Abstract
This paper examines selfies as a space for challenging normative gender and beauty ideals. It will draw on my research into selfie taking practices and participatory research projects around queering the gender binary (Bois of Isolation and #Rebel Selves) to identify methods of producing creative selfies that disrupt normative languages of gender and gesture in selfies, and imagine a new visual language for queer selfies. Research on selfies finds that negative feedback in comments and the currency of likes reinforce and police dominant feminine or masculine beauty ideals. Binary gender ideals can also be reproduced in selfies. For example, Döring et al. revealed that gender stereotypical behaviours found in adverts are repeated in selfies, and that some of the behaviours featured in selfies more frequently than in magazine adverts. Despite these well documented negative impacts, selfies are an important mode of self-presentation. Research on queer selfies has highlighted their role in enhancing visibility, raising awareness of oppression and challenging stereotypes. In research with trans and gender-fluid Tumblr users, Vivienne (2017) found positive comments on selfies helped promote body acceptance and that users viewed trans and gender-fluid selfies as defying industries that promote binary beauty ideals and capitalise on consumer’s insecurities. I suggest creative approaches that enable selfie-takers to avoid the negative aspects of selfie cultures. #Rebel Selves explores creative methods that could be used to challenge normative heteronormative gender expectations in selfies and portraiture and imagine other possible aesthetics through ideas of entanglement, camouflage and parade.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—From Democratic Aesthetics to Digital Culture
KEYWORDS
Selfies, Queer Theory, Social Media, Gender Stereotypes, Visual Culture
