
Demystifying ‘Selfie’:
A Female Culture in the Era of Social Media
揭秘自拍:社交媒体时代的女性文化
作者:李雨浛
一
What is selfie : a shallow expression of online narcissism?
什么是自拍:一种网络自恋的肤浅表现?
Selfies have become ubiquitous visual forms of self-expression in the twenty-first century and proliferate on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. Popularly regarded as a shallow expression of online narcissism, the selfie is both adored and reviled; yet it flourishes as one of the most effective outlets for self-definition.
21世纪以来,自拍已经成为一种随处可见的自我表达方式,并在Instagram,Facebook和Tumblr等社交媒体网站上大行其道。人们普遍认为自拍是网络自恋的一种肤浅表现,它既受人崇拜,又受到谩骂;然而,它是探寻自我最有效的途径之一。
Journalistic responses have been derisive, but little attention has been given to the visual culture accompanying popular writing on the subject. The visual dimension of the selfie debate has produced an ideologically skewed and largely pejorative representational schema with troublingly gendered connotations.
新闻报道很少关注与自拍相随的视觉文化,相反,新闻界普遍对此持嘲笑的态度。人们在自拍视觉维度问题上的辩论,产生了一种意识形态上的扭曲和带有贬损意味的表征模式,其中带有令人不安的性别内涵。
This paper mainly the explores selfies mostly associated with young women, and researchers defines selfies as a female culture in the era of social media. The following sentences will lead us to know how selfies relates to young women and what the selfies are, either a crying for help or a narcissistic personality disorder.
本文主要探讨了与年轻女性高度相关的自拍,研究者们还将自拍定义为社交媒体时代的女性文化。接下来的文章会带我们了解自拍是如何与年轻女性相关的,以及自拍到底是一种呼救行为还是一种自恋型人格障碍。
二
Young Women:the Group Mostly Associated with Selfies
年轻女性:与自拍密不可分的群体
In an 22 August 2014 article in Forbes Magazine entitled “CONTAGION – How the ‘Selfie’ Became a Social Epidemic,” journalist Jesi Hempel characterized the selfie – popularly understood as spontaneous self-portraits taken with smartphones and other consumer-based devices – as a type of social scourge that has spread problematically through Western culture(Hempel, 2014).
在2014年8月22日的福布斯杂志上的一篇题为“危机蔓延——‘自拍’如何成为社会流行病”的文章中,记者Jesi Hempel表示,自拍通常被理解为通过智能手机和其他基于消费者的设备制作的随机自我肖像,是一种由西方文化蔓延开来的社会祸害(Hempel,2014)。
Needless to say, the group most readily associated with this cultural fixation is young women: particularly those in their teens to early thirties. Even the images that accompany these articles have produced a powerful visual culture that focuses almost entirely on women in the act of a type of petulant vanity.
毋庸置疑的是,最容易与这种文化发生联系的群体是年轻女性,尤其是十几岁到三十出头的女性。这些文章中的自拍甚至产生了强大的虚拟文化,(这些文化)几乎完全集中在任性且有虚荣心的女性身上。
One of the contradictions in popular discussions of the selfie resides in a distinction between low self-esteem, which is most associated with a tendency toward self-objectification, and high self-esteem, which is often connected to narcissism. The self-esteem of women is very prevalent in the selfie debate.
关于自拍的热门讨论中的一个矛盾在于自卑(与自我客观化相关)和强烈自尊(与自恋相关)之间的区分。在有关自拍的争论中,女性自尊论非常常见。
Harry Wallop, a famous writer in America, has one central point on selfies: that this form of expression is the result of a culture that places a heavy premium on female beauty. In his assessment, girls are particularly vulnerable to a short of confidence, especially girls with high self-esteem, leading them to a conflicted relationship with their own identities and bodies.
来自美国的著名作家哈利·瓦隆普(Harry Wallop)在自拍议题上有一个中心观点:这种表达形式(即自拍)是一种重视女性美的文化结果。在他所做的评估中,女孩特别容易受到缺乏信心的影响——特别是对那些有着很强自尊心的女孩来说——从而导致她们与自我认同和身体发生冲突。
三
Two Examples:Calling for Help or NPD?
两个例子:是女性的呼救还是自恋型人格障碍?

Harry Wallop says the following about the effect of Internet-based self-imaging on young women: It is an act as modern as it is narcissistic, perfectly capturing the self-regard of our age. But it is also, some think, a worrying trend that could leave young girls, in particular, with low self-esteem.
关于自拍对年轻女性的影响,瓦隆普说:“这是一种既现代又自恋的行为,完美地抓住了我们这个时代的自尊感。但也有一些人认为这是一种令人担忧的趋势,可能会让年轻女孩尤其自卑。”
What is conveyed in the picture below is an insecure young woman of color’s desperate attempt to create an image of physical attractiveness – but more importantly, a vision of normativity and happiness. But we still have to realize that selfies aren’t empowering while they’re a cry for help in essence.
下图所传达的是,一个缺乏安全感的“有色”女性绝望地试图拍摄出一张有吸引力的外表的照片——但更重要的是,它传达了一种正常化和幸福的愿景。但是我们仍然要认识到,自拍不是赋权行为,在实质上是女性自拍者的呼救。
The gendered dimension of selfie culture is certainly troubling, particularly the demeaning and ridiculing tone that punctuates most articles on the topic. But what is most disturbing is the recent pathologizing of the selfie phenomenon, linking it to Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and even psychopathy. In the picture below, dozens of girls took selfies at a baseball game and grown men mocked them for it. “Do you have to make faces when you take selfies?”One of the announcers said, “Every girl in the picture is locked into her own phone…They’re all just completely transfixed by the technology. You know the beauty of baseball is you can sit next to your neighbor and have a conversation. Or you had been here for nothing.”
自拍文化的性别维度当然令人不安,尤其是在这一话题上,大多数文章都充斥着贬低和嘲笑的语气。但最令人不安的是最近自拍现象的病理化,(人们)甚至将其与自恋性人格障碍(NPD)精神病联系起来。在下面这幅图中,一群女生在一场棒球比赛上自拍,一群成年男人嘲笑了她们。“你自拍的时候一定要做鬼脸吗?”一位发声者说道,“照片中的每个女孩都被锁在了她们自己的手机里……她们完全被这项技术迷住了。你知道棒球的美妙之处在于你可以坐在邻座旁边并和其交谈,不然你就白来这儿了。”
四
Conclusion:wielding the selfie in advanced capitalism
结论:在发达的资本主义社会中搔首自拍
As a technological and capitalist-driven form of visual representation, the selfie is as much a gateway into the economics of social division, as it is a highly personalized, affective vehicle for self-expression.
自拍作为一种受技术和资本主义驱动的视觉表现形式,既是一种高度个性化、情感强烈的自我表达工具,又是一扇进入社会分工经济学的大门。
In short, as the main group associated with selfies, young women who, through their efforts at self-expression, attempt to locate a sense of value and dignity in an increasingly contentious political, economic, cultural and technological landscape. The intentionality of women’s wielding of technology is far more thoughtful and premeditated than we initially understood. Therefore, the tendency to mischaracterize women’s selfie behaviors as entirely rooted in the reactionary emotionality and narcissistic personality disorder, ignores their highly tech-based self-representational strategies.
总之,作为与自拍相关的主要群体,年轻女性通过自己在自我表达上的努力,试图在政治、经济、文化和技术领域中找到一种价值和尊严。女性运用科技的意图比我们最初理解的更有思想性和预谋性。因此,将女性自拍行为错误地认为其完全植根于自恋型人格障碍,这种想法忽视了她们以科技为基础的自我表现策略。
References 参考文献
[1] Derek Conrad Murray: Notes to self: the visual culture of selfies in the age of social media. Consumption Markets and Culture. Volume 18,2015 – Issue 6 : Communicating Identity / Consuming Difference.
[2] Reena Shah and Ruchi Tewari: Demystifying ‘selfie’: a rampant social media activity. Behavior and Information Technology. Volume 35, 2016 – Issue 10.
[3] Derek Conrad Murray: Selfie consumerism in a narcissistic age. Consumption Markets and Culture. Latest Articles. 21,2018 – Issue 5 : Selfies in modern society.
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