Investigating Appearance Ideal Alignment of Popular Fitness Apparel Brands on Instagram

Abstract

Social media that caters to societal appearance ideals can be harmful to psychological well-being, particularly within the health/fitness industry. The purpose of this study was to determine whether racial/ethnic diversity, appearance ideal depiction, fitness competency, objectification, and sexualization differed between men and women in fitness apparel brand Instagram content. A content analysis of 400 images from ten popular fitness apparel accounts was performed. A binomial logistic regression, χ2(17) = 222.744, p & lt; .001, suggested that images with white, lower body weight, lower musculature, and sexualized posed models tended to feature women, while non-white, higher body weight, higher musculature, and neutrally posed models tended to feature men. The results may help guide interventions to prevent negative body dissatisfaction from viewing such content and encourage fitness apparel brands to reflect on the content of their promotional images on Instagram.