Analysis Of Ariadna Gutierrez's Instagram Photos

Application #2 People choose carefully when deciding what to upload on social media. Many psychologists would view Instagram posts as a hidden symbolic meaning. In this application, I decided to use Ariadna Gutierrez’s Instagram photos as my object of interest. Ariadna Gutierrez is well known as Miss Colombia 2016 and the poor contestant that was accidentally named Miss Universe 2016. After given the crown for merely a few minutes, she was suddenly ripped from her dreams. Specifically, I wanted to look much deeper into three Instagram photos posts; her very first Instagram post, the day of the Miss Universe competition, and five weeks after the competition.
According to Freud’s theory, Ariadna Gutierrez’s posts represents her super ego. The
super ego is considered the internalized ideals of what society places on people. Its idea is to place the better needs of society over our desires. Being crowned as Miss Colombia holds a large amount of expectation and responsibility. Society views her not as a simple woman, but one that represents the beauty of Colombia. Any flaw within her own image could be seen as a disgrace to Colombia. Throughout all her images, there are some sort of alteration of the physical features within her photos. She uses filtering or high intense makeup to cover up any flaws that can be seen. Freud could see her filtering as a sign to aim for perfection. Instead of having candid and bare photos, everything on her Instagram account is unnatural compared to the typical everyday woman. Every flaw and pose are corrected to portray the perfect women. Instead of putting her natural self, she decides to put the importance of representing her country as a higher value than her own self.
Also, there are about three post within her 978 posts that represents her id. The id is part of the unconscious awareness that contains whatever is presented at birth. Typically, people may see the id as a selfish side of a human being. The loss of losing the crown on national television could be a painful memory to remember. After her lost, she posted two pictures of herself with the Miss Universe crown. Although she knew she lost, she still posted those two images up without thinking about the consequences. Freud would see her actions as the unconscious and selfish view. Being able to post up an image of her “win” represents her selfish action. Instead of ignoring what happened to her, she decided to post up images of herself as the “true queen”. Freud would say that her action shows her true feelings, “I deserved to be crowned Miss Universe and I was cheated.” Even after five weeks after the incident, she posted another picture of herself watching Steve Harvey on television. Her face showed her dislike and hatred for the man that accidentally stated the wrong winner. Her hands were crossed and the Instagram post gave a very bitter vibe. The image shows her true feelings towards the accident, yet, she never portrayed that hatred when she was interviewed.
Additionally, Ariadna Gutierrez’s first Instagram post seems nothing out of the ordinary from a typical woman. She wears no makeup or has any filtering around her. Her photo is a simple representation of her and her boyfriend. Ariadna’s first Instagram photo is a blance between her super ego and her id. Although she is not considered an “ordinary” woman, she still represents her own self in this image. Her image represented something pure and simple. It was a balance to displayColombian’s natural beauty and being able to represent her own self.
Contrary to Freud’s perspective on all of Ariadna’s Instagram post, Adler would state that her posts are representation of her style of life.
Her images represent her individual uniqueness towards the self-created goal of the “perfect Colombian women.” Her Instagram account is her creative power. The definition of creative power of the individual is, “the process by which we each make original conceptions of ourselves and our world as we develop a style of life for pursuing the three tasks” (Adler, 1932). She is able to portray her life as extremely wealthy and extravagant. Her attire is nothing but the best, and her body is a shrine that any Colombian women would die to have. In that sense, Ariadna’s Instagram account strives for superiority. Striving for superiority is a common motive that society places on one another. It is considered the universal psychological phenomenon that includes the goals toward perfection, security, and strength (Adler, 1932). Ariadna’s post show her aim for perfection and she strives to be the perfect person. Her perfect image throughout her Instagram post could be considered a way to compensate for her inferiority. It could be that she feels inclined to look a certain way to be the best representation of Colombian’s beauty. Adler would say that anything that was filtered or concealed any possible flaw would be a way to compensate for her inferiority. She fears the chance of not representing her country well, and not being able to meet people’s
expectations. Furthermore, Adler would continue to state that Ariadna’s two post on of her false crowing for Miss Universe could be a representation of her superiority complex. Her lost nationwide could have made her feel like the laughing stock. Those two photos overcompensate for her personal weakness as a failure to her country. Everyone knows that she lost and was unable to bring home the crown. By posting up the pictures, Adler would say that her behavior is teleological; performed with a purpose. The purpose could be to portray her own self as the victim instead of the failure of her country. In that case, the her lost could turn into hatred toward the Miss Universe beauty pageant. Other people could then feel hatred toward Steve Harvey and Miss Universe 2016, and feel sorry for the humiliation that Miss Colombia had to endure.