Let’s Talk about Instagram’s Growing Sexualization

Analyzing what’s behind Instagram’s evolution towards sexualized content and the impact it has on the user.

Illustration by author James M. Costa.

World’s fifth most downloaded app of the year — Instagram — recently turned twelve years old (it was originally released on October 6th, 2010). The Internet was filled with articles about the social media giant and overviews of its history: from the cute dog that starred in the first picture ever uploaded, to the current posts by celebrities that amass millions of likes.

One of these articles in particular caught my eye. In its review of Instagram’s most notorious posts to this day, the article quickly moved from the ubiquitous images of celebrities sharing their families, celebrations, and condolences (a quick way to summarize the list of most-liked Instagram posts) to a toned up recap of the social network’s most infamous nudes. Kim Kardashian’s extravagant curves, Miley Cirus’s veiled nipples, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s toned muscles were counted among these immensely popular pictures.

Now this, I thought, is a more complete depiction of Instagram’s history — because, as much as people enjoy a peek into the lives of their friends and favorite celebrities, the truth is that tits, abs, and asses have always run the business.

Instagram has come a long way since it was released ten years ago. And while everybody else is revolving around its ever-increasing valuation (now well into the billions), the accumulation of incredibly successful new features, or its rapidly growing number of users — all of these very remarkable and praiseworthy achievements, no doubt — I would like to place the focus on a different process: the evolution of its content.

An article from the New York Times described Instagram on June 3rd, 2011 in the following terms:

The app emphasizes simplicity. Users can choose from a variety of special effects to layer over photos, sharpening the contrast or applying a vintage, weathered look. […] People snap and post pictures of anything, like pretty wallpaper at a restaurant or artsy close-ups of their cat climbing on the bed in the morning, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their lives.