear. I also have several friends that are concerned about their weight or appearance. They moan about what they want to have and complains about what they hate about themselves. But the biggest influence would be the social media. Everyday, people would check their phone or any other device and go to their social media; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. It has become a routine. On social media you would always come across someone that looks good and that you would aspire to look like. By getting comments about weight, and by the influences, you can’t help but get lured into this ‘dieting craze’. Similarly with other females, as they all have their own insecurities. Women have always felt the need to impress and please people.

Nowadays, rather than traditionally saying grace before eating, people take out their phones and take pictures of their meals. People would take pictures of their food to remember the presentation and would like to copy that for themselves at home. They could be taking photos of their food just to post on online. On social media, you would find at least someone that is posting a picture of a plate of leaves and a sliced avocado on top with the hashtag #HealthyEating or #EatClean (for example). It glorifies this whole idea of ‘healthy eating’ and “encourages” or “motivates” others to do the same. Although some would get a salad, and take a picture to post it on their social media to show off their healthy eating progress, or could be motivated to healthy eating overall. Either way, ‘healthy eating’ has also become an obsession.

Other than the mainstream social networking influencing dieting there are other apps that have been created to help, or not help. ‘MyFitnessApp’ is a free smartphone app and website that tracks diet, exercise progress, and monitors calorie intake for the user’s personal goal (Woodward and House). With apps like this, it can be addicting. Internationally, 85% of consumers use their smartphones for app usage as almost everything is now accessible (Perez 2015). Those that own smartphones and has the app can become too indulged in updating their profile on (Perez 2015).  The app constantly requires certain information day by day as it sends notifications. For consumers, ‘MyFitnessPal’ has elements of a game where you have to do certain things for their diet to help reach a goal similar to how an actual game requires you to complete tasks to get the reward.

To conclude, women can deny the fact that that they are showing off their progress, but with their own personal reasons. You will find that one person that just wants the attention from men. But the majority of those on social media it is to motivate others that ‘if you work hard for what you want, you get what you want’. The social media publicises their progress with the use of hashtags. The hashtags can be easily found by those who seek motivation online creating a ‘diet community’. Women still feel the need to look good and presentable. The majority just do it for themselves, and to encourage others to do the same.