Video Transcription

Enter the chat to support body image online

I wish I could just watch someone’s “What I ate in a day” and not be like, “Oh my God, have I…?” You know, like, your thoughts start to spiral from there, and it all comes down to [Music] comparison. Now, for most of us, social media plays a big part in our everyday lives, but how consciously are we consuming and creating content? And how often are we considering the unintended impacts of social media content on our body image? Butterfly Foundation and Instagram have brought together a few of my favourite creators to have this conversation and to play a game.

The rules: None of you have seen these cards. You’re each going to take one, and we are going to talk body image, social media, and wellbeing. I’m joined by Lucy Neville, Mark Mariano, Riley Hemson, Cooper Chapman, and Milo Hartill, and I’m April Helen Horton.

When you come across content relating to fitness and exercise, how does this make you feel? Do you think this content can be problematic?

This is interesting. I’m currently training for a 100 km ultramarathon, so I’ve been posting weekly updates. I might be the person— I mean, for me, it makes me inspired. I feel like I’ve come from a professional athlete background, so that is a lot of the content that I consume: people doing exercise content, because that’s the sort of realm that I’m in. For me, I understand that it can be super inspiring, but if you’re doing fitness content, there shouldn’t be any editing to make it look like you’re fitter or stronger than you are, because then it’s an unattainable thing for people.

Yeah, I got a DM from a strength and conditioning coach, and it said, “I help people lose weight, gain muscle, and achieve their dream body. How about you do my 12-week program, and if you achieve your dream body, maybe you could post a story?” And I was like, “What makes you think I’m not living in my dream body right now? What makes you think I have a dream body like this?” This language around body is so crazy. I’m just living in a body, and I actually already exercise. But thanks so much for streaming that. I don’t—but I exercise for mental health, for physical health.

“What I eat in a day” videos are simply harmless content. Agree or disagree?

The reason why it’s harmful is because of diet culture, right? Like, if you never grew up dieting and having this pressure to become slim, then it wouldn’t be harmful. I think this is a really good example of, like, how thin and fat creators are treated. I think, you know, if a thin person were to post, like, you know, typically unhealthy foods, no one would say a word. And then a fat person would post the same content—maybe eat out, eat junk food—and suddenly, they’re the worst human being on the planet.

What can we actually eat? What are people allowed to eat on the internet? The “What I eat in a day” videos that go really viral, there’s a huge element of privilege in it, with the expense of these healthy powders. And I just wish I could go back and tell myself, who was really sucked in by this kind of content, that if you have a question about your health, that is a question for you and your doctor, not you and an influencer that you follow.

I wish that I could go back and just give myself a hug. I don’t have to eat like someone else. I don’t have to look like someone else. There are functions on pretty much every social media platform where you can say that you’re not interested in a kind of content, and I would encourage people to actively use that.

No, I love it. I love the features where you can just click “not interested.” When I click “not interested” on Instagram, I feel like such a diva. “Not interested, sorry.”

Helpful, do you think that sharing fitness vlogs or before-and-after content, progress videos, can inspire people? On the other hand, how can this type of content negatively affect us?

When fatphobia and thinness and anti-fat bias are, like, what we all know and what is accepted and what is just, like, the way things are perceived and put out, and as a viewer, how it feels to be fed information, it’s hard to not see fitness content as a “You are big. You are not fit. Therefore, you are bad.”

Think back to when you first started creating content. How did social media make you feel about your body then, compared to where you are now?

The best thing about the last few years especially is seeing so many different bodies on my feed all the time. But that comes down to me curating my feed to look like that. When I started creating content, I was like, “Oh, I’m just going to post hot photos, ’cause that’s what the creators post. That’s what they want to see.” And then it was in COVID times, and I was like, “I’m just going to start posting how I actually am.” And I noticed my community grew.

I started creating content from a weight loss point of view, and I had been fat all my life, but I had this whole thing in my head of, like, “I am going to be so successful if I get skinny. Like, unstoppable.” That was in my head. Like, I genuinely thought I would be a better person and more successful, which is so wild to me. Like, I hate that I even said those words out of my mouth, but that was what it was. I lost weight, and I was posting before-and-afters and “What I ate in the days,” and all the things that were saying, “No, right now,” and I was still the same person. I had the same friends that loved me. I had the same values, and I was like, “This isn’t what it was cracked up to be in my head.”

And through that journey, my followers that had followed me and my community for the weight loss, a lot of them had come along that journey with me and gone, “Actually, yeah, this is so true. Like, what are we doing?” Over the years, I’ve realized that I want to move my body because it makes me feel good, and I want to eat things in moderation, and my lifestyle and mindset has changed.

Looking back, have you ever posted potentially harmful content? And what would you do differently now?

Maybe I have. I guess looking back, I’ve always been an athlete. I’ve always been in the shape that I’ve been in and haven’t really had the consciousness of, I guess, the representation of people in this room today. I’ve kind of looked and thought of my followers as people who maybe look and feel and see the world through the same lens as me, and maybe to people who don’t look like me, would find some of the stuff that I post triggering. Because, you know, I post a photo with my shirt off with a few of my friends with six-packs, and then it’s the stuff that goes viral. So you’re kind of pushed to post more stuff like that, whereas that’s, yeah, not what life’s about. It’s not about likes and clicks. It’s about, “Hey, how do other people feel when they see that content?”

What Instagram tools can creators use to support themselves from viewing potentially harmful content? What tools have helped you?

The block button—very liberally used. I feel like as well, remember that this is your space. Like, this is your community. You set the rules. You set the boundaries. If someone is not playing by your rules and they’re not respecting your boundaries, they don’t get to be there.

I love a restrict. Oh, restrict, because don’t they still write the comments and value? They think they—like, think they else can see it. I love that. And, um, mute. Oh, mama, I love the mute button. If Sally from accounts is yapping, the mute button is there. Oh, the mute button is slapping! All right, syndicated immediately.

What does creating consciously mean to you?

My community is why I do this as a job. So, keeping them front of mind whenever I’m making content, I think to create consciously is to have a strong sense of self, be really secure in who you are, and love parts of who you are and all of who you are. So many communities have been empowered through social media, and we’ve been given so much voice and space. I want to lean into more content that is vulnerable, self-loving, and imperfect. Showing up as raw, real—making someone laugh, and then making someone feel seen and heard, I think is a big thing for me. Not trying to leave anybody out or feel like anyone’s being victimized by your content. It’s, yeah, important to make sure that it’s authentic and it’s actually you. And, like we’ve spoken in this conversation quite a lot, it’s not fake. It’s not something that is an inaccurate representation of what you are. It’s what being conscious is, because I know that people look at how I do things, and it can affect how somebody lives their day.

I really want to create with the consciousness of, like, myself when I was 14, myself when I first started watching TV, my sister, who is 11, and what she sees and what I would feel proud to know that I have influenced her.

Well, now it’s time to exit the chat. I think we’ve all learned something today about conscious creation and being more mindful with what we consume online. If you’d like to enter the chat and find out more about supporting your body image and conscious creation, follow @thebutterflyfoundation for more.

Video by Butterfly Foundation