let’s look at how selfies are used by individuals and groups to reclaim/remake identity…
- wortham, “on instagram, seeing between the gender line” (ny times article, so not so academicky) [related: “portraits of america’s genderqueer community” — here just to be here, not because you have to look at it.]
- ferreday, “like a stone in your stomach: articulating the unspeakable in rape victim-survivors’ activist selfies” (cw: sexual violence) [a link to the case she discusses if you want to see it yourself: project unbreakable (cw: images of abuse)]
- warfield, “mirrorcameraroom: the gendered multi-instabilities of the selfie” (this one is kind of theoretically dense (or, “exciting”) but has some interesting ideas (“glitch feminism”) as well as a different methodology, so worth your time, but if you are short of time, then definitely read the first two and leave this for another day.) [[if you want to watch/listen to her give a 40minute presentation on why selfies are great, you can watch here. if not, you can ignore]]
anything below is not to be read under any circumstances (unless you’re interested in that sort of thing…)
- selfies and body dysmorphia — problem or moral panic?
- this is a good piece on queer/trans visibility and selfies/social media, but it may be too much reading for today (so i used the nytimes piece instead). still if you want to look at social research on the topic, this is a recent example.
- A couple more defenses of the politics of selfies (short and not academic, so quick reads): #feministselfie reinforces why selfies are empowering;
the sexist backlash against selfies - kunstman “whose selfie citizenship?” (this is the intro to the book that the ferreday pieces comes from. it’s short, but provides a broad overview of a lot of different examples of political uses of selfies, if you might find that kind of thing worth looking into….)