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Posting Black and White Selfies For … Empowerment? Try Narcissism
Leave it to millennial women to decide that posting black and white selfies is somehow “empowering” women and “lifting them up.” I honestly have no idea how this social media phenomenon started, but suddenly it’s my entire timeline on Instagram.
It’s a bipartisan exercise in narcissism-fueled futility:
Women looking serious and determined to… do something. I’m not sure what is being accomplished with this display of narcissism, but it’s just the latest in this perplexing trend of people posting on social media as “activism.”
Meghan McCain zeroed in why these selfies have been annoying me so much:
I'm not into mob clicktivism as a general rule – instead of putting a hot black and white photo up (which is fine but I prefer more tangible results), why not link to your home states voter registration? That seems like a better way to support all women: https://t.co/AxKRKL6QOs
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 28, 2020
Instead of actually doing something about an imaginary and, in this case, undefined problem, people are content with posting on social media about it before moving on, content they’ve accomplished something.
My girlfriend Kelsey hilariously mocked the enterprise on Twitter:
How many women did I lift up with this selfie? Too many to count. You’re welcome, world. I now nominate @InezFeltscher @conservmillen and @bethanyshondark. Hope you guys are as brave and feminist as me. #ChallengeAccepted pic.twitter.com/zDI8zNMmes
— Kelsey Bolar (Harkness) (@kelseybolar) July 28, 2020
She didn’t post it on Instagram, for fear of losing friends. And I’m not posting how stupid I find it on Instagram either, for the same reason. Instead, I’ll just complain about it here.
Published in General
I watched a streamer recently who had a framed picture of just the words “Black Lives Matter” on a wall. It is not just something she says online or publicly. It is there in her own home for her to see daily before she makes contact with anyone.
This shows how pervasive the BLM fad has become. It’s not just a show. Like any fad of clothing or music, this fad has been internalized. It is part of how many people identify themselves.
I’ll bet they’re just fascinated by the effect of the black and white color limitation. (The surprise about black and white is that you notice some things about the picture so much more.)
But of course they have to claim some grand, important purpose for taking black and white selfies.
Isn’t Ivanka’s cleavage a bit immodest for an orthodox Jewish woman? Just sayin’ . . .
I’m thinking it isn’t a bad idea to put up a framed picture of just the words “All Lives Matter”.
Ivanka’s picture isn’t a selfie. A selfie is a picture you take of yourself (while you are holding the camera).
It’s just a portrait.
I’m not any Ivanka fan. (I don’t know anything about her.) But I love the look of that dress in that portrait. It almost seems to be moving like something floating under water.
It’s a beautiful picture.
Bethany,
You’re a genius! We’ll be rich! We start a really high-end glossy magazine called MODERN NARCISISSIM. Every page will be either advertising or selfies. How can we miss!!!
Regards,
Jim
Selfies are narcissism.
It’s not just the black and white ones.
One of the guys I work (well, used to work) with was showing off his photo gallery.
I pointed out that there were more selfies of him in that phone than photographs of me in my entire lifetime.
I guess. But why not “Water Is Wet”? Or “Gravity Is Important”?
“Feminists” take stereotyped feminine behavior—stuff girlie-girls like to do anyway—and pretend it is “empowering” in the “a woman should be president” sort of way.
This isn’t really new, though of course, social media amplifies it/everything.
Gloria Steinem wrote an idiotic essay back in the day where she claimed that doing a big decorating job on her brand new (and probably bazillion-dollar) Manhattan apartment was feminist because she was doing it just for herself. See, women usually decorate their homes for their children and husbands. It’s the husbands who demand Brunschwig & Fils wallpaper in the powder room; the kids who insist on monogrammed hand towels.
Sorry, ladies. Taking pretty pictures of yourself and posting them on line is just feminine signaling—either to attract that much-maligned male gaze or to compete with other women.
Ask yourself: Would posting a moody black and white portrait of himself on instagram empower a man? Is that how Bill Barr got ahead? Would a man knit himself a pink hat and wear it in a demonstration in which he listens to shouted bad poetry about injustice and prostate trouble…?
If something you are about to do would seem really stupid if done by the opposite sex…chances are it’s really stupid.
Gravity is not important. Gravity is the enemy.
“Flying Cars 2020” could still be a good campaign slogan.
Gravity, it’s the law.
It’s a memorial to her Wokeness and self-esteem/self-righteousness. Probably a coming fad.
C’mon. Gravity is racist because Newton was white.
Gravity is a macro-agression against humanity. /sarc off
Question: what was out there first, this portrait of Ivanka or the selfie fad ?
Sssshhh. Don’t let Elizabeth Warren hear that. She loved saying how many selfies she’d take at rallies and people kept telling her that unless one of the people in the picture is holding the camera, it isn’t a selfie.
Jogging/running for some cause, wearing ribbons, or dumping liquids on your head in a video are all cheaper than writing a check. Besides, everyone is vastly interested in how moi feels about myself and my issues. The cool thing about “empowerment” is that while it is almost always about reducing the number and scope of personal obligations it can be marketed as selfless because it encourages others to do the same. The modern religious culture is an apostolate of narcissism.
It took me hours but I think I figured out why I’m so annoyed. It’s this lemming thing – everyone’s doing it so I’ll just do it. No questioning anything, just “hey everyone is doing this, so I’ll jump on the bandwagon!”
I hate shaming women over this stuff. Orthodox women dress in different ways.
Has Ivanka or her husband ever claimed to be Orthodox? I guess I just assumed she and her husband were Jewish in the way many people claim to be Christian. It’s more of a cultural background thing than anything else. Show up for mass/church service at Christmas and Easter and you’re good to go. Nothing else really required.
Whatever the sartorial standard at issue I feel very strongly that forgiveness is required in this instance. Who am I that I should presume cast the first stone if in this instance and others like it an extraordinarily attractive woman just happens to fail to fully cover herself as propriety might otherwise require?
Bethany,
Honey, sweety, please think of the money! So lemmings want to jump off the cliff. Who are you and I to deny them? Did I mention the money? Just think it over! Let’s pick a font for MODERN NARCISISSIM so you can get a feel for it. Did I mention the money?
Regards,
Jim