This weeks text is titled ‘The Visual Culture of Selfies n the Age of Social Media’ by Derek Conrad Murray explores the social conventions of the selfie. The text starts by saying how self portraits are increasingly easier because of smartphones and social media such as Instagram and Facebook. Within this paper is an argument to whether ‘selfies’ are an act of female empowerment, or simply narcissism.
One quote that interested me was “The production of the self takes center stage, but also a contradictory mix of vulgarity and radicalism; one where a young girl will post a sexually provocative self-portrait and then defiantly follow-up with an impassioned written diatribe about rape and the abuses of women. ” This i believe is an act of female empowerment because it is giving women the power to express their sexuality (without adhering to the male gaze) whilst addressing serious matters relevant in today’s society.
I really enjoyed reading this text as it had a lot of good points, however i feel it had a lot of different views and it started to get a little confusing. However i feel like i took a lot away from this text and it is very thought provoking.