The selfie is both a cultural artefact and social practice. As an artefact it “initiates the transmission of human feeling in the form of a relationship”, and as a practice it “can send different messages to different individuals, communities, and audiences” (Senft & Baym 2015, p.1589).
Walsh & Baker (2016) attribute the increasing popularity of self-generated digital photographic portraiture (‘selfies’) to the rise of social media platforms and affordability of camera phones.
Senft & Baym’s article outlines the debates and extremist reactions to selfies and their cultural meaning. Many continue to portray selfie-takers as vacuous, self-absorbed, vain and narcissistic, whilst others claim selfies are a powerful tool to empower minorities. Within this blog post, I will examine the use of selfies as a tool for redefining a woman’s worth.
Women in the media:
Within this patriarchal society, women are encouraged to strive for unnatural, unattainable standards of beauty. The media has always been saturated with images of hyper-sexualized, submissive, and beautiful women. This is extended to gender discrimination and double standards in many aspects of a woman’s daily life. Within our discourse, a women’s worth is entirely determined by her appearance and this has great effects on all aspects on her daily life. This discourse is reinforced through popular culture, media and marketing; all of which contain representations of women and gender that are problematic [see images below].
Society’s beliefs about women and attractiveness are defined within the media’s representations of women. Studies have found that young women have been influenced by the mediated images of exceptionally thin models, which can have long-term psychological effects (Engeln-Maddox, 2005).
How can the rise of the selfie change this?
Examples of selfies with positive messages for women:
Courtney Mina (a plus size woman with Lipedema) posts selfies online encouraging every woman to love her body, feel beautiful, and express confidence freely no matter your size or level of health. [read more about her here]
Constance Hall is a mother of three that takes selfies to raise awareness of body acceptance issues, including her struggle with bulimia when she was younger and what most post-baby bodies look like (Ingram 2016). [View her Instagram here]
In contrast to the messages that dominate the mass media, these selfies are sending a completely different message. These images are essentially telling women that societal expectations of beauty are unattainable and unrealistic. Social media platforms provide a place for inspiring and motivational images and sequences that are telling women that they are more than their appearance. These ‘selfie-takers’ are ultimately sending a positive message to women within a society saturated with negative ones; harnessing the selfie as a tool to send their own powerful, feminist messages (Bates, 2016)
As Bissel and Rask have explained, selfies can become a tool to influence the way women “perceive beauty and attractiveness in themselves and in others” (p.643)- inspiring society to think differently about what is defined as ‘beautiful’.
The selfies that fill these women’s social media profiles have a powerful effect within society. These selfies are working to subvert the media’s representations of women and beauty. By posting images that are outside of the traditional standard of beauty, these women are working to change the discourse and encourage dialogue on perceptions of female beauty.
Conclusions:
The selfie is a tool that has the potential to encourage social progress and change. It has the power to be an empowering and uplifting activity to make a real difference to the discourse surrounding women’s appearance.
However, Senft & Baym (2015, p. 1597) encourage us to remember that “celebrating all selfies as empowering makes as little sense as denigrating them all as disempowering”. Whilst some people will post pictures of themselves to advocate for greater social change, others will do it to show off themselves. Whilst some women will post their natural, makeup-free selfies, others will post digitally retouched, professionally made-up selfies – and there will always be both.
Seft & Baym’s article explains that although the act of taking, uploading, viewing, exchanging or commenting on images cannot empower (or disempower) someone, it can facilitate their empowerment. Whilst we may not be able to say that posting or viewing a selfie is empowering, we can conclude that it is contributing to the discourse – and thus can contribute to the way in which women are viewed and represented within society.
References:
Bates, L 2016, ‘Are selfies empowering for women’, The Guardian, viewed 11 March, <https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/04/are-selfies-empowering-for-women>.
Bissel & Rask 2010, ‘Real women on Real beauty’, International Journal of Advertising, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 643-648.
Engeln-Maddox, R 2005, ‘Cognitive responses to idealized media images of women: the relationship of social comparison and critical processing to body image disturbance in college women’, Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, vol. 24, no.8, pp. 1114-1138.
Ingram, L 2016, ‘’Kim and I have really similar curves’: Mummy blogger Constance Hall posts a copycat of THAT Kardashian naked selfie’, Daily Mail Australia, viewed 11 March, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3486717/Constance-Hall-posts-naked-selfie-emulating-Kim-Kardashian.html>.
Senft & Baym 2015, ‘What Does the Selfie Say? Investigating a global phenomenon’, International Journal of Communication, vol. 9, pp. 1588-1606.
Walsh, MJ & Baker, SA 2016, ‘The Selfie and the transformation of the public-private distinction’, Journal of Information, Communication & Society, pp. 1-19.
Images:
http://meganradicalromance.blogspot.com.au/2009/12/ideal-woman-impossible-feat.html
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/05/28/1153/
http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/04/the-selling-of-masculinity/
reneeschwarze 