TikTok’s “What I Eat In A Day”: Controlling the Female Body Through Media

Authors

  • Julia Caterino Undergraduate Student

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2025.89

Keywords:

food, body image, media

Abstract

The following essay centers around the TikTok #WhatIEatInADay trend. It is a historical and cultural analysis of the ways that the trend perpetuates diet culture messages from past mediums while introducing new trends that are unique to the digital age. The scope of research is American mass media targeting women from the early twentieth century to the present-day. Etiquette books, newspaper articles, advertisements, and magazines were used for the historical portion of the essay. TikTok was used to gather trend analytics and to provide details about user engagement. The purpose of the research is to expose the ways that diet culture messages in mass media have evolved over the past century, influencing the way that women engage with the content.

 

References

Anderson, Monica, et al. 2023. “Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023.” Pew Research

Center. www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/12/11/teens-social-media-and-technology-

/.

Barry, Richard. 1917. “Less Sugar. Means Good-Bye to Your Surplus Fat: Uncle Sam’s Appeal

Demands a Tightening of Belts Among the SweetToothed, for Whom This Extravagant

Country Is Famous.” The New York Times, SM2.

Blanch, Lesley. 1960 “Features/Articles/People: You and the New Morality.” Vogue (New York)

(7): 54, 60.

Calling All Girls. 1963. Publishers of Parents’ Magazine.

Clein, Emmeline. 2024. Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm. First edition. Alfred A.

Knopf.

Contois, Emily J. H. 2020. Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food

Media and Culture. 1st ed. The University of North Carolina Press.

https://doi.org/10.5149/9781469660769_contois.

Counihan, Carole, and Steven L. Kaplan. 1998. Food and Gender : Identity and Power.

Harwood Academic Publishers.

Dane, Alexandra, and Komal Bhatia. 2023. “The Social Media Diet: A Scoping Review to

Investigate the Association between Social Media, Body Image and Eating Disorders

amongst Young People.” PLOS Global Public Health 3 (3): e0001091.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001091.

David, Maxime and Ezan, Pascale. 2023. “The staging of female influencers’ expertise in

nutrition: The case of the ‘What I eat in a day’ videos.” Décisions Marketing 109:

-98.

Eddy, Kirsten. 2024. “6 facts about Americans and TikTok.” Pew Research Center.

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/03/6-facts-about-americans-and-tiktok/.

Eltink, Elisa, and Christian Bröer. 2024. “Healthism Online: ‘What I Eat in a Day’ Vlogs before

and during COVID-19 Restrictions.” Heliyon 10 (1): e23623.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23623.

Etiquette for Americans. 1909. New and rev. ed. Duffield & Company.

Gurtala, Jade C., and Jasmine Fardouly. 2023. “Does Medium Matter? Investigating the Impact

of Viewing Ideal Image or Short-Form Video Content on Young Women’s Body Image,

Mood, and Self-Objectification.” Body Image 46: 190–201.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.06.005.

Hamlin, Kyla. 2024. “summer food >>” TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@kylahamli

n0/video/7385584700452031790?_r=1&_t=8oIfxHG1zwI.

Klemesrud, Judy. 1972. “THOSE THIN BUT FRANTIC LADIES.” Harper’s Bazaar 105

(3127): 58-59. Hearst Magazines, a Division of Hearst Communications, Inc.

Lampert, Leslie. 1995. “Lost and Found.” Ladies’ Home Journal 112 (10): 164. Meredith

Corporation.

Sears School for Young Charmers. 1965. Sears, Roebuck and Co.

The Complete Hostess. 1929. Women’s Association, Trinity Reformed Church.

Topham, Justine, and Naomi Smith. 2023. “One Day of Eating: Tracing Misinformation in

‘What I Eat In A Day’ Videos.” Journal of Sociology (Melbourne, Vic.) 59 (3): 682-98.

https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833231161369.

Woodward, Matthew. 2024. “TikTok User Statistics 2024: Everything You Need To Know.”

Search Logistics. www.searchlogistics.com/learn/statistics/tiktok-user-statistics/.

“Display Ad 12 – No Title.” 1925. New York Times (1923-), p. 12.

“Display Ad 84 – No Title.” 1943. New York Times (1923-), p. 1.

Downloads

Published

2025-04-29

How to Cite

Caterino, J. (2025). TikTok’s “What I Eat In A Day”: Controlling the Female Body Through Media. Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2025.89

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2025): Fall/Winter 2024-25

Section

Research

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Julia Caterino

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
  9. The Author agrees to digitally sign the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work.