What’s wrong with taking selfies?

Selfies. Defined as “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.”

Selfies have become a common part of most people’s mobile phone usage, whether it’s for a night out, a special occasion or just for everyday occurrences. They’re a way of expressing yourself, admiring your make up and hair and of course, sharing on various social media outlets such as Instagram or Facebook. They’re fun, spontaneous, often take little effort, are entertaining, funny and a great way of sharing who you’re with, what you look like and what you’re doing. 

So why does everyone hate them?

There’s nothing wrong with this

There’s such a taboo around taking selfies. Classic phrases come to mind as the doubts starts creeping in. “But what if people judge me?” “I uploaded a selfie yesterday on Instagram. Is it socially acceptable to put up another one today?” “What if people think I’m vain?”

Often girls that put selfies up on social media gather negative reactions. As if it’s such a bad thing that you put one up yesterday, have the same expression, pose, or over-post anything. Yeah, that’s my face, and when I have a good face day I’ll post something. I’m not going to apologise for being confident.

Working it

 A lot of people talk about our generation as the ones that are always taking selfies, as if it’s something to be ashamed of, and that we must all be so bored and have nothing to do with our lives, that we reach for the camera and take pictures of ourselves.

There’s such a fear about loving yourself and how you look. Social media loves to constantly tell us that we don’t look good enough (and never will) and so many women buy into diet pills and waist trainers, believing that it will make them look better and thus more acceptable in society.

Female beauty is used to sell products, create services and make money. Women’s magazines splatter female celebrities in bikinis across their covers, nit picking their bodies and highlighting their so-called flaws, leading us to then doubt ourselves and fueling any already existing insecurities. It’s an industry that thrives on women’s low self esteem and feeds off insecurities and self-hatred.

So it’s perfectly acceptable for men to admire and lust over women in pictures but as soon as we ourselves realize our own beauty and capture it through our own gaze with new creativity, it suddenly becomes vain and embarrassing?

So taking selfies is a threat. It’s putting two fingers up to society and saying: actually I like how I look. I don’t want to buy into your industry and continue to support your exploitative ways. When we live in an age where self-love and good self-esteem is so actively discouraged, selfies are a progressive way of combating this.

So go take that selfie. Put it on Instagram. Facebook. Twitter. And if you really want to, frame that shit. Make it your screensaver and personalize your mug and your mouse mat with it. Go share that self love. We could all do with some.