This selfie features a young woman with two female teenagers behind her. All three figures are outfitted in workout gear wearing headphones and appear to have just finished exercising. They are located in a woodsy setting on a rocky trail. The lighting is fairly neutral. All three subjects are smiling. The full body of the front figure is visible while only half of the other two girls can be seen.
Epideictic discourse is a form of discourse that operates using praise and blame in the present moment. In many ways, this form of rhetoric deals with goodness, attaching value to certain actions or personality traits. Therefore, this selfie can be analyzed in terms of the meaning and goodness it adds to my self and my displayed actions. Staying active and exercising is a core component of my daily life. Growing up a competitive athlete, enjoying the outdoors and participating in team sports definitely played a role in developing and shaping my character. I learned a lot about who I was as an individual by working together with others to achieve a common goal. This particular picture was taken with two of my fifteen year old campers I was a counselor for at sleepaway camp two summers ago. Serving as a big sister and mentor to my campers, I constantly stressed the value of staying active and enjoying exercise with friends. In preparation for their high school preseason training, I offered to lead a group of interested campers on daily runs. It proved to be mutually beneficial as it allowed my campers to get in shape for their sport while I enjoyed the opportunity to share my love for running and the outdoors with them. Fitness and physical health is definitely a part of my identity that I often like to celebrate. While some people might take mirror selfies at the gym to show off their bodies and what they look like, I prefer to take exercise selfies because I believe in the power of exercise and the way that it makes me feel. Therefore, this picture is a celebration of how physical activity affects my emotions, as well as my desire to engage in these activities with others in a social capacity. In our class reading, "Why we should 'like' experiences- not selfies", author Lauren Modery questions, "But why must we encourage narcissism? Why are we perpetuating that young women, and some young men, are solely rewarded for their looks? Why are we not supporting our friends’ photos of their experiences?". In this case, Modery is concerned with society's tendencies to judge selfies, especially on Instagram, on the basis of their looks rather than by the content of the activity they are demonstrating. I definitely connect to this argument. As I explained above, the selfies I compose, especially surrounding fitness, are designed to promote the feelings and emotions I associate with running and exercise, rather than the way these activities make me look on the outside.
0 Comments
|
AboutArchivesCategories |