The Selfie as Self-Exploration

In 2013, “selfie” was named Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year. The decision was met with complaints that the younger generation is narcissistic and self-obsessed. However, taking pictures of oneself is not exclusive to one generation, and it can be especially helpful to young people in developmental years as they cultivate their identities. While both girls and boys take selfies, this paper will focus on the benefits that young girls can accrue from the act of selfie-taking. Despite the criticisms against selfies, the allegedly petty hobby comes from a long-standing tradition of self-portraiture. Like self-portraits, selfies can be a way to create and explore the self, especially for young girls who struggle to find confidence in the face of unrealistic beauty standards.

A predecessor to the selfie, the self-portrait has a long history. As Megan Gerber of The Atlantic wrote, “The self-portrait, as a form, has been around almost as long as portraiture itself has – a testament to artists’ obsession not only with form and function and beauty, but also with themselves.” Self-portraits have always been a way for artists to explore themselves, but that kind of self-exploration has mostly been limited to those who were exceptionally talented or wealthy. Eventually, photography and the creation of inexpensive cameras democratized the self-portrait, making the art form available to working-class artists like Vivian Maier, who worked as a nanny while privately pursuing the art of photography. When her work was posthumously discovered, Maier’s photographs were exhibited and received critical acclaim. Today, technology makes photography easier than ever before. Camera phones are extremely accessible, and most of them even have a built-in feature that reverses the camera lens toward the user, thus enabling the “selfie.” In addition, as opposed to older cameras, contemporary smartphones allow their owners to take multitudes of pictures quickly and for free, without purchasing film or waiting for it to develop. Furthermore, according to Pew Research Center at least 81% of teens use social media, which allows young people to share those pictures of themselves with the world. According to an infographic created by Ruby Media Corporation, a marketing group, women use social media sites like Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and Pinterest more than men (“Why Women Are the Real Power Behind Social Media”). Because technology places the camera lens directly in the hands of girls, young women have the agency to decide what image of themselves they want to project, experimenting with identity and thereby shaping it through choices in clothes, poses, angles, and backgrounds in selfies.

Vivian Maier made similar significant choices in her self-portraits. However, unlike selfies and the self-portraits of other photographers, Maier kept her photographs private because they were intended for the photographer’s personal exploration of herself. Nevertheless, Maier constructs some sort of identity through her self-portraits, much like young girls do through selfies. Maier makes conscious decisions to look away from the camera, such as to appear as a shadow, to include layered mirrors with multiple reflections, to wear frumpy, plain clothes, and to include her camera as part of her self. Through these choices Maier presents herself as aloof, as eccentric, as a part of the crowd, and as a photographer. Likewise, when girls take selfies, they present themselves to the world in the way that they want to be seen, as well as the way they see themselves. By attempting to be seen a certain way, young girls reveal the aspects of themselves they are most proud of and experiment with their identities through examining who they want to be.

Therefore, Maier’s self portraits and today’s selfies are not so different; in both cases, women have the agency to determine how they are presented in photographs. For example, a photograph by Maier (Image #1) shows the artist holding her camera, eyes looking away as a shadow covers parts of her face. In comparison, a friend of mine, Megh Valentine, posted a selfie (Image #2) on her blog that had similar features. The picture showed her selfie on the camera screen, as light from the window came in and created highlights and shadows. In the selfie, Megh looks away from the camera, just as Maier does. In both pictures, the averted glances of the photographers might be an attempt to communicate detachment, draw the viewer in, or simply play with light and shadow. Either way, a respected photographer and an amateur selfie-taker make similar conscientious decisions to create an artistic product. Furthermore, both photographs show the process of picture-taking, and show the camera as part of oneself.

Image 1. Maier. Self-Portrait. 1955          Image 2. Valentine. Selfie. 2015

These two images illustrate the fact that both selfies and self-portraits share intrinsic qualities of self-exploration. Noah Berlatsky, an art critic for The Atlantic, even makes the bold claim that selfies are art: “The selfie is a deliberate, aesthetic expression—it’s a self-portrait… There can be bad self-portraits and good self-portraits, but the self-portrait isn’t bad or good in itself. Like any art, it depends on what you do with it” (“Selfies Are Art”). Even though young girls with smartphones may lack Maier’s technique and artistic vision, their selfies can be art, a means by which they can explore and create some aspect of their identities. In doing so, young girls claim agency over their appearance and identity, controlling the image of themselves they present to the world.

In order to cultivate the self, girls must have a safe space, where they can feel confident and secure, to experiment with their developing identities. Unfortunately for girls, that safe space is hard to come by. However, young girls can use the power of social media through selfies to foster body positivity and confidence. According to an online survey, 65% of teen girls “said seeing their selfies on social media actually boosts their confidence” (Dahl). Selfies provide an opportunity for girls to cultivate the self with confidence because rather than consume monotonous, homogenous images posited by the media, selfies enable young girls to regularly view images of diverse people, who have had agency in determining how they present themselves to the world. In addition, Rachel Simmons of Slate claims that the selfie is a “tiny pulse of girl pride – a shout out to the self.” Furthermore, Simmons claims that selfies encourage self-promotion, which is a skill that girls will need later in life to become successful in the professional world. While boys have been inherently socialized to self-promote, girls have been taught that “pride…is a cardinal sin” (Simmons). According to Simmons, through the selfie, girls publicly assert their identities and unapologetically take pride in their appearances despite the unrealistic beauty standards that dominate the media.

Although most selfies deal with beauty in conventional ways, girls can use them for subtly subversive and defiant purposes. Therefore, selfies can defy traditional conventions of beauty just as artists have done for centuries through self-portraiture. For example, Tumblr user “offbeatmel” posted a selfie (Image #3) accompanied by a poem she had written as part of the “Blackout,” a day which flooded the Internet with black selfies in an attempt to empower black people and defy white-centric media representations of beauty. In her poem, the photographer writes,

“I turned on the TV / flipped through magazines / saw the only thing deemed a “beauty” / to look nothing like me.” She goes on to explain the power and impact of the Blackout, writing “thank you, blackout / for the reminder / sweet as honey / warm as my mother’s voice / that my black is beautiful.”

Although the selfie itself is not out of the ordinary, its context within the Blackout event reveals the power of being able to share pictures of oneself with the world. The Blackout both celebrated African-American beauty and rebelled against conventional representations of people of color in the media. Carrie Mae Weems, whose photographs have been placed on exhibition in museums such as the Guggenheim, also explores ideas about the marginalization of black women in American culture. “Untitled (Woman and Daughter with Makeup),” a part of Weems’s Kitchen Table Series, in particular explores themes of beauty in relation to black women. In the photo (Image #4), Weems and a young girl sit at a kitchen with mirrors, applying makeup. According to Jonas Cuenin, a writer for the photography magazine L’oeil de la Photographie,by positioning herself in the photograph, Weems is “a point of reference through which the role of women throughout the community is explored, and the viewer is invited to take a seat” (Cuenin). Both Weems and Tumblr users utilize forms of self-portraits to explore and criticize the position of African American women in society. Therefore, the selfie gives young girls the power to explore and take pride in themselves.

Image 3. Dear Blackout. 2015.    Image 4. Weems. Untitled (Woman and
.                                                          Daughter with Makeup). 1990.

Selfies provide girls with the opportunity to reclaim agency by presenting themselves to the world in the way they desire to be seen, and cultivating as well as sharing unique identities. By facilitating self-exploration and helping young girls assert their identities, selfies give girls power and agency. Despite the criticism against it, selfies are small-scale self-portraits and are therefore a form of art. Although most selfies do not hold the same artistic value as Vivian Maier’s stylized and enigmatic self-portraits, the two types of photographs share similar qualities. In selfies and self-portraits, the “artist” makes several deliberate aesthetic choices to present a certain impression of the subject. Through experimenting with these choices, the subject can decide what feels comfortable and what doesn’t, thereby creating an identity and sharing it with the world. This process is especially important for young girls, who have found in selfies an outlet for pride and unabashed confidence. Furthermore, selfies can often show a more realistic image of others, and therefore subvert the idealized image of women that the media pushes on young girls. Overall, despite criticism against them, selfies provide a way for young people, especially girls, to empower themselves through the formation of identities.

Works Cited

Berlatsky, Noah. “Selfies Are Art.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Dahl, Melissa. “Selfie-esteem: Teens Say Selfies Give a Confidence Boost.” TODAY. N.p., 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

Garber, Megan. “And Now There Is a ‘National Selfie Portrait Gallery'” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Sifferlin, Alexandra. “Why Selfies Matter.” Time. Time, 12 June 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Simmons, Rachel. “Selfies Are Good for Girls.” Slate. N.p., 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

“Why Women are the Real Power Behind Social Media.” N.d. Graphic. Ruby Media Corporation. Web. 19 Mar 2015.