Category: photography

They travel in pairs. You will always find them mid photo shoot against an aesthetically pleasing background. They will take endless shots to get the perfect one. They will shoot and review, shoot and review and then swap and do it all again. And they seem to be everywhere you turn. They are the #LookatMe Girls.

They help each other to build each other’s feeds, generating content and finding endless ways to repackage the same person to their followers over and over again. Frienships are now undoubtedly being formed on abilities to frame and light a shot and to be able to make your bezzie mate look as amazeballs as you possibly can. Who cares if you listen to what I am saying…can you handle a SLR and bring out my cheek bones is the question?

The endless Instagram feed has been chock full of  girls posing to camera and trying to make themselves look good for a long time but it feels like it has gone to a whole new level. The selfie in the bathroom is no longer enough. You need a proper photo shoot that is well lit with great composition and as professional looking as possible. You don’t want to look like you tried too hard but they you must try your hardest to be noticed in the process. The competition is fierce. You are up against a lot of other females doing exactly the same thing. And now there is the potential for a lucrative career as an Instagram ‘influencer’ paid to endorse products, it is no longer just driven by narcissism and the psychological need for little orange hearts. It has become a business. The business of #lookatme.

And without raising the delicate issue of gender in this day and age this is more noticeably and significantly being done by XXs rather than XYs. Even though guys are also taking pictures of themselves and posting them, when you are out and about it is girls you see doing this wherever you are. I am sure I am not the only one who has noticed this. Everytime I’m on a night out I see this happening. It is starting to feel like they are going out just so they can photograph each other rather than just taking a picture because they are out.

And, for me,  it does somehow feel in direct opposition to the female empowerment movement currently taking place and seems to be at odds with the new message they are trying to get across. The new declaration of the feminist movement around the world is that you are more than your looks and your ability to attract the opposite sex. But even with everything that has happened in the last year or so with #metoo, there still seems to be an opposing force, driven by the relentless amount of #lookatme uploads which continues to perpetrate female stereotypes that restrict them to being objects of attraction. And this is being done by the girls themselves. They are not being coerced into doing this by men. This is their own doing. Their own desire. And obviously not all females are doing this or wish to be viewed in that way but based on the ever-flowing digital feed it is a considerable percentage.

Am I making a judgement? More an observation. Is there a problem with this happening? Not necessarily, they can do what they like but it doesn’t seem to sit with this new feminist stance. It could be peer pressure. They feel the need to do it because their friends are doing it and they don’t want to be left out of the dopamine inducing experience but if that is the case, then there is even more reason to flag it up. The opposing argument is that women are now using their looks for their own purposes and on their own terms. They could claim that the likes of Kylie Jenner have gained wealth and power by exploiting her visual appeal for her own ends but doesn’t female empowerment comes from putting a value on yourself beyond simply how attractive you are? And as there is so much documented evidence to show that so many girls are being made to feel miserable from having to compete with these images of female “perfection” it creates a devaluing and detrimental effect to those with low self-esteem. This is resulting in depression and self-harm and so it might be the time to consider rejecting this need to present yourself for public approval and to seek a self-wroth through the eyes of others and instead truly empower yourself by not posting pictures or caring what you look like or what others think of you.

I should point out at this stage, in case anyone was unaware, that I am a man and as a result am maybe unqualified to make a call on the exact nature of this phenomena. But regardless of my chromosomal make-up it is happening and it should be up for discussion. I would like to maybe have a selfie amnesty. For one day of the year, no-one, of any gender identity, can post a picture of themselves. We could call it #notme day and just see how that goes. Who’s in?