I've officially put "body positive" in my bio; some of my posts are about weight gain and accepting your new body; I follow a lot of plus-sized and mid-sized creators to fill my feed with positive energy. And yet, here I am, getting 4 diet ads within a matter of minutes. What the hell is going on here, Instagram?
In a world where women are never good enough, always take up too much space, and are too emotional, this is the last thing we need. We already see creators being paid to say tea-tox is the end-all cure; we already see magazines where women are photoshopped to be nearly unrecognizable; we are told by friends, coworkers, and partners that we need to dial it back. If I want a friendly, positive, welcoming Instagram, I should have that! Why is it that fad diets and workout regiments are the reaction to #bodypositivity or #sizeinclusive? Shouldn't it be brands that preach the same message? Or are they doing what I fear: trying to make me feel bad for loving my slightly bigger than "ideal" body?
I'm curious, do these ads pop up regardless of what and who you follow and post about? Or is Instagram targeting me because I'm saying "I have fat on my body" in any kind of open way? I've never clicked on one of these ads and I only took screen shots of some for the cover photo of this blog. I usually just scroll past them. If I don't, I slide down a slippery slope of feeling like maybe a fad diet would get me back to anorexia-skinny or, worse, that I should just stop eating again because that worked so well last time.
I get it, not everyone has had a past with eating disorders. But, fad diets are usually just short-term disordered eating that fails long-term. It's profiting off of the men and women willing to drink teas laced with diuretics, spend hours a day on un-sustainable workout regiments, and cut so much out of their diets they are hardly allowed to eat anything at all. These are all symptoms of disordered eating. It's not a cure or a money maker; it's a sickness that needs to be treated with love and compassion.
This is a short one because I am heading out to have dinner with my family. An activity that used to give me so much anxiety because I knew I had to eat but all I could think about was the pounds it would add on to me. Now, I'm excited to see what new, cool thing my Aunt and Uncle have whipped up this time. I don't care how many calories or how long I have to get to a bathroom to throw it back up. I get to enjoy the food and the company.
All I'm saying is this: Fuck Instagram's algorithm for showing me potentially triggering ads when I just want to eat whatever I want to eat and love my body the way it is, not the way it used to be.
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