“Mirror, mirror, on the wall… Who’s the fairest of them all?”
I am so damn sick of selfies. I hate the stupid word. I hate those stupid selfie sticks. I hate all the damn hashtags. #ME?!? Fuck off, Instagram…
But all the hate, hate, hating aside, the selfie craze makes me sad. Especially for all the impressionable teens out there who live and die by the number of likes their sultry little pictures get. It’s a sorry state of affairs, people.
Look, I appreciate physical beauty. We all do. It’s part of human nature. I’m admittedly not well schooled in other cultures, but in Western civ, the pursuit of a beautiful mate is a story told time and time again. Cripes, Helen’s infamous beauty started a full-fledged war!
What pisses me off is the unreasonable extent to which our external looks factor into our feelings of self worth, something I struggle with personally on a daily basis. (I blame growing up in Los Angeles, where an inordinate percentage of the population is paid to be beautiful.) Is being and feeling attractive awesome? Yes! Is it the be-all end-all of our existence? NO! There are just so many other qualities that we should prioritize! Intelligence, kindness, honesty, dedication, loyalty, thoughtfulness, strength, humor, tolerance and the list goes on…
True, sometimes these values are called out in a self-portrait. Didja just make it to the top of super tough hike and you’re proud of your strength and endurance? Did you finally reunite with your bestie after a year on opposite coasts? Did you just graduate from college? All wonderful moments that can and should be shared!
But let’s be real: most selfies aren’t making some kind of statement or empowering the poster. When I hear the word “selfie,” the image conjured to mind isn’t my sister-in-law snuggling her rescued dog or Chelsea Handler mocking Putin or a good friend starting his first day at his dream job. No, what I immediately visualize are the hyper stylized and uber sexual postings of the underage Kylie Jenner. And how many kids consider her a role model!? Like her sister before her, her seemingly sole purpose in life is to look hot. I WEEP for the future!
And the social nature of the selfie — the fact that there’s a built-in approval rating of sorts — just reinforces the notion that we have to turn to others to review and approve our physical appearance. Anyone else ancient enough to remember Hot or Not? I was equal parts appalled and fascinated when that site launched. And don’t even get me started on Tinder…
But here we are. It’s 2015 and the number of #selfies posted to Instagram is 35 MILLION!! As a web marketing specialist, it’s part of my daily lexicon and it isn’t going away. And as much as I’d like to say “Blech! Suck it, selfies!!” I know that’s not the solution. What I’d like to see is a revolution, a generation of young people who use these kinds of hashtags to subvert society’s standards and post images that challenge the status quo. I think renegades like @tessholliday and @thefatjewish are on the right track…
Are you?