Social networks Long live the difference!

Even if their body does not correspond to the standards of beauty, they display it proudly. On social networks, these women celebrate their difference. Portraits.

Joannie Dupré-Roussel and her daughter Léa-Rose

Like many 3-year-olds, Léa-Rose loves to run, play and listen to Paw Patrol. Unlike many 3-year-olds, she lives with Treacher-Collins syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes craniofacial malformations. “It's hard to live with a craniofacial difference. It's the face. It's not hidden, ”says his mother, Joannie Dupré-Roussel, who also has Treacher-Collins syndrome, but in a less serious form.

Shortly after her birth, Léa-Rose had to undergo a tracheotomy and a gastrostomy. Not knowing what her daughter's daily life would be like, Joannie searched for information. On Instagram, she came across the accounts of children with the same syndrome as Léa-Rose. A little older, they accomplished the same things as young people of their age. “These accounts have done me a lot of good. »

In order to make people aware of the difference, Joannie Dupré-Roussel also decided to tell her story and that of Léa-Rose on social networks. She admits, however, that she found it difficult to publish the first photos. At first, his Instagram account was private.

It was really a long journey. I don't know what made that at some point I decided to put my account public. Probably I wanted to fight.

Joannie Dupre-Roussel

Today, his account is followed by more than 10,000 subscribers. “I have really nice comments. I don't have hate messages. That's a lot, a lot of encouragement. What particularly touches the mother of the family is that she sees the positive effect of her publications. “There are a lot of people who tell me that they came across my account and told their child about it. »

“By dint of coming across atypical faces, you develop a tolerance,” believes Joannie Dupré-Roussel. With Marie-Ève ​​Piché, alias Maman caffeine, she also co-wrote a book featuring Léa-Rose. This should be out next winter.

Aiesha Robinson

Aiesha Robinson was 18 when her life changed. She had just learned that she had vitiligo, a skin condition that causes depigmentation in certain areas. Whitish spots appeared on his hands, then on his face. "I couldn't leave the house without someone giving me a weird look or saying a hurtful comment," she recalled.

Although she kept smiling in front of her family and friends, the young Montrealer quietly sank into depression. Suicidal thoughts haunted him. “That's where I took a knife. I went to the bathroom and said, "That's enough." I no longer wanted to live with this pain on a daily basis. »

"What saved me was that I called a friend who supported me that night," she says. I realized that I needed help. »

For Aiesha Robinson, it was the start of a great journey towards self-acceptance. At the end of this process, she wanted to speak up to help people living in a similar situation. It was to social networks that she turned to do so. How did she feel when she posted her first photo?

I had the impression that before, I wore a mask and that finally, I took it off. The love I received was overwhelming.

Aiesha Robinson

To spread her message of self-acceptance, Aiesha Robinson lectures and founded Born to Rise, a non-profit organization that lifts the veil on taboo subjects. She has also done modeling with major brands, including Dermablend and La Maison Simons, another way to celebrate the beauty of her difference.

Khate Lessard

Since his participation in Double occupation South Africa in 2019, Khate Lessard has become one of the most famous trans people in Quebec. However, before joining the girls' house of the popular reality show, it was on YouTube that she spoke about her reality. Why did she decide to expose herself like this on the web? “To look for people who would understand me, who would look like me, with whom I could talk. »

As she began her transition process, she returned to live in Abitibi with her family.

I remember, I was in my head, big questions. I had no one to turn to.

Khate Lessard

His YouTube videos have been like a bottle in the sea.

How to Use the Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop 720p: https://t.co/ZSnqMkjzi8 via @YouTube

— hamo_smsm Wed Aug 08 09:54:57 +0000 2018

Gradually, she created a community on social networks. The size of this exploded following its move to OD. “When I came back from South Africa, I saw the big megadose of love. I had received tons of messages. […] Young people, adults, people in their sixties who wrote big paragraphs to me. Looks like they felt they could trust me. »

Without a filter, she even revealed the entire process surrounding her vaginoplasty, undergone in November 2019, on social networks as well as on the show La Semaine des 4 Julie. "I thought to myself, 'Would I have liked to see this kind of content when I started my transition? Absolutely. »

Sonia Tremblay

It was first and foremost for her that Sonia Tremblay started taking photos of her body and posting them on Instagram. “To find myself. To accept me again,” she says. She had just lost a lot of weight, but the happiness she thought would come with the new numbers displayed on the scale was long overdue.

On Instagram, then in her infancy, she discovered English and American influencers who were fat and proud of it. The body positive movement, which advocates the inclusion of marginalized bodies in all spheres of society, challenged him. "In Quebec, when I started, we hardly talked about it," she recalls.

We don't realize the mental health impact that fatphobia and the weight of beauty standards have on people.

Sonia Tremblay

Gradually, people from here and elsewhere began to follow her on Instagram. His account now exceeds 23,000 subscribers.

If social media disappeared overnight, how would she feel? “I would find it difficult. I interact with lots of people there. This is my life, my community. »

Arianne Clement

In the photo, Marie-Berthe appears flirtatious, in her little nightwear, a thousand leagues from the image we have of a 102-year-old woman.

“Older people are truly complete, multidimensional people. […] We cannot reduce them to the images often linked to health that we see in the media, ”believes Arianne Clément, the photographer behind this shot.

There are many, many, many aspects of older people's lives that are rarely depicted.

Arianne Clement, photographer

Since her master's degree in photojournalism, seniors have been her favorite subject. With her images, she wishes to promote the place of the elderly in society. To achieve this, she has exhibited her photos all over the world, notably in Italy, Greece, Japan and Belgium. In Quebec too, of course.

But beyond the showrooms, it is thanks to Instagram that Arianne Clément makes discover her works. “It's a great platform to send the messages I want to pass and to promote the models who wanted to participate in my projects. »

The comments she receives are overwhelmingly very positive. “I notice that what is most appreciated are the photos that represent couples or people kissing. It reflects a need to see love, life, happiness in seniors. It feels good. I have many people who write to me to tell me that thanks to my photos, they are less afraid of aging. »

Fascinated by old age, Arianne Clément has also visited the areas of the globe where people live the longest and with the best quality of life. From this adventure was born the book How to Live 100 Years, which she has just launched on the crowdfunding platform Ulule.

Between benevolence and toxicity

Few negative comments, a community spirit and a lot of support. Here is a brief summary of the experience lived on social networks by the women whom La Presse met to talk about difference. A description that seems very far from the criticisms made in the wake of the Facebook Papers. Are social networks benevolent or toxic? Both, say experts.

"Social networks are both a space for normalizing difference and reinforcing the norm," explains Chiara Piazzesi, professor of sociology at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). There is a great deal of visual material that reinforces stereotypical standards of beauty […]. However, there is also a huge amount of content that spreads in waves, through hashtags or within certain groups, which try to promote a diversity of images. »

The effect that social networks will have will depend on how they are used, argues psychologist Stéphanie Léonard. “People who tend to follow accounts where you see more models with realistic bodies […] have higher body satisfaction and compare less,” she says. The reverse is however also true, warns the one who founded the organization Bien avec mon corps to help young people have a healthy and positive image of themselves.

How do you feel when you consult the account of this influencer or that of this star? If you have the impression of being inadequate, that you are comparing yourself or that you feel devalued, it is better to stop following this person, suggests Stéphanie Léonard. She insists on the importance of making benevolent use of social networks.

We want it to be content that makes us feel good and inspires us.

Stéphanie Léonard, psychologist and founder of the organization Bien avec mon corps

A limited scope

“Social networks are a space that we can see as being more democratic where marginalized people can speak, have an audience, convey a message, whereas this would not be possible in forms of communication more traditional," says Marina M. Doucerain, psychology professor at UQAM. However, the reach of the message is limited to certain groups.

Social media is organized a lot in bubbles. It's related to the phenomenon of echo chambers. Algorithms send us things that we want to see, that look like us. If you are someone who likes this kind of diversity, you will find yourself in a bubble that shows this diversity.

Marina M. Doucerain, professor of psychology at UQAM

Images of marginalized people are therefore confined to the borders of the groups that want to see them.

The normalization of marginalized bodies on social networks is a battle fought mainly by women, says Chiara Piazzesi. Why ? Because, even today, women are often reduced to their appearance in society, she says. “It might be time to focus the representation of women on something other than appearance,” believes the professor.

When she meets high school students with her organization Bien avec mon corps, Stéphanie Léonard notices that they are open to diversity, both on social networks and in real life. “The place where I see it sticking is that young people still have difficulty applying these concepts to their own perception of themselves. »

In numbers

50%: In Quebec, half of teenagers are not satisfied with their physical appearance.

1.3 billion: Number of Instagram users worldwide in 2021

Source: Statistical Institute of Quebec and Statista