I posted up-thread and on an earlier thread under a different name. I know I am going round and round the same subject so big apologies if I am being boring/repetitive, but I have been thinking about this a lot. I initially thought transparency was the main thing on these instagram feeds - the EDs, DMBL40, Frugality, etc etc (not just those ones, but those are the ones I know best). But now I have seen a lot more transparency and I continue to think there is a big ethical problem with and for those types of accounts.
I know that of course adults can choose not to follow these accounts. But I still think the moral position of their owners remains quite ambiguous. Often they start off providing advice and helpful hints etc, but then they monetise, at which point they really need to make sure that their influence continues to be really influential. If it isn't, and people don't buy the things they write about, then presumably they are not much use to brands. And, presumably, the more stock they can shift, the more brands want to work with them?
So they are trying to do two things at once. Present themselves as supporters of women, all in it together kind of thing, book clubs, body confidence etc, but they are simultaneously acting against women with this incredibly effective drip-drip feed of 'more.' I am sure they can justify this to themselves on the basis again that followers can choose what to buy and what not, or to unfollow, but I think that would be fairly disingenous because they are still in the business of actively creating that feeling of need and therefore of lack, which stimulates spending. So they are absolutely at the heart of a fairly rapacious advertising industry and they are doing that in part by masquerading as something quite different. As our 'friends'.
I don't blame them for this (not saying I wouldn't take the money and the gifts) and I don't think it makes them bad people. We all face moral dilemmas, all the time. I just really wonder what it feels like to them? Do they feel this moral ambiguity? If they do, perhaps the move to transparency helps them to deal with that internally - but in some ways that then exacerbates the problem, on the basis that problems with this really insidious form of marketing for which they have become the tool have apparently been solved? Dunno ... just to emphasise, I am not talking from some assumed moral high ground here, I just think it's an interesting subject.
Perhaps one's answer to this might relate to one's orientation towards capitalism overall! If you are entirely relaxed about our consumer society and the effects of fast fashion then I guess this wouldn't seem like a problem at all. But if not ... dunno! I am morally conflicted because I love clothes, but hate a form of capitalism which makes us feel dissatisfied, all the time.