I neglected to write down the name of the author who coined this nifty little phrase but I am eternally grateful to her for hitting the nail on the selfie.
By now, we all are aware that selfie is Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year.
Where to start on this subject?
I recall reading an article a zillion years ago on Sophia Loren where the journalist spent a great deal of time with the great Italian beauty and noticed something very peculiar about the actress, she passed many mirrors during their time together and she never gazed into any one of them.
She knew exactly where the camera belonged in her life.
I think of Narcissus and his reflection.
Thank the Gods, Narcissus didn’t know about Instagram.
And how did this younger generation of women become so obsessed with their visages that they forgot the world is in dire need of candy stripers?
Yes, where have all the candy stripers gone?
Gone with Gidget and Nancy Drew and Rin Tin Tin.
Selfies Are Good For Girls by Rachael Simmons.
Really, Rachael?
Double X; November 20, 2013.
Think of all those photos they post of themselves as tiny bursts of pride, says Simmons.
So pride comes only with pouty lips?
The selfie is a tiny pulse of girl pride—a shout-out to the self.I am woman.
See me vomit.
Pride, after all, is a cardinal sin in girls’ social culture. It’s a lesson they learn early and with ugly consequences. Act too confident and you’ll be isolated, called “conceited,” a “bitch,” a girl who “thinks she’s all that,” who’s “full of herself.”
Okay, Rachael.
I am with you but it is our job as mothers and aunts and whoever we are to tell these young girls that real life isn’t one long Keeping Up with The Kardashians episode and there was once something called the Women’s Liberation Movement that stood up and marched for women who were treated only as sex objects and I personally want to tell these young girls that there is so much more to being a woman than eyeliner and cleavage and we cannot fall into this trap once again because there were women like Linda Lovelace and things like snuff porn and Playboy Bunnies….
Some girls are working it, sure, but others have their tongues half out as if to say, I know I look stupid. But I choose to, and I’m beating you to the judgment punch.
And that is exactly the point, we girls or women mug for the camera. I can show you fifty years of my endless mugging for the camera to beat my viewers to the punch.
I worry also about the girls who spend hours editing out their blemishes and adding filters. A 16-year-old from Texas told me that she longs for the days of their grandmothers’ brave, set-in-stone Polaroids.
Cheesecake.
Selfies.
Whatever, we want to call it.
Women will always be judged by their looks when they are in front of the camera.
And the professionals?
Selfies are a sign of low self-esteem, opined a psychologist to Teen Vogue. Competitive, said Jess Weiner, Dove’s global ambassador for self-esteem.
As for me, I think I will write Mr. Webster and suggest candy striper for word of the year in 2014.
Just think about it.
Italy.
World War Two.
Enter.
A candy-striper enters an army hospital room.
She is played by a young Sophia Loren…
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