Snoochie Shy Is Right – We Need To Ban The Word ‘Catfish’ From Our Vocabulary

She may have been in the bottom two to get voted out last night, but Snoochie Shy is the castmate we’re rooting for on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here. The Radio 1xtra presenter opened up about her self-esteem issues going on the show last week, revealing that she muted the word catfish on her Instagram after fearing people would troll her for looking different in real life than online.

The 29-year-old has a birthmark on her face and had spent years covering it for television appearances and on social media, telling campmates Frankie Bridge and Naughty Boy that this was the first time the public would see her with it.

‘I was telling my mum and the guy that I’m seeing, “I think people are just going to think I’m a catfish”’ she said. ‘I’m not going to look like my Instagram cause obviously that’s your best angles, you’ve got sick lighting and makeup on. I don’t edit my face but with my birthmark I cover it with makeup, so I muted [the word] catfish actually on my Instagram.’

‘It’s weird cause I actually feel much better for just being here and having my birthmark out,’ she continued to camera. ‘I know it sounds so stupid but I just feel like me and I think I’m just realising that even if people do say something about it, it says more about them than it does about me.’

Snoochie has been praised online for opening up about her body image fears and starting an important conversation about the use of the word ‘catfish’. While the show aired, ‘catfish meaning’ began trending as a breakout search term on Google – as well as ‘Snoochie Shy birthmark’.

What is the meaning of catfish?

It’s about time people understood the real impact of a word like it, because ‘catfish’ has gone from something we associate with an MTV reality show to a tool to bully all women.

The dictionary definition of catfish is to ‘lure (someone) into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona.’ Essentially, it was once solely used to describe people who create fake profiles on dating apps or social media using pictures from a different (real life) person with the intention to prank victims or trick someone into falling for a person that does not exist. We watched the iconic Catfish: The TV Show and gasped, shocked at how easy it was to pretend to be someone else online.

But in the years since the reality show aired, the meaning of the word ‘catfish’ has changed. Now, any woman that wears makeup, uses filters or edits their pictures is dubbed a ‘catfish’ online. In a world that values women on whether they meet unrealistic standards of beauty, anyone that deems it necessary to change their appearance – be it online or in real life – is belittled if they don’t look that perfect ALL the time.

Of course, the conversation around filter-use is important (it’s one we’ve been having A LOT). It absolutely is concerning that young people can digitally restructure their entire face with one click, that their able to take that to surgeons and request changes based on it, that their self-esteem is being destroyed by the constant comparison to a version of you that doesn’t actually exist.

But the thing is, bullying women by calling them a ‘catfish’ does nothing to tackle that problem. All it does is create another unrealistic standard for women to look as perfect as they do online not just 24/7, but naturally. Women are shamed for seeking plastic surgery constantly, but the popularisation of the word catfish – often thrown about so carelessly – will only encourage them to make these permanent changes to their face in order to avoid being called it.

The fact that Snoochie felt she had to ban the word catfish from her Instagram says a lot. This woman is so incredibly beautiful – a public figure constantly photographed at events, a presenter that, to any objective person, clearly meets the high beauty standards our society sets and has that validated by over 160,000 people on Instagram daily. For her to be so worried about viewers calling her a ‘catfish’, it shows the true impact the word has on women everywhere.

There are so many ridiculous hoops women have to jump through to meet societies standards, so much we have to tackle to love ourselves regardless – banning the word ‘catfish’ from our vocabulary (or at least, muting it online like Snoochie) feels like one realistic way we might actually lessen the load.

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