Like many other industries and fields, media is male-dominated and thus has indirectly favored men in the past as well as current day. Most media outlets, specifically social media, have their own set of terms and conditions to be followed by. However, in most cases we see these terms favor men and hurt female representation.
Because media is one of, if not the most, widespread outlets for representation it is crucial that all members of society are widely and properly represented.
Despite its major importance, representation is something that has been ignored and in some cases manipulated to put groups of people, especially women, at positions that are less than that of the male.
Throughout history, men have taken up positions of power in all major social, economic, and political institutions determining the way a majority of the general public sees certain groups of people. Because there is a skew in management positions toward that of men, women are often portrayed in unrealistic ways.
In the recent dawn of social media the trend of women being put down is nothing that has been erased but in fact, has carried over and affected the way women express themselves.
Social media platforms often remove content off of a basis that favors men and in certain cases scorns women for their form of expression.
Instagram has become the center of these debates, due to their removal of photos that by many seem to be unfair. Because of Instagram’s strict guidelines, the company appears to have major issues enforcing them in a non-biased way. The company has gone under fire in a surprisingly large number of cases where photos, and in some cases accounts, were removed from the platform for violating certain terms and conditions.
Instagram states, "...We require everyone to follow our Community Guidelines and we may remove content to help keep others from possibly reusing these types of images in inappropriate ways."
"Community Guidelines" are put in place for the protection of its users, but in Instagram’s case has proven to place ill will on females expressing themselves using their bodies in approaches deemed inappropriate.
This causes a major problem because it depicts the idea that women are not of the same stature of men, allowing men to post topless photos and scorning women for the same action.
Actions like these taken by Instagram, as well as other major social media platforms, directly affects those who have had posts removed under the grounds that it was “inappropriate” and indirectly affects all women as the photos are removed at superfluous rates to that of men pushing them to a position that is less than by stifling their forms of expression.
