Aisling O’Loughlin The truth behind insta pics
Insta posts can be a bit like John and Mary from Father Ted. That pretend moment, as the shop door opens, that all is harmonious, to keep up appearances. ‘Hello Father. Mary was just washing my hair,’ says John to Father Ted as she pulls his head from a bucket of water. This week, former Miss Universe Ireland, Roz Purcell, let us in on the story behind the picture to lift the veil on the toxic nature of Instagram perfectionism.
‘Killing each other before and after this photo was taken,’ she confesses beside an image of herself in a bikini with rose tinted glasses (literally and figuratively) on a beach in Maui, Hawaii, looking all loved up with beau Zach Desmond. Willay the dog is superimposed for a giggle. The image is from December 2019 and the couple are wishing their friends and followers a Happy Christmas while all along they were in the middle of an argument.
In fairness, are you even a couple if you’re not fighting at Christmas time? Even on an exotic beach. Even if you’re both gorgeous and rich. I’d happily take the beach for the barney. Yes I’m comparing. We can’t help ourselves. It’s what we do. Give me a bust-up on white, powder sand with waves gently lapping in the background, over a grey, soggy, chill fest on Craggy Island any day. Some places are better than others for arguments. We must know this by now. Especially after so much time holed up together. The privileged can retreat to the west wing for solace and reflection. Not so easy if you’re stuck in a high rise with no spare room.
The wheels are coming off the perfectionism wagon. Nobody’s buying it any more. Over at Knee Deep in Life, Laura Belbin has caught the zeitgeist in her big knickers, mom-tum and outrageous commentary on the vacuous narcissism we’re served daily online. The Sunday Times bestselling author is hitting back unabashed, unfiltered, uncensored and unapologetically. It’s powerful ‘...never change who you are to fit in with other people. Release the freak and let that b*tch fly.’ It’s raw and it’s real but perhaps not for you if you’re offended by profanities. She has a tongue that would make a sailor blush.
A tamer version is Loose Women’s Nadia Sawalha in shapewear, lip synching to Kim Kardashian’s self-indulgent hard selling of her sucky-in body suits. ‘Skids finding solutions for all women with cracks in their asses,’ quips Sawalha in the caption. ‘Click on the crack to get the GLOBAL waiting list for your crack assssss solution !’ she writes. There’s a definite mood online for ‘authenticity’. Not fake authenticity, but the real deal, coming at you from the most unflattering angle. No more pretending everything is rosy when it’s not — there’s an appetite for the grit too, the shadow work. Like John and Mary off on their holidays to Rome. ‘‘We might see your friend,’ says Mary to Father Ted. ‘Who’s that? Sophia Loren?’ says Ted. ‘No father, the Pope,’ says Mary. ‘He’s no friend of mine,’ says Ted in a joke served cold before it’s time to chilling effect.
There’s an appetite for shadow work online and it’s not pretty