FASHION & LIFESTYLE

By Malchus

Bruh! Bruh! Bruh! whether Wikipedia is somewhat controversial when it comes to some information, the definition of a selfie can atleast be adopted by a lot of Malawians, this excerpt from wiki makes sense somhow, ain’t it? A selfie (/sɛlfiː/) [1] is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or camera phone held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Face book, Instagram and Twitter. They are usually flattering and made to appear casual. Most selfies are taken with a camera held at arm’s length or pointed at a mirror, rather than by using a self-timer. A selfie stick can be used to position the camera farther away from the subject, allowing the camera to see more around them.

It’s true the history of selfie is academically debatable as to when did people began taking selfies, for example the word selfie atleast in Malawi became popular with social network, Facebook, before Instagram and Twitter.

Whatever side you on, the issue of selfie has brought both the goodies and the other bad side, from broken marriages, to losing jobs, and not to mention celebrity scandals.

Whatever the case, we just have to agree that Selfies or should we call them Ma-selfies (Malawi-selfie) are here to stay.

“The Return of the Selfie” by NewYork Times brought some interesting cream of the hot cake of selfies. Take this thought for instance: “Notwithstanding what Wikipedia says, I think it’s pretty ridiculous and unhelpful to say that the selfie started in 1839. The modern selfie trend was obviously triggered by the arrival of the front-facing camera in the iPhone 4 in 2010, and has been fueled by the popularity of mobile photo services (Instagram, Snapchat, and Tumblr).”

Selfie-ology in Malawi

It’s crystal clear that locally, there’s euphoria of Selfies, for both dudes and the hotties.

In Malawi with no doubt selfie-ology was a feminine ‘course’. Matter of fact, it’s women who popularized this ecstasy (via the social media of course) between 2011 to 2014. That’s when their male counterparts joined the train.  

WHY?

To a lot of men, a Selfie was initially a girlie thing because it was or is perceived the ladies folk is as addicted to camera as dudes are to sports.

By Malawian standards at least, for a man to showcase his facial expression in a smiley countenance is somehow not macho to the patriarchal Malawi society.

One journalist Daniel Nyirenda who likes commenting on social issues said, “most women are stuck with the camera that if you check 10 Facebook profile pages what you’ll see is among those 10, half of those profile pages will be scattered with instant updates of photos. When it comes to the social media, women are synonymous with photos.”

The Hollywood effect

And now there’s this new breed of celebrities form the land of celebrities itself, the U.S.A which has revolutionized the Selfie world, and their impact can’t simply be ignored.

Take the likes of the Kim Kardashians for example. These can take a Selfie of almost anything of theirselves, throwing privacy rules to the wind.

Once such photos are posted on various social media, and bearing in mind that these celebs have multitudes of followers, the impact of such Selfies is just so instant; monkey-see,- monkey-do mantra.

Selfies and ladies

One Chikumbutso Chikhadzula a youthful entrepreneur who prides in doing business online especially using social networking services to sell his products shares a narrative: “We was (sic) at this Barbecue and the girls and the drinks were all over, but what was intriguing was that one girl could not just put the iPhone down, now we thought she was going to be documenting the moment, but men! She gat the phone all over her body…men I never seen a person taking a selfie, but actually posing to show the face together with the behind at the same time..i was like this girl is talented.”

The message in Chikumbutso’s tale is his bewilderment over the relationship of showing the behind while the act is called a selfie? Common question Men in Malawi cannot keep up with the Kardashian fans.

“Facebook has become not just a social network but a means of proving one’s social reach. Posed group photographs, tagged pictures, and friend counts were signifiers of social net worth, and a sign of healthy participation in the digital world. As Facebook rose to prominence, so did its model of what it meant to interact online. The subject of the MySpace bathroom selfie—with its tableaux of bathroom counter, mirror, face, and upper body—always looked alone. Selfies were for people without friends; the savvy moved on to more advanced networks.”

Is a selfie somewhat a sexual allure? (THE PURPOSE)

A few months ago singer Beyonce announced that she was having twins, and boi the way she did it, the message was ‘Instagrammed’ and you just know the result.

Locally, our own Dan Lu took a number of selfie with wifey. The photos were received with mixed reactions from the 265 fan base. Others applauded the chick for being too buoyant in priding herself by showing what mother nature truly blessed her with. The other quarters, the so called selfie police unit, threw jabs at the couple for what they claimed to be ‘un-Malawian’ poses. So folks turn on Malawian Bway wifey.

The Smartphone self-portrait or ‘selfie’ has really established itself a form of self-expression. Is it a harmless fad or a dangerous sign of western society’s growing narcissism? The question posed in the “return of a selfie “and in globalizing this phenomenon, the answer rests on this certain perfect angle: “a Smartphone tilted at 45 degrees just above your eyeline is generally deemed the most forgiving. Then a light source: the flattering beam of a backlit window or a bursting supernova of flash reflected in a bathroom mirror, as preparations are under way for a night out.”

“’The pose is important. Knowing self-awareness is conveyed by the slight raise of an eyebrow, the sideways smile that says you’re not taking it too seriously. A doe-eyed stare and mussed-up hair denotes natural beauty, as if you’ve just woken up and can’t help looking like this. Sexiness is suggested by sucked-in cheeks, pouting lips, a nonchalant cock of the head and a hint of bare flesh just below the clavicle. Snap!”

The problem

This year alone the ‘selfie’ has cost some people their jobs, remember that newly recruited female law enforcer who ‘shared’ her gadgets erroneously? That’s just an example of what the selfie renaissance has brought to our modern Malawi.

In the same week the BBC reported a massive crackdown in the US army as some male soldiers created a Facebook group and were taking Instagram selfie pic of female soldiers and have a meal of mockery over them. So, whether selfies do or don’t promote voyeurism, is up to the dear reader to judge.

 Psychological

It has also been revealed that selfies have neurological problems as young women struggle to have the perfect Selfie.

Gail Dines, the author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality: says “Because of porn culture, women have internalized that image of themselves. They self-objectify, which means they’re actually doing to themselves what the male gaze does to them.”

Dines argues that although men can “gain visibility” in a variety of ways, for women the predominant way to get attention is “fuckability”(CENSOR YOUR-SELFiiii). And it is true that a lot of female selfie aficionados take their visual vernacular directly from pornography (unwittingly or otherwise): the pouting mouth, the pressed-together cleavage, and the rumpled bedclothes in the background hinting at opportunity.

“As with so many ‘new trends’, this one has a fairly distinguished prehistory,” explains essayist and author Geoff Dyer.

However Joana Wangie Kambuzi, a heavily self-acclaimed Selfie addict says there is nothing sexual, apart from the popular feel-good saying of ‘sexy’ in taking a selfie, for it becomes problem to the one viewing this as something more than the selfie in its entirety:

“Selfies are a great way of boosting one’s self esteem. Everyone gets excited about pictures at onetime, and it is because of this that we take a selfie, and most importantly selfies bring out the hidden positivity in us”

“There is even a saying that don’t listen to anybody that says, you take too many pictures- …I mean who needs that negative energy…we don’t need that kind of negativity in life.’’

At the moment selfies for the men in Malawi is mostly what is mostly called a group selfie, and yes! Few men do take lone selfies, but the job still rest on the women who are leading.

Perspective

Wiki highlights: “Psychological studies conducted in 2015 among social media users suggested the relationship between selfie-posting behaviors and narcissism. The link between number of selfies posted online and narcissism was stronger among men than women. Yet the relationship between personality and selfie-posting behavior suggests that extroversion and social exhibitionism positively predict frequency of selfie posting, whereas self-esteem is generally unrelated to selfie-posting behaviors. The Results also revealed correlation between number of selfies posted and histrionic personality disorder in men, indicating that posting selfies might be related with maladaptive patterns of personality among men.”

Meanwhile modern Malawi full of energetic young tech-driven people must take a back seat and define really what it means to take a selfie, because even Obama got in trouble at Mandela’s funeral in 2015 when he took a selfie sharing smiles with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and was criticized heavily.