Not too long ago, it was really difficult to take a picture of yourself. It was time-consuming! You needed to find your camera, strategically hold your arm out, press the button a few times, and hope that your face ended up in the frame of at least a couple of the pictures you captured. Uploading them to your computer and choosing one to make your profile picture on MySpace was then an entirely separate event. It was an ordeal and the selfie was quite rare.
Today, ‘selfies’ are everywhere. We all take them and it’s nearly impossible to scroll through Facebook and Instagram feeds without passing one. Smart phones with front-facing cameras and constantly expanding social networks have revolutionized the way we’re able to share ourselves with others.
Being looked at by other people is unavoidable and sometimes it can be uncomfortable just because it’s unavoidable. Whether I want it to happen or not, people see my body all the time. Selfies, though, create an interesting place where there’s some degree of mediation between and control over who is looking at me, when they are looking at me, and how they are looking me—posed and two-dimensional, unlike walking down the street or sitting in a classroom or shopping at the grocery store. Selfies provide distance. They allow for a kind of separation that doesn’t weigh down on my mental and physical self the way being leered at while walking home does. A person might whistle at my selfie, but I won’t hear it.
There is a weird, increased consciousness that sometimes comes along with selfie-taking. We are aware of ourselves taking a picture of ourselves, knowing that other people know that we know this. In turn, selfies offer us a sort of unique opportunity to construct another body. This body is one we are allowing others to see, which is something that doesn’t happen so much outside of the selfie realm.
Unruly Bodies 
I completely agree that selfies allow people to distance themselves from the reactions of those who see them, but I also feel that selfies are often lambasted for being a vain and self-indulgent past time. So often women and girls are mocked for their participation in this selfie culture. I myself often hesitate before posting a picture of myself in which I feel I look attractive, in fear that someone will see it and assume that I simply want attention. And so most of the pictures that I post are ones in which I am making a silly face – something where I feel attractive, but not as if I am trying to. I have been taught that I must hide the fact that I am attempting to get some sort of external validation (even though in many cases I am), because I have been led to believe that, if I were to take a “real” selfie, I would be vain. So, while selfies do allow a sort of controlled environment in how people see you, I believe they are also controlled, to a certain extent, by social constructions of female vanity.
That’s such a good point and one that I thought about a lot while writing this. I think it’s definitely important to consider the whole narcissism vs. empowerment discussion that is often brought up when talking about selfies and also the ways that capitalism and ‘the gaze’ are potentially a part of that. I have so many selfie feelings! It is unfortunate that something we seemingly have so much control over is still somewhat controlled by others.
I definitely agree with the post above ^. In the realm of social media, selfies are seen as a vain post to ones feed. I’m perfectly fine with that assumption. To be completely honest, when i post a selfie I want attention. I’m waiting for those little orange bubbles that tell me when people like my picture on Instagram. Normally, i’ll post a selfie on a day where i feel like i look great and want everyone to know it, including those who haven’t seen me today. As women in this society there’s this expectation that we’re supposed to spend hours of our time on makeup and hair and clothes, yet for some reason we’re not supposed to flaunt it in your face unless we want to be deemed self-indulgent. Doesn’t really make sense to me. You don’t paint a canvas to hide it in a dark room.
Really love this post and these comments. Selfies are totally something that have all of this potential to be engaged seriously, or at least thoughtfully, however there is this kind of whole vague notion of vanity, self-importance (in a kind of ‘pathological’ way), and frivolity that is attributed to them, precisely because (as y’all mentioned) they are such a unique tool for empowering women in particular. Simply through the assertion of agency in how their bodies are presented and ‘consumed.’
For me, it is a really special time where I can kind of crystallize a moment where I’m not really afraid of my body and how people perceive it/me. Yet, I always feel compelled to present it as a kind of half-sarcastic or silly gesture, which kind of situates me on the negative and judgmental side, in that I, historically, have kind of left an ambiguity in the intentions and ‘performative’ qualities of selfies, so as to not be read as vane or even confident.
Working on it though.
The whole culture of having a blog, doing selfie stuff, putting out your thoughts and feelings and whatnot, displaying stuff you make or care about, is all potentially really empowering. I think that to characterize somebody’s assertion of themselves as important in someway, or valuable, or attractive–even if in a ‘superficial’ or transient kind of way, or anything positive, should totally be celebrated, rather than reflective of some character flaw or something like that.
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