When a 50-year-old woman posts a video of herself walking along a beach, while she is dressed in a swimsuit, there’s a backlash from a whole bunch of people. However, hundreds of younger women clad in carnival wear, dancing down the streets of Kingston, is celebrated. Some of these same young women display their bodies on their personal social media pages, with not a wrinkle nor a square inch of cellulite in sight. Sometimes they are pushing products that brands wish to sell to the followers of these “content creators”, other times they are doing it to get a particular brand’s attention. Often, these are beauty brands, so it is deemed acceptable when an attractive young lady uses her good looks and sex appeal to “sell” the merchandise. She may indeed be rewarded with some free merchandise herself, and with any luck she’ll also get paid. It’s not dissimilar to models or actors being hired by agencies of legacy media for their magazine and television advertisements, or even billboards.

Now, what would we think if a pretty 22-year-old woman was pushing her own products, essentially using herself as a model for her new business? Would we think it crass, inappropriate or “vaguely pornographic” if she was, let’s say, demonstrating the effects of her own skincare line on social media by wearing a swimsuit to show how beautiful her skin was looking? Highly unlikely. In fact, the criticism could well be placed on her youth, underestimating her ability to be successful at such a young age and possibly in part due to her gender. Don’t roll your eyes…..this is still a patriarchal society burdened by misogynistic archetypes.

What if the aforementioned 50-year-old is using herself to promote her carefully curated skincare brand on social media? It would mean she has to expose much of her skin for photos and videos. But why would she do that, you may ask? I’m potentially purchasing the product, aren’t I? Wouldn’t I need to see the results before I choose to buy? Is it really “vaguely pornographic” for her to show so much skin because she is 50? Should she have hired a 25-year-old model to demonstrate the results? That would be unhelpful, however, because all I’d be looking at is how the creams, serums and lotions affect the skin of a woman half my age. So, tell me, what should this intelligent entrepreneur have done? Oh wait, perhaps she should have hired a seasoned 50-something model like Naomi Campbell. Would you have judged Naomi so vehemently had she walked down a beach in a bikini, showing even more skin (Quelle horreur!)? I don’t even think you’d have had an issue with the supermodel Iman, a legend creeping up on 71 years old, had she posted a video of herself doing the same.

I just watched the 16th CARIMAC Aggrey Brown Distinguished Lecture in full, including the Q & A time, and I would emphatically encourage everyone to listen to what the guest lecturer, Lisa Hanna, had to say. While I do indeed have a personal interest in the issues she raised, it is essential for us all to acknowledge and ponder the changing world of digital media, the kinds of connections we are making with one another and the information we are absorbing. In my CyberBright cyber safety workshops and CyberBright Segments on Sunrise CVMTV, I have repeatedly discussed fake news, the differences between misinformation and disinformation, as well as imploring everyone to do the work to discover the whole story and not just make assumptions from the headline, an incomplete part of the story, nor, worse yet, the clickbait clip that’s gone viral.

Nine years ago, when I was 41, I wore a bikini on a beach. I didn’t have to post a picture online to get criticised for baring skin. I got assaulted in the flesh. However, I then posted a part of happened (no names mentioned), which gained a good amount of online support, but also some offline abuse. So, I went back to my social media page and posted the whole story, still not including any names. I garnered even more support, online and offline, but I still lost some friendships because those people had no interest in my entire story. Perhaps it didn’t suit their agenda or their view of me, who knows? But don’t for a minute believe that they did not fabricate their own stories about what happened, for their own social circles. These never went viral because, like I said, I never mentioned a word about who the predator was. You throw a stone into a pigpen and wait to hear which one squeals!

When you see a middle aged woman showing too much skin for your liking, you are influenced by your biases, but you are also swayed by the comments and an incomplete narrative that you have decided tells a complete truth. Your interpretation of a snippet of another person’s story is not the whole truth of the story, nor the person. Your understanding of an event is not the reality of the event when you have seen, heard or read about only a part of it. You cannot be truly analytical and critically thoughtful about anything, unless you have ALL the correct information. This article I’m writing now may incite much criticism and comments. You might even conjure up exactly the person you believe me to be, but it’s not my whole truth. One moment, one article, one video, one image of a 50-year-old woman in a swimsuit does not tell her complete story, nor should it render so much criticism.

emma@becyberbright.com