Previous literature argues that social media sites may encourage women to engage in social comparison, resulting in body image dissatisfaction. Prior studies also suggests that black women are less likely to be negatively influenced by mainstream ideals of femininity because they are more likely to adopt more flexible beauty standards that often reject the thin female body ideal. However, there are studies that argue black women are not immune from adopting the same cultural standards of beauty as their white counterparts. The existence of black women’s thinspiration on social networking sites is an example of how mainstream cultural ideals of female body control influence black women. This content analysis of black thinspiration on Instagram finds that black women conform to and resist gender behavior displays while attempting to embrace diversity within black womanhood. Blackthinspo can be seen as a space where black women embrace mainstream depictions of femininity and expand these ideals to include the thin black female body as acceptable, beautiful, and feminine.
