Why Selfies are Great!

From a Nerdy Girl

Selfies are insanely big at the moment (they're in the OED!), and are almost exclusively critiscised for being narcissistic and egotistical. I want to explain why I think that is wrong, why that isn't necessarily a bad thing, and a few other reasons why you should definitely be taking selfies.

Let's start at the heart of what a selfie is. It's essentially a way to capture who you are, an impression of yourself in a particular moment to preserve that moment for more time. And it's nothing new. People have made impressions of themselves in this way since the dawn of time - we've drawn ourselves on cave walls, we've painted portraits of ourselves. The difference now, with the modern day selfies, is that it is available to pretty much everybody. Whilst once, you had to be insanely rich (think of Kings and Queens through history) to get a portrait painted of you, nowadays many people own mobile phones with cameras installed inside of them. Whilst once, the only recognised artists who painted themselves were male, selfies are indiscriminate of gender, with boys, girls and trans* people able to take them and get themselves represented. And whilst once, not so very long ago, the only photos in media were of a certain body type which the majority of the population had no chance in attaining, selfies are taken by people of every kind of body type and this allows us to recognise a million and one different types of beauty. And recognising that other types of beauty other than what the media portrays exist in other people, could potentially allow people to realise that they too have beauty of their own kind.

Unflattering Selfies

We can also take unflattering selfies, selfies of ourselves in our big hoodies and pyjama bottoms, pictures of ourselves doing boring things or very unsexy things - because beauty does not define us and we are under no obligation to always look flattering when we post a picture of ourselves. We - us, the person - should be enough, although obviously posting pictures when we feel fabulous can also be great!

Grumpy Selfie

Pictures essentially, show people who we are. Instead of letting other people take pictures of you, the selfie allows you control the way in which the world views you by taking your own picture. In this way, you can decide what angle to take the photo at, the lighting, the scenery, the filters and anyone else in the picture. It is a powerful way of defining yourself as a person, instead of letting other people define you. It must be said that in no way, how you defines you completely as a person. But selfies allow us to define ourselves a little more than we might otherwise be able to. Selfies can be taken while you do things that you love, you can take selfies where instead of smiling you show a facial expression and can share how you are feeling.

But are they narcissistic? Arguably, they are more narcissistic than society would like us to be. Society pressures people to constantly hate themselves, how they look - and even if they don't, they should pretend to. It is perfectly acceptable to comment on how pretty someone else is - but the second we admit that we have even the tiniest amount of beauty, it becomes self-centred and vain.

And society has done a pretty good job of ensuring people feel uncomfortable with how they look. 91% of women dislike their bodies, with 97% of women having an "I hate my body moment" daily. 43% of men have body insecurities, and 38% of men would exchange a year of their life for the ideal body. If that isn't a society in need of a little body loving, and narcissism and essentially recognizing their own beauty, well, then, I don't know what is.

And today, just for once, I'm signing off with a selfie. Technically it's a selfie of me taking a selfie. Selfie-fucking-ception. Lots of love, little peeps
Bella