Selfie: the ABC-Book @selfietheabcbook-blog - Tumblr Blog

Selfie: Seductive, self-selling, slut-called women

As Shah illustrated it in her study on “The Selfie and the Slut”, there is a strong link between a woman taking selfies and slut, not in a pornographic way but rather in a sociological one. Ones of the reasons being should be addressed by the critical definitions (below) to understand why women are often called ‘slut’ or ‘slutty’ while posting on social networks:

{Slut or Slatternly} “Woman who is dirty, unkempt, and unmarked by her belonging to a man and his home; a woman out in public.” (Shah, 2015)

{Process of making a selfie} “Slutty process, and that all bodies that are subject to these scrutinized, quantified, objectifying processes that take away consent, agency, and control from the self and distribute it accrues a network, are slutty” (Shah, 2015)

Unlike men, women are expected to behave, follow the norms and standards in order to avoid being called names. In addition to the fashion industry, the advent of selfies has forced women to compare, evaluate themselves, and make them believe in the “ need for physically attractive self-representation or an elevated need to a group” (Manago, Graham, Greenfield, & Salimkhan, 2008).

#article #self-representation #seduction #slut #judgement #representation #women #society #control #image #reputation #names #admiration #recognition

Selfie: Cause or symptom of the increasing self-obsession, narcissism and suicide among men.

“Selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self-indulgence or or attention-seeking social dependence that raises the damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don’t specter of either narcissism or low esteem” (Rutledge, 2014)

Body worship, Strength, Perseverance, Authority, Courage, etc. These are the characteristics and norms that men are expected possess, and, by extension, to portray in the digital sphere. Therefore, two types of extreme selfie posters behaviors have emerged: ‘Narcissism’ and ‘Body Dysmorphic Disorder’.

Recent researches made by Fox & Rooney (USA, 2015) and Sorokowski et al. (Poland, 2015) have shown that “men’s overall total narcissism score positively predicted posting own selfies, selfies with a partner, and group selfies” (Sorokowski et al., 2015). Unlike what one may think, both studies agreed on the fact that the country of origin doesn’t interfere in the evaluation and link between male narcissism and selfie posting. In fact, all over the globe men tend to be more likely to post selfie to exhibit their ‘self’, beauty and power over others due to social expectations.

On the other hand, men, lacking of self-confident, can be affected by body dysmorphic disorder, which resulted for a young British man in committing a suicide for being able to capture the ‘Ideal’ selfie.

#article #self-photograph #narcissism #suicide #men #body worship #strength #perseverance #authority #courage #digital #self-confidence #reputation #impact

Selfie: Digital object of circulation, storage and leakage promoting the ‘Appearance Society’ and shaping beauty standards.

Since 2002, the word “selfie”, or self-photograph of oneself, has been analyzed and categorized as a cultural trend particularly popular among Generation Y and Generation Z. However, selfies engender invisible aftermaths on our contemporary societies, including aesthetic and societal changes shaping our vision toward body appearance, social norms as well as notions of beauty.

By circulating and being widely distributed, stored on social networks, self-photographs blur the thin line between private and public sphere. “It leaks those solidarity moments of life which need to be kept under wraps” (Shah, 2015). Those photographs, which were supposed to be stocked in private photo albums, are exhibited “for the attention of the crowd, {which} involves the interdiction to have an imperfect look” (Milivojevic & Ercegovac, 2014).

As a result, before being exposed to the ‘outside world’, selfies have to be edited, photoshopped, cropped in order to meet the ‘Ideal’. So as to reach that goal, some selfie users exercise, undergo cosmetic surgeries (breast implant, nose, lips, etc.) — “since the selfie trend developed, surgeons are having far more aesthetic interventions” (Milivojevic & Ercegovac, 2014) — and others activities.

Has social media played a role in the creation of a ‘Selfie Ideal’ by hyper-exposing celebrities?