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Art, specifically the self-portrait, has evolved along with technology and social media. With the technological generation, the self portrait has become a selfie. But what sort of social implications come along with this new trend?
Thesis Statement: Selfies give women and girls the power to represent themselves the way they wish to be seen, boost self-esteem, and could even shift the standard of beauty to something more realistic.
How Selfies got Started
In any art history class, there is one topic that is always covered: the self-portrait. All great artists from Leonardo Da Vinci to Jackson Pollock have immortalized themselves in the form of autobiographical portraiture. Female self portraits are specifically significant. Until the 20th century, women were rarely trained in the art of painting. Usually, the only female artists were the daughters of male artists. This was because it was necessary for apprentices of artists to live and work with the senior artist. Of course, it was socially unacceptable for a woman to live with a man to whom she was not married. Therefore, most portraits of women pre-20th century are not self portraits, but instead portraits painted by male painters. We can recognize these portraits by the fact that the subject’s gaze is never at the viewer, but rather to the side or downwards, due to the fact that women were not meant to look men in the eye.
One female artist pre-20th century who created a famous self-portrait is Marie-Denise Villers. Her most famous painting, Young Woman Drawing, was once thought to be the work of Jacques-Louis David. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “many paintings, especially portraits of young women, which were formerly attributed to Jacques Louis David or...
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...pinto, Lauren. "Artist Selfies: Everybod'ys Doing It." Muddy Colors (blog), January 23, 2014. http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2014/01/artist-selfies-everybodys-doing-it.html (accessed March 3, 2014).
Ryan, Erin Gloria. "Selfies Aren't Empowering. The'yre a Cry for Help.." Jezebel (blog), November 21, 2013. http://jezebel.com/selfies-arent-empowering-theyre-a-cry-for-help-1468965365 (accessed March 1, 2014).
Simmons, Rachel. "Selfies Are Good for Girls." Slate (blog), November 20, 2013. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/11/selfies_on_instagram_and_facebook_are_tiny_bursts_of_girl_pride.html (accessed March 1, 2014).
Winter, Jessica. "Selfie-loathing." Slate (blog), July 23, 2013. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/instagram_and_self_esteem_why_the_photo_sharing_network_is_even_more_depressing.html (accessed March 1, 2014).
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
There you are holding your camera an arm’s length away from your face, posing in the most flattering position to capture your best angle. There you are taking a photo of yourself to share with all of your Facebook friends. Taking a self-portrait photo, also known as a selfie, is something almost everyone has done in this new generation. This action is typically done without a second thought. In Alex Williams’ article “Here I Am Taking My Own Picture” that second thought is provoked through exploring the quickly spreading trend of self-portrait photography. In the article while Williams’ provides interesting examples on a changing generation as this trend progresses through social media and modern technology; Williams also leaves something to be desired within the article due to a lack of direction in the author’s stance on the topic.
In the article “What Your Selfies Say About You” by Peggy Drexler, she talks about self-portraits also known as the “selfie”, and how it has taken over social media and added a manifestation to society’s obsession with looks. Taking a self-portrait can be positive in the sense that you are proud of your image and are not scared to share it with others helping boost up your self-esteem. Although this may help others by persuading them to not be ashamed to share their true image, Drexler believes this can also affect other individuals whose focus is only on looks making them feel self-conscious about their looks. A recent study out of the UK found that the selfie phenomenon may be damaging to real world relationships, concluding that both excessive
Art could be displayed in many different forms; through photography, zines, poetry, or even a scrapbook. There are many inspirational women artists throughout history, including famous women artists such Artemisia Gentileschi and Georgia O’Keeffe. When searching for famous female artists that stood out to me, I found Frida Kahlo, and Barbara Kruger. Two very contrasting type of artists, though both extremely artistic. Both of these artists are known to be feminists, and displayed their issues through painting and photography. Frida Kahlo and Barbara Kruger’s social and historical significance will be discussed.
Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,
Alice Neel's most talked about painting, a Self-Portrait of herself, shocked the world when she painted herself in the nude at the age of 80-years-old. Neel, a 20th Century American Portrait Artist, painted models for over 50 years before turning the attention to herself (Tamara Garb). Neel wasn't a pinup girl and had depicted herself as the complete opposite (Jeremy Lewison). Unlike Neel, women avoided self-portraits of themselves, and nude self-portraits barely made it to canvas (Tamara Garb). Because of these reasons alone, Neel's Self-Portrait attracted scrutiny (Jeremy Lewison). Though Neel declared the painting to be frightful and indecent (Ibid), it still directed its focus on femininity, and the challenges women had to endure in our
Prior to the 20th century, female artists were the minority members of the art world (Montfort). They lacked formal training and therefore were not taken seriously. If they did paint, it was generally assumed they had a relative who was a relatively well known male painter. Women usually worked with still lifes and miniatures which were the “lowest” in the hierarchy of genres, bible scenes, history, and mythological paintings being at the top (Montfort). To be able to paint the more respected genres, one had to have experience studying anatomy and drawing the male nude, both activities considered t...
To begin, social media has created unrealistic standards for young people, especially females. Being bombarded by pictures of females wearing bikinis or minimal clothing that exemplifies their “perfect” bodies, squatting an unimaginable amount of weight at a gym while being gawked at by the opposite sex or of supermodels posing with some of life’s most desirable things has created a standard that many young people feel they need to live up to. If this standard isn’t reached, then it is assumed that they themselves are not living up to the norms or the “standards” and then therefore, they are not beautiful. The article Culture, Beauty and Therapeutic Alliance discusses the way in which females are bombarded with media messages star...
The essay How You See Yourself by Nicholas Mirzoeff discusses the evolution of art. The author discusses the use of art to represent changing identities over the years including cultural practices and societal expectations. The selfie, according to Nicholas Mirzoeff’s essay, is the equivalent of a self-portrait in the previous centuries preceding the technological development required for the present day selfie. The essay explores the different periods and the significance of art, particularly self-portraits, the selfies of the time, and their development over time. The author focuses on different themes including heroism, gender definition, and the focus of an image. Mirzoeff effectively provides examples illustrating and reinforcing the themes he highlights in his essay.
Through the exploration of this diverse range portraiture, the contrasting ideals of masculine and feminine beauty in the Renaissance have been explored. Yet overall, no matter what the gender orientation of the subject, it the discovery of such passionate and artistic talent presented which is essentially ‘beautiful’. Consequently, the grand appeal of such glorious images is still appreciated today, and will continue to delight viewers for generations to come.
Gill Perry’s writing “Women in Disguise: Likeness, The Grand Style and the Conventions of Feminine Portraiture in the Work of Sir Joshua Reynolds” deeply explores the construction and meaning behind the female portrait paintings done by Joshua Reynolds. Joshua Reynolds was a renowned portrait painter and Founder and President of the Royal Academy of Arts. His artistic life consisted much of full length portraits of many men, women, and children. His most significant work, however, was his portraits of women. Gill Perry analyzed his works and has come to the conclusion that the art created by Joshua Reynolds often aimed to be equal to literature, particularly in his feminine portraits. He created non conventional feminine portraits by means of disguise and distinguished ladies with looks of power, which is an unheard of means for feminine portraits of this age.
The feminist art movement was a movement that set into motion to fight for equality, women’s liberation and women’s rights overall. The view of artistic production through the female perspective brought high visibility to the female artist, and was the beginning of many influential female artists whom made both political and strong social statements through the centuries. The feminist art movement became a platform in which female artists could rebel and express their opinions, views and ideas. By the 1960’s women had reached their tolerance level with being good enough to be placed on works of art for gawking purposes, but not good enough to be seen as an artist. This was a time when female artist began producing art that reflected the lives of females from their perspectives and not from a man’s
Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws.
Victoria, Woollaston. "Selfies Are 'damaging' and Leave Young People Vulnerable to Abuse, Claims Psychologist." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
Ever since selfies started trending, this generation started caring only about how their pictures turned out. People nowadays stop everything they may be doing to capture the perfect selfie. Selfie sticks were also recently created to add more to this silly picture. After this trend, many apps came out to edit and perfect ones selfie. Eventually, these apps may lead to over editing and maybe even towards younger people. Teens stop focusing on school work and more on how to keep their online audience entertained. In fact, it has become sort of a competition to see who has the lost Instagram followers or likes on our selfies.