You know someone did something bad when Twitter blows up, especially feminist twitter. Today's culprit was repeat offender, Jezebel. Today they posted a story entitled, "Selfies Aren't Empowering, They're a Cry for Help." (don't worry, it's a donotlink)I'm not about to try to write a praise or 'in defense' post of the selfie. Although if you follow me on Flickr or Instagram you know I'm a fan. I even did the 365 project for 2008 (where the selfie at the left if from). I think they are fun and I especially love to use them for photos with friends or to show you that "I AM HERE!" While the Jez piece is lengthy and there's plenty to munch on there, I found this grey-area exception to be the pinnacle of silly:
grey-area exception: selfies where a person's face is not the point of the picture. Some women I follow on Instagram, for example, post pictures of themselves wearing cool sunglasses or lipstick or hats, which I feel is not technically a selfie because the point of a pure selfie is "HERE'S MY FACE" and not "here's a cool hat/lipstick shade/pair of sunglasses"So let me get this straight...I am in the wrong and crying out for help if I'm not using my face as a prop to show you an inanimate object like a hat, sunglasses or lipstick? But I am having a great day and want to show it to the world in a selfie, I'm in need of an intervention? OOOOKAAAAAY. Got it.
Selfie of myself after delivering a kick-ass speech = NO
Selfie of myself to show you how I just participated in consumerism = YES
Got it? Cool.
Now to take yet another selfie of my patented eye roll.