Selfie response - Christina Markey

Rethinking the selfie

I agree with this article in stating how selfies were first criticized because they were captured by the “others”. The “others” are referred to as women, people of different races, transgenders, people with disabilities, etc.  “This acknowledgement, in turn, gives selfie-takers, and by extension Others, agency and control in their own image production because they are no longer relying on an extra person (or, outside photographer) to take the picture for them.” (31). The selfie has given the “others” more power than they have ever had which is made people criticize them. As the article mentions the people capturing the pictures are no longer the dominant, basic, powerful men. These “others” now have their own power to be independent and create photos that share their own life experience through the selfie.  The selfie is giving these “others” the power to change our society and cultural expectations. Through the selfie, people are now able to show their true selves without any edits or fake changes that the media may make with photography. I agree with this article about the new message selfies are sending throughout the world, “Instead of longing after or feeling belittled by unobtainable media frameworks, individuals are able to say: ‘They are wrong. This is in fact how I look, and this is how one should understand me.’” (32). The key idea of a selfie to me is that it is a way to self-represent. I do not think the trend of selfies is making the world narcissistic at all. The selfie is changing the society for a better “Selfie takers are joining dialogues, deciding how to present their lived experience to the world, or simply feeling good about themselves” (32). There is a wide variety of positions and positive standpoints that you can make within taking a selfie. I believe that it is sad in our culture that men are so discouraged to be able to capture a selfie. Throughout the internet it is reinforced that “real” men do not photograph selfies. “The mindset reinforcedby these memes is the idea that ideological dominant “real men” do not take selfies, and that selfies are counterintuitive to hegemonic masculinity.” (35). I agree with other people trying to counteract these statements and prove that selfies are not just for girls. Jill Walker Rettberg suggests, “our fascination with creating digital self-portraits is indicative of our collective coming of age where we as a culture are discovering that we have voices online and can express ourselves rather than simply accepting the mass media’s view of the world” (36). I agree with Rettberg’s statement that discovering our voices online through selfies gives us a chance to express ourselves instead of going along with the type of images that social media conveys as acceptable. 2018 and the future should become the most accepting of selfies because selfies express who we truly are as individuals.