Devon Barthold Selfie article

            The article, “Fear and Selfie-Loathing in America: Identifying the Interstices of Othering, Iconoclasm, and the Selfie” by Jessica Leigh Maddox, has many interesting points about the selfie and the different views of them. Some of the points in this article did not seem true to me, but other ones did seem good. Throughout the passage there seemed to be two main sides, the “others” who were the ones who took the photos and then the side who saw taking photos as narcissistic. 

            One major point that stuck out to me was how they kept bringing up how “real men do not take selfies,”. To me this sounds kind of sexist. It should not matter what gender you are, if you want to capture that image, then you should be allowed free of judgement. Seeing selfie takers as female teens and not wanting to be like them is completely wrong, it is a form of photography, you should not need to be a certain gender and age to be able to take this type of photograph. 

            The use of the term “Others” really grabbed my attention, the fact that they created a new definition of this word just for their topic to make a point is pretty interesting. Although I think it is pretty wrong to refer to people as “Others” just because you dislike a type of photograph that they take. I do not think that it is okay to just come up with a new title for people just because you do not agree with what they do. I understand not liking what someone else does but referring to them at an “other” is not really okay. 

            One last point that I found kind of outrageous is that they created a formula that can measure narcissism according to the number of selfies taken in an hour. I feel like this formula is completely wrong, just because you take so many photos in one hour cannot determine how narcissistic you are. People take selfies for all different reason, it is not always because people are obsessed with themselves, so automatically assuming that they are a narcissist based off of their selfie taking it not okay. Assuming things like this is something that we as humans do all the time; we compare every action that we do or see to our opinions and views. Everything is different for everyone else. So, assuming this cannot really work since it is truly different for each person.

            Overall this article has some good points, many of the points are ones I do not believe in. This article mentions that men who take selfies are not real men, this argument is extremely sexist and not true. The use of the term “Others” is very degrading towards selfie takers. Narcissism is not something that can be calculated from an equation; it is just a way of life for some people but has nothing to do with taking selfies.