Why women are hiding their boyfriends on social media

Tawana Musvaburi’s 33,000 Instagram followers may feel like they know everything about her life, but most of them don’t know what her partner looks like.

There may be subtle signs that she has a boyfriend, like the nape of her neck or the clinking of two wine glasses at dinner, but the 24-year-old says she has no intention of broadcasting his face.

“I’m just girl-coded,” Tawana says. “As a woman, you want to look strong, like, ‘I packed my things.'”

The influencer curated a brand that doesn’t involve the boyfriend.

“You don’t want any part of it to feel like it was helped by a man. It gives me more pleasure to say, ‘I did this myself.'”

And his stance isn’t changing anytime soon; Even if she and her boyfriend take things to the next level, “one ring is still not enough for me to broadcast my relationship,” she says.

Tawana is one of many women who are reluctant to start their relationships hard online, and social media users understand this.

So much so that last month, an article was published in British Vogue magazine with the following title: Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?It inspired TikTok and Instagram posts asking the same question.

In the viral article, author Chante Joseph suggests a shift in the way heterosexual women present their relationships online, writing that women want to enjoy the “social benefits” of having a partner without appearing “boyfriend-obsessed.”

Joseph writes that sharing your partner frequently can be seen as “embarrassing” and a “cultural loser.”

On a more serious note, she says having a boyfriend is no longer “seen as an accomplishment” and doesn’t make you any more or less of a woman than you once were.

She believes women are hesitant to take their partners on board because of “the patriarchy we live in and its oppressive nature towards women.”

“A lot of women say, ‘It’s great to have a fiancée. It’s great to have a husband,'” Joseph said. BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour on Wednesday.

“It’s not like that. We need to re-evaluate our relationship with men in this political climate.”

South London content creator and writer Stephanie Yeboah told British Vogue she regretted sharing her boyfriend on Instagram.

She told BBC News she received “lots of DMs” from people who said they stopped following her after she had a boyfriend because they could no longer relate to her content.

“I think about 1,000 people unfollowed me that day,” Yeboah recalls.

But he says he understands why people find so much boyfriend-related content.

“A lot of relationship content is corny; I think people cringe when they see it now.”

Associate professor of influencer and social media marketing at King’s College London. For people making money from social media, not sending a new partner can be a matter of consistency, says Gillian Brooks.

“They sell a different aesthetic, a different taste,” Dr Brooks explains. “They appeal to a very loyal and diverse audience, so if they go off-brand they will confuse their audience base and people will abandon them.”

However, influencers are not the only ones who do not want to share their boyfriends.

Milly is engaged to her partner, whom she has been with for about five years, but the 25-year-old actress says she is hesitant to share her engagement on social media.

“I don’t want to seem like I’m dependent on my partner, or like our relationship is my entire person,” she explains.

“Social media creates a very narrow image of a person,” he adds. “When it’s just pictures and stories of me and my partner, it creates a bit of an image of obsession.”

Charlotte has been with her partner for two years. The 20-year-old says she chose not to share her boyfriend on social media for a few reasons.

On an aesthetic level, she says there aren’t many photos of them together that she would consider “Instagrammable.”

But beyond that, he believes a relationship should be “more special than friendship.”

He continues: “I feel like I shared this [my relationship]”It would be like saying, ‘Look at me and my perfect relationship,’ but unfortunately that’s not the case.”

Athera, which is not her real name, also prefers privacy. The 21-year-old actress says that many of her friends are in the same situation and that they show the “evil eye” as the reason why they do not share their partners.

“Evil eye” is a supernatural belief in a curse conveyed through a malevolent gaze, often inspired by jealousy.

“I wouldn’t send it away to prevent someone from accidentally casting their jealousy over my relationship, even if it was unintentional and subconscious,” says Athera.

Social psychologist Dr. from Michigan State University. Gwendolyn Seidman explores how people communicate online, with a special focus on romantic relationships.

Sharing such a personal part of your life online can sometimes bring anxiety; Seidman believes this stems from a fear of online permanence.

“People don’t post much on the internet 1762648712Dr. Seidman observes, “and part of that is people realizing that this thing is infinite.

“You can’t really get rid of it, so you want to be a little more careful.”