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Beauty Standards, Body Confidence And The Pressure Of Instagram On Young Black Womxn

Womxn’s bodies are always changing. Whether it’s through internal hormonal changes to do with our menstrual cycle or reproductive conditions like endometriosis and PCOS, or perhaps the external changes that we see in the mirror such as wider hips, asymmetrical breasts or our clothes fitting a bit tighter – the inconsistency we experience can and sometimes does affect our self-esteem. With the way digital media has monopolised the world in the last year due to the pandemic that has, in turn, sparked the rise in influencing and hypervisibility, I think it is important to acknowledge how navigating these online spaces has affected the relationships that we form with our bodies.

Black femme bodies have been at the forefront of many conversations and we are always being looked at. The power of looking and the vulnerability in being seen has oppressive roots in slavery as it pertains to the auction block, which was a site for black women to be