In the text written by Derek Murray, he actively discusses his interest with social media and the selfie; particularly the use of selfies by young women on sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram. Derek begins to talk about how young women characterize the selfie as a political empowerment in an act to resist the male-dominated media culture and their obsession with women’s lives and bodies.
I agree and disagree with this discussion as in the 21st Century, women often contradict themselves, some post explicit selfies to gain male attention, some post them to regain female power, it’s a 50/50 split between the intentions of women’s selfies and can be perceived very differently by men in social media. Derek backs this opinion up with this statement “The gesture itself has been popularly characterised as something rather pitiful… as an expression of narcissism and self-loathing” and also further into his text discusses how social media is inundated with blogs by young women who upload explicit images then contradict themselves with a followed post about rape and abuse to women.
Throughout the text, Derek moves onto the relation between the selfie and post-feminism. He discusses post-feminism in a theory of representation and how young women seek to redefine the parameters of feminism that grants them recognition. My interpretation of this is that I believe women do strategically use the selfie to regain female power and to push for more equality between the sexes, but the question is, how does the selfie actually do that, other than to draw in male attention.
A point in the text that I would like to be able to understand further is Derek’s discussion on the female gaze and how it relates to inequality and female disempowerment as this is something I’m struggling to take apart.
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