Recently I've noticed a few Twitter accounts devoted to giving anybody who is less than 100% attractive and / or photogenic, 100% of the time, a public kicking on account of their appearance. Admittedly, some of the 'characters' featured are seemingly doing their level best to look ridiculous and admittedly, some of them look pretty comical. We've all had a discreet laugh at some eccentrically attired person on the bus, a few of us might have taken a photo to show our friends but what's different about these accounts is that there seems to be something of the virtual lynch mob about them. The photos are lifted without permission from say, someone's instagram account, or captured in the street without the subject's consent, then uploaded to a centralised account along with a cruel caption or hashtag and tweeted to thousands of followers so they can all have a jolly good laugh.
Seeing this made me wonder at what point it became ok to single someone out as an example of a "minger" or a "slob" simply because they happen to offend your aesthetic sensibilities? Whatever happened to live and let live? According to this spurious logic, being in possession of a few excess pounds, having wayward hair, funny teeth or unusual taste in clothes makes someone fair game for abuse. When exactly did it become ok to be so unkind? Anyone would think that the self-appointed appearance police have never had a bad photo taken, made a poor clothing choice or gone out looking less than perfect.
And maybe that's the point. Maybe the only way some people can feel ok about their own inadequacies is to look at someone else and say "well at least I'm not as bad as *that!*" Yet whilst it no doubt says more about the observer than the observed, I think this kind of activity is bad for us all. I think it normalises cruelty and substitutes vindictiveness for wit. If a group was to gather around a colleague's desk to mock and jeer their appearance, it'd rightly be seen as bullying or harassment and disciplinary action could be taken. Retweeting a photo of a stranger minding their own business, with the caption "check out this beast, lol" is pretty much the same thing in my book. Is that really something to lol about?
Several young people in my social circle have been made to feel less than ok about themselves on account of how they look or choose to dress. Most of us would agree this isn't fair, yet our generosity of spirit often seems to extend only to people we know, or people like us, leaving strangers as fair game. We talk the talk where internet bullying is concerned, happily sharing motivational quotes about how people should be "true to themselves and feel comfortable in our own skin." Yet so long as we are retweeting those 'comedy' photos, we are sending mixed messages; it's ok for us to look however we like, yet we reserve the right to rip the piss out of people we don't know for choosing to do exactly the same.
I don't subscribe to the idea that this is harmless banter. I think this sort of negative 'laughing at' rather than 'laughing with' coarsens our culture and eats away at whatever remaining care and respect we have for one another. I fail to see how making someone feel bad about themselves on account of their appearance or dress sense, then encouraging others to jump on the bandwagon could ever be a positive thing. It's cruelty for the sake of cruelty in a culture already chock full of challenges to self esteem. If we paid less attention to appearances and more attention to what is actually said and done, we would see where true ugliness lies.
