Taking Control of Our Image
Recently I read a blog which I will link below about a girl who took all of her hateful comments on her "Selfies" on her tumblr account and retook the pictures the comments were on and pasted the comments on to them. And she said something that really stuck with me, "The act of women taking selfies is inherently feminist, especially in a society that tries so hard to tell women that our bodis are projects to be worked on and a society that profits off of the insecurities that it perpetuates. Selfies are like a "forget you" to all of that, they declare that 'Hey, I look awesome today and I want to share that with everyone.' and that's pretty revolutionary."
What I love about this quote is that it hits the nail on the head of how I feel about selfies. I am a capitol offender of selfies. I probably post 2-3 selfies a week, sometimes more if I am feeling pretty good about myself. I post single selfies, selfies with my girlfriends, selfies with my boyfriend. And not once have I ever felt bad about posting a selfie, and I will never apologize for taking or posting a selfie. In a world where girls are constantly told what they can and cannot do or what they should or shouldn't do with their bodies, I think selfies are one little way for girls to say, I LIKE who I am, I feel GOOD about who I am and what I look like, I am a MASTERPIECE made by God and this is ME, deal with it. And in my opinion, any woman brave enough to take a picture of herself and post it for the cruel society that we live in to see, opening herself open to the negative comments and views, and to say "I DONT CARE, THIS IS ME, THIS IS WHO I AM." deserves an award.
Now- let's talk about something else for a quick second, there is a fine line with selfies. In order for us to accomplish the kind of revolutionary take over of our self image that I briefly touched on above we need to decide WHAT our image needs to look like. I think we can all agree that our society completely objectifies women's bodies. From the time we are old enough to pick out our own clothes we are constantly being told how OUR BODIES affect others. If you grew up in a church environment or went to a school with a dress code then you are taught to cover up our bodies and hide them, but at the same time are told by society that "beauty" is defined by the clothes and makeup you wear, the hairstyle you choose and how much of yourself you are willing to give over for "making over". So right now I want you to put that out of your head. Do away with ALL of that. You are beautiful. God made you beautiful.
So let's take a quick look at what the Bible tells us about our beauty-
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. Song of Solomon 4:7
These are just two verses, but there are so many more. Basically, in case you didn't catch the drift of it- let me break it down for you-God created you a beautiful creature in His image. He who made us, and who made the oceans, the mountains, and paints the sunsets, He who came before us, and who's love is everlasting, the Great I Am, the Maker, our God, thinks we are beautiful. Isn't that enough for us to believe we are beautiful? I think that when we take selfies, and I mean selfies that speak to who we are- Women of God, not seductive, lustful selfies that show our body, but selfies that are of us showing that we believe we are beautiful creatures of God, I think that is something really, really cool.
Do I think selfies are silly? Yeah.
Do I think we should still take them? Yeah.
I plan to get much more in depth into the ins and outs of everything I have touched on in this post, but for now I leave you with this-
You are beautiful, and if you want to take a seflie, do it. Take back your image. Love yourself and believe that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Take that selfie girl.
-K
If you take a selfie tag #Takebacktheselfie
The article on the blog (DISCLAIMER: I do not adivse any persons under the age of 13 to read her actual blog, it contains graphic images and strong language)- http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/this-tumblr-user-shows-her-horrific-anonymous-messages-in-a
