Notes to Self

This weeks text is Notes to self: the visual culture of selfies in the age of social media by Derek Conrad Murray. Murray states the focus of selfies is on young women as part of a regressive personality trait. Young women are often characterizing themselves using the selfie, as a radical act of political empowerment, which is a means to resist the male-dominated culture of media and the oppressive hold over their body and lives.

In terms of post-feminism, the selfie allows young women to find their self-definition, a new form of visual expressiveness. Many women and girls who may not be confident expressing themselves, find it easier to do so by taking an image of themselves and then having the choice to upload it to social media. The way to make room for new identities, politics and forms of visual expressiveness. Women often contradict themselves, as they are now deeply obsessed with social media and blogs. Young women who self consciously describe themselves as radical feminists, often post images of themselves, whilst in various states of dressed or undressed, or even nude. This takes away their fight to have women equal and not seen to be desirable sex objects, yet themselves are not helping the situation by posting and encouraging the image of how a women is looked upon. An example would be a young women posting an image of themselves nude onto social media, and the caption being how men will look at that with pleasure. Surely it would be a lot more achievable if that young women would have posted an image of her dressed with the same caption.

‘…to a lesser degree, female body hair – symbolizes the historical abuses of patriarchy and the oppressive social control often exerted over female bodies. To image what for many may be perceived as the intimacy of personal hygiene is an act of wilful defiance and a means to claim agency – despite the fact that one’s distaste for images of blood may arguably stem from an array of other issues.’ (Derek Conrad Murray)

Women are seen to be groomed and have a high standard of personal hygiene, yet some women are unwilling to do so. The defiance of a women results in them not shaving under-arm hair, or seen walking around with menstrual blood visible, the visually notice of an unhygienic women but, then breaks the stereotypical ideal of what a women should be like. This is mainly from women who blog and document their lives using snapshot style images, presenting themselves and their intimate relationships.

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *