Read on Twitter
As a woman, I am very against posting selfies online for both men and women. Selfies are generally taken from a close distance that is considered intimate in real life. (thread)
To constantly show one's face from that intimate distance is to invite people - strangers - into one's peripersonal space. It is disorienting for the viewer, until they are inundated with it. It is depersonalizing for the poster because of the strangeness of the viewer.
Only a lover or perhaps a close friend normally sees someone from that angle and distance. The lack of focus/view of the background - which normally enables politeness and decency during conversation - in a selfie heightens the sense of intense focus on the poster.
Again, this is normally reserved for someone who gazes intently at someone in desire. (I am not attempting to censure desire, but to highlight its importance as exclusive.)
To make such an intimate view of yourself commonplace is to make commonplace that desire which is inherently exclusive. This is regardless of if you are decently covered by clothes hijab etc.
While this is not done consciously, the fact that we think we are most attractive at that angle is because - we are! It is natural that, when we are desired, the other person sees us intimately & intently. We do the same when we desire others. Sexuality isn't just about clothing.
I do not mean to exaggerate when I say that selfies are yet another way in which we are constantly and subtly kept in a state of desire in the modern world. The ubiquitousness of social media heightens this.
(along with marketing techniques, camera pans in movies, etc)
(along with marketing techniques, camera pans in movies, etc)
If you wouldn't let someone sit 11 inches from your face & gaze at you in real life, why would you allow strangers to do so in an even less personal platform?
This is not directed at someone in particular (I used to post selfies too), but it is interesting how anonymity and, well, social norms make us lose our natural boundaries with others, the very boundaries that make intimacy meaningful.
PS: if you think social media companies don't know this, don't capitalize off it, don't have psychologists sitting & analyzing the best way to frame pictures to promote desire - you're delusional. The reason it's nigh impossible to avoid is bc they design their platforms this way
Would anybody use Facebook if their photos looked like passport or driver's licence photos? After all, that's sufficient for identification isnt it? Isn't it about "connecting ppl"?
No, it's about promoting yourself, like a commodity. The whole thing is voyeuristic, sick.
No, it's about promoting yourself, like a commodity. The whole thing is voyeuristic, sick.
Since an unexpected number of ppl are reading this, lol, here's some semi-long reading reflecting on digital imagery! https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/beware-what-comes-within-from-without