Give Instagram "Models" a Break, It's Hard Work
What do contouring, bodycon dresses, teeth whitening kits, herbalife, waist trainers and Drake lyrics all have in common? Long before the colloquialism "thot" gained popularity, some combination of these things were pretty reflective of a night out at Club Liv in Miami. However with the launch of Instagram five years ago, they're redefining pop culture, beauty and social capital for people around the world.
A few weeks ago over drinks at Dallas BBQ's, an appropriate venue for the conversation, a group of friends and I decided to form a 2016 "thot pact." We challenged ourselves to add some excitement to our lives and step outside our comfort zones by using our Instagram accounts to attract the masses for purposes that shall be reveal themselves in the coming year. To embark on this journey, there was one thing that had to be clarified.
To become an "instathot," one must understand that there is a difference between posting pictures of your body for likes and using your social media account to elevate your social status. Unlike the average thirst trap, the "instagram thot" is on a mission for more than just likes, they strategically use their images to build a personal brand. Frequently updating their bios with the latest products they are selling, contact information and by taking the right pictures at the right places with the right people. My only hesitation was asking myself: "do I have the look?"
Last week, during a casual scroll through my explore tab, I saw a picture of young woman sitting on a highway guard rail, wearing a skin tight dress with the caption "The Hills Have Eyes…" Immediately I recognized the name on her account, lira_galore, as the fiancee of Rick Ross. However, when I first saw the picture I had to do a double take because she looked exactly like someone else.
At first I thought she was Miracle Watts, a famed Instagram thirst trap, but in fact, she looked like a lot of people I've seen over the past two years on the 'gram. Long wavy hair, a face covered in makeup with carefully sculpted eyebrows accompanied by song lyrics have become the uniform for a new kind of model.
I started to wonder when all of this started happening, why all of these girls looked the same and who they were trying to look like. It didn't take long before I started seeing pictures of one woman in a these profiles with the hashtag #lifegoals. The epitome of the "why is she famous" celebrity, Kim Kardashian.
Don't get me wrong while Kim is a pleasant Reality TV replacement for Paris Hilton and a nice shift from traditional standard of beauty in pop culture, but one could argue that her "aesthetic" is just as unattainable as the skinny blonde girl.
To be fair, Kim isn't completely to blame, or thank depending on who you ask, for this new age woman, in a way she got really lucky. She's risen to fame during a time when celebrities, particularly rappers and athletes, are just as accessible as the type of women they pursue and/or have flings with.
With the launch of every new social network, more of us know where celebrities party, how they dress and what they do for attention. In many ways, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter have created a new path to fame without having to do much more than snap a picture.
Fortunately for my journey, one cool thing about "instathotting" is that it's free of misogyny. There are just as many, if not more, pages of men posting suggestive photos of themselves doing everyday activities like working out, cooking meals, getting dressed for the masses.
While they aren't wearing bodycon dresses, they do sell body wraps, teeth whitening kits and fitness products that they advertise while posting pictures of themselves half dressed. Some of them even get to hang around actual famous people and get invited to events just for mobile presence. In an almost reverse phenomenon, male entertainers like the Game and Omarion, who both posted mirror pics of their "packages" last week on social networks, are using the tactics of ordinary instagram models as a way to stay relevant and salvage their careers.
I can't lie, I'm a couple of weeks into the journey and it's a bit harder than I thought it would be. I keep finding myself looking back at old posts on my account thinking "what the hell were you going through?" I wonder if Andy Warhol knew that the price of bargain-basement fame would come at the cost of integrity and originality when he predicted 57 years ago that everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes.
I could go on and on about this, but I have to hit the gym and get ready for my next post. Meanwhile, for bookings contact me here.
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