BY REILLY DENNEDY ’23
Content warning: This article references self harm.
I follow many accounts about mental health advocacy on Instagram, including @behindthescars, a body-positivity account run by photographer Sophie Mayanne. She photographs individuals with different kinds of scars and gives voice to their stories. This past June, Instagram censored only the images of self-harm scars, prompting backlash. By censoring images of self-harm scars, social media platforms imply that there is something disturbing about the bodies that many wake up in each day, contributing to the problematic stigma around both self-harm and mental illness.
There is a need for trigger warnings around content which could be extremely disturbing for some. However, the way self-harm scars are censored impedes on the right of mentally ill people to exist in the same capacity as everyone else. According to BBC News, Facebook and Instagram remove extremely graphic photos of self-injury which may inspire similar behavior in others, but have a different policy for photos of healed self-harm scars. If there is already a distinction between these two types of content, then why are healed scars being censored? The existing policy feeds into the idea that people with scars should constantly wear clothing that covers them. While trigger warnings are very important, it is wrong to tell people their bodies are not acceptable or to label them as “explicit,” as it makes mental illness appear shameful.
Censoring people as they attempt to speak out about their experience harms those who benefit from hearing recovery stories. It is hypocritical for Instagram to claim to be serving the community by editing out role models to those who need them.
Already, those with self-harm scars face judgment for not wearing clothes that cover them. Those who struggle with mental illness and self-harm deserve the chance to form their own online movement for social equality, and censoring images of healed scars is counterproductive to the goal of equality.
Bersih, a political movement for fairer elections in Malaysia, is a prominent example of a political movement relying on social media. A study for the Association for Information Systems shows that social media served to “facilitate and coordinate collective action” in this case. If social media served this purpose in such a large movement, it is reasonable to assume this smaller social issue can also build grassroots support on social media. With censorship, that support is more difficult to develop.
While some may find scars shocking, others have them on their bodies and live with them everyday. Those people deserve the right to carry themselves just like everyone else does, and to post the photos they want to. The fight for scar acceptance is an important one, as it intersects with larger social justice issues. It encourages the philosophy of allowing people to exist in their bodies as they are. Social media platforms can support this movement by allowing all bodies to exist equally on their platforms.