ABSTRACT

In Western philosophy, vulnerability and femininity have been positioned as subordinate and weak. Reparative readings of selfies can offer a way to reclaim both vulnerability and femininity as generative, connective, and political. In this paper, I examine femme selfies collected during an online ethnography of femme Internet culture on Instagram. I draw from critical feminist scholarship on vulnerability and reparative readings of selfies to argue that selfies are a practice in vulnerability, and therefore a mode of embracing the feminine and feminine resistance. Using visual discourse analysis to read the selected selfies, I argue that femmes strategically mobilise vulnerability via selfies to (re)shape femme identity, create femme communities, and to make political claims about femme lives.

摘要

在西方哲学中，脆弱性和女性气质被定位为从属和软弱。对自拍照的修复性解读可以提供一种方法，将脆弱性和女性气质恢复为生成性、连接性和政治性。在本文中，我研究了在 Instagram 上女性互联网文化在线民族志期间收集的女性自拍。我从关于脆弱性的批判性女权主义学术和对自拍的修复性解读中得出结论，认为自拍是一种脆弱性的实践，因此是一种拥抱女性和女性抵抗的模式。使用视觉话语分析来阅读选定的自拍，我认为女性通过自拍战略性地调动脆弱性，以（重新）塑造女性身份，创建女性社区，并对女性生活提出政治主张。