On Selfies

Let's be real. We've all taken a "selfie" of one kind or another. In fact, the Oxford Dictionary word of the year is "selfie". Can you believe it? And if you think through the process of taking a selfie...it's a little weird, isn't it? At least for me - I hold out my camera phone and position it at just the right angle (which is normally up and slightly to the left of my face). I make sure the angle of my face is alright - so I don't look wider than I am and my nose doesn't protrude. I need to make sure my hair looks good and the background is cool or at least not distracting. And then I snap several shots making different pleasant faces, maybe a few serious ones (but no duck faces). Only to scroll through and decide none of them are worthy and start the process over again.

This would have been a totally foreign concept to someone just a few years ago. 

But now our "selfies" are defining beauty.

I want you to watch this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFkm1Hg4dTI

These women and girls are stunningly honest with us about how they feel about themselves. These are girls in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade who are already under such scrutiny just because of what they look like. They share in the footage from their class as well as the interviews with their mothers the insecurities that have developed. Even the mothers admit that they are still not happy with their images and their bodies.

"Beauty Is." It just is. That's what their exhibition at the end shows us. Beauty resonates. Beauty shines. Beauty is unique. It is powerful. It is changing. "The power is in your hands. Because now, more than ever, it's right at our fingertips - we can take selfies!" I think an important point made in this video is the power of social media in the face of our definition of beauty. Actually, I was part of a discussion in my Sociology class last week that touched on this, too. 

Prior to cellphones and the internet and our constant connection with everyone and every thing, we were pretty much only connected with our immediate friends, family, and community. Now with this kind of accessibility, we have a much wider range of motion. We are connected to innumerable images and sources that we have the freedom to judge or accept or deny or mimic. Our definition of beauty has expanded purely because our access has expanded. But what have we done with it? I'll let you think about that one. 

"I'm going to ask you to take a risk that could change the way that people define beauty," says the speaker in the video. She asks her students to use the details that they call "flaws" and incorporate them into their self portraits. The girls are so perceptive about the way that other people see them and that it's wrong. It's wrong that we are judged and continue to judge each other. It's wrong that we feel so insecure about ourselves when there is so much to love about ourselves.

I think the most beautiful part of the video for me is when the project for the students merges with their mothers. "I want my mom to know that she's beautiful...and...she doesn't have to change. For anyone." Women, old and young alike, are all insecure about our physicality. "In the workshop, I was surprised when I heard the girls talk about their insecurities...when they said they were insecure about things, those were things that made them different, but the things that made them different made them unique. And...that made them beautiful."

At the exhibit, the girls come to realize that they are beautiful. And taking a selfie, good or bad, is not the worst thing that could happen to you. 

I have two last things to say:

I am putting the reigns in your hands to define what beauty means to you. 

And Mom, if you're reading this, I want you to know that you are beautiful. And you don't need to change. For anyone. 

- Annika Wooton

Miss Butler County 2014