Women's understanding of healthy body: The example of Instagram

The purpose of this study is to examine the changes in the concept of a healthy body and how women perceive the notion of a healthy body in the context of the consumption society and the healthy lifestyle industry, focusing on the healthy body posts on Instagram, one of the social media platforms. The female body has long been objectified and seen as a project that needs improvement. Therefore, the accepted meaning of a healthy female body in contemporary society and how it is constructed have been analyzed from both societal and individual perspectives.To understand the meanings attached to the narrative of a healthy body developed by women about their own bodies, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 female participants actively using Instagram. The content and accounts they follow, related to health, cosmetics, and sports, were also examined. These accounts are run by health professionals and social media influencers. The posts on these accounts consist of various diet and exercise tips, skincare, cosmetic products, and images depicting ideal bodies.The results indicate that Instagram presents the positive effects of the healthy lifestyle industry to women intensely. However, at the same time, Instagram also perpetuates the economic concerns of the industry. It was found that posts related to the ideal healthy body, dominated by these concerns, have both positive and negative psychological and physical effects on women. The healthy body posts on Instagram construct the female body based on the prevailing aesthetic values of the era. The physical attributes a woman should possess (facial features, lip thickness, teeth, eye shape, etc.) are determined by the consumer society.Based on the in-depth interview questions formulated, it was determined that women interact with the healthy body images they encounter and examine on Instagram to varying degrees, being influenced to different extents.