A Feminist Filter

As I was talking about in my last blog, I think that it is important to look at exactly what kinds of things we are taking pictures of. Once again, I still feel that I am talking very broadly about what we are finding validation in. But I would like to further discuss this in term of gender. Males and females use Instagram differently.  We take different kinds of pictures. 

Instagram was founded by two men. It also contains several features that have been traditionally masculine, such as the concepts of exploration and travel. Now I would like to say a side note that these generalizations are just that, generalizations and do not apply to everyone. But I think that these are important ideas to consider.

There is basic pop culture knowledge about what the cliché pictures that girls post on Instagram. Bathroom mirrors, duck faces, all of that. The Tosh. 0 show recently uploaded a video called, BrosPose as Hoes Photos, to their website. The male viewers were asked to send in the typical photos that girls post on Instagram. Although humorous to see males taking pictures in short-shorts, ass to the mirror, and my personal fav, the duck face while holding actual ducks, what is this exactly is this saying to the kind of validation that these girls are seeking?

In 1973, Laura Mulvey came out with her paper, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In it she explores psychoanalysis as a way to look at the narrative and characters of the modern cinema. In basic terms, this broke down to males as the drivers of plot and action and women left as the desired subject. As she puts it, “Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of Look.” (Mulvey, 4.) Now I do understand that we aren’t talking about film. However, I believe that her reading of psychoanalysis can be applied to the ways that we search for validation in Instagram. After all, are we not creating a visual plot for others to follow? It is structured on a narrative timeline.

Looking into Jacques Lacan’s mirror recognition, just as we have before, images reinforce the ego. In her paper she is looking how we relate to stars when watching films, in some ways we temporarily lose the ego, yet at the same time it is reinforced by the ideal images on the screen. The images make up the matrix of the imaginary.” (Mulvey, 4.) Now with Instagram, we are now the stars, and one would think have more control over the imaginary. But it seems this matrix of images is still controlling us in many ways. Women are still seeking to be the image that is looked at, and men are still the ones that hold the gaze. As Mulvey also says, “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.” (Mulvey, 4-5.)

We, speaking as a woman now, are still searching for validation of the gaze. One of the difference that Instagram provides is that it can now be quantified into how many likes or comments your pictures receive. Mulvey says in the summary of her essay, “these cinematic codes and their relationship to formative external structures that must be broken down before mainstream film and the pleasure it provides can be challenged.” (Mulvey, 9.) In some ways these codes have come down, but still in many ways, no.  These external structures still control what makes up our visual imaginary, and helps to narrate our lives.

A YouTube video that I recommend seeing is called Instagram’n. It is once again supposed to be humorous, but it highlights the misogyny that Instagram can contain. Two guys become obsessed with the app because they can just look at “bad bitches all day,” and they spent their time looking, liking, and commenting. When one of the guys tries to post sexy pictures too, he ends up disappointed that he doesn’t get enough response. He no longer feels validated. His validation lies in the role as gazer, not as the gazed.