The quiet objectification of women and double standards by Instagram

Instagram is an amazing app that most of us now use more than daily. We upload anything and everything and can receive commentaries, images and videos from friends and we can even connect with our favorite celebrities and catch up on trends. We can use it to laugh or to be moved and we can use it to motivate ourselves. It's a truly great tool for self-promotion and I personally, as an actor, can tell that the pictures that I've uploaded from either something creative, or a project that I'm involved with are the images with the highest impact.

I personally have almost 600 followers and I follow a little bit more. A lot of the friends that I have on my lists post stuff about everyday life, some of my actor friends post the occasional headshot or set picture, there are Mom's and Dad's who publish their babies, photographers who publish great pictures, models who publish stuff from their latest photo shoot, and selfies, selfies and selfies. On any given moment of any given day I can swear that I can tell what at least 4 people ate that was special that day. Gym pictures, where both guys and girls pose in front of the mirror, doing heavy weight lifting. A lot of skiing and outdoors pictures, party pictures and . My feed is a mishmash of all of this, but I've never once seen a picture that I wold describe as borderline "raunchy" or non-aesthetic.

So why is it that Instagram's explore function, constantly towards me promotes accounts and pictures of women in challenging postures based on "people I follow" or "pictures I liked"?

I like a friend of mine's selfie, or a friend of mine's latest accomplishment at the gym that does not equate me wanting to see unknown women's "raunchy" pictures. I say "raunchy" because Instagram has been very good at keeping the really dirty stuff off of its application and has even been hugely criticized for sexualizing breastfeeding in order for them to keep a "clean house".

But when I get suggestions on pictures it's sometimes really challenging/supposedly sexy pictures. Now there's hidden sexism in here too, because if I like a guy friend's picture when he brags or poses in front of the mirror at the gym or a selfie, I don't get suggestions of shirtless guys. I get picture suggestions on nutrition, motivational quotes and other related stuff but not other men posing.

This to me sends a message, that took me a long time to decipher, that according to Instagram, whatever women do in their daily life is connected to sex and to please the male gender. Be it subliminal, but the message is clear. A female selfie equals a suggestion consisting of a lingerie model, but a male selfie equals inspiration and motivation.

Now I don't know how other user's feeds or suggestions look, but I encourage you to pay attention, females and males alike.

When we've come so far in society, when the most potent quote of 2015 was Canada's new prime minister who said; "Because it's 2015." in reply to why half of his staff was women it's a tragedy and a small defeat to see that everyday sexism is still all around us.

Don't be a stranger! Loves