Bringing sexy back: Reclaiming the body aesthetic via self-shooting
Vol.8,No.1(2014)
Special issue: Internet and Sexuality
I look at self-shooting and selfie-blogging as a practice of reclaiming control over one’s embodied self AND over the body-aesthetic, thus appropriating what is and is not ‘sexy’. The NSFW self-shooting community offers a safe space otherwise so hard to find within the body/sexuality-normative mainstream culture. This makes self-shooting a collective therapeutic activity. In their self-images participants construct themselves as ‘beautiful’, ‘sexy’, ‘devious’, ‘more than just a mother and an employee’ and as someone who ‘likes their body instead of trying to not hate it’. The technologies of the self activated through diaristic blogging and selfie sharing, along with the empowerment from interactions with peers take bloggers on a path of sexual awakening and reintroduce them to their own bodies.
selfies; sexuality; body; self-identity; visual narrative analysis
Katrin Tiidenberg
Katrin Tiidenberg is working on her PhD in Tallinn University, Institute of International and Social Studies while lecturing in Sociology, Internet Research and Research Methods. Her research project focuses on identity and the role online experiences play in its construction with an emphasis on sexuality and embodiment.
Albright, J. M. (2008). Sex in America online: An exploration of sex, marital status, and sexual identity in Internet sex seeking and its impacts. Journal of Sex Research, 45, 175–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490801987481
Attwood, F. (2010). Porn.com: Making Sense of Online Pornography. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Barker, M. (2013). Consent is a grey area? A comparison of understandings of consent in Fifty Shades of Grey and on the BDSM blogosphere. Sexualities, 16, 896-914. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713508881
Banks, C. M. (2007). Using visual data in qualitative research. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020260
Bell, S. E. (2001). Photo images: Jo Spence’s narratives of living with illness. Health, 6, 5-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/136345930200600102
Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Association and Penguin.
Binik, Y. M. (2001). Sexuality and the Internet: Lots of hyp(otheses)—only a little data. Journal of Sex Research, 38, 281-282. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490109552098
Bogdan, R., & Biklen, S. (2003). Qualitative research for education. An introduction to theory and methods. New York: Allyn and Bacon.
Brand, M., Laier, C., Pawlikowski, M., Schächtle, U., Schöler, T., & Altstötter-Gleich, C. (2011). Watching pornographic pictures on the Internet: Role of sexual arousal ratings and psychological-psychiatric symptoms for using Internet sex sites excessively. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 14, 371–7. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2010.0222
Burr, V. (2003). Ambiguity and sexuality in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Sartrean analysis. Sexualities, 6, 343–360. https://doi.org/10.1177/136346070363005
Castle, T., & Lee, J. (2008). Ordering sex in cyberspace: A content analysis of escort websites. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 11, 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877907086395
Chaline, E. R. (2010). The construction, maintenance, and evolution of gay SM sexualities and sexual identities: A preliminary description of gay SM sexual identity practices. Sexualities, 13, 338–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460709363323
Cooper, A., Månsson, S.-A., Daneback, K., Tikkanen, R., & Ross, M. W. (2003). Predicting the future of Internet sex: Online sexual activities in Sweden. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 18, 277-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/1468199031000153919
Crawley, S., & Broad, K. (2004). Be your (real lesbian) self: Mobilizing sexual formula stories through personal (and political) storytelling. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 33, 39 – 71. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241603259810
Creef, E. T. (2004). Imaging Japanese America: The visual construction of citizenship, nation, and the body. New York: NYU Press.
Creswell, J. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. London,New Delhi, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Danaher, G., Schirato, T., & Webb, J. (2000). Understanding Foucault. London, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Daneback, K. (2006). Love and sexuality on the internet. A qualitative approach. Report from the Department of Social Work at Gothenburg University.
Daneback, K., Cooper, A., & Månsson, S.-A. (2005). An Internet study of cybersex participants. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 321-328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-005-3120-z
Daneback, K., Månsson, S.-A., & Ross, M. W. (2007). Using the Internet to find offline sex partners. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10, 100-107. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9986
van Dijck, J. (2008). Digital photography: Communication, identity, memory. Visual Communication, 7, 57–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357207084865
Döring, N. M. (2009). The Internet’s impact on sexuality: A critical review of 15 years of research. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 1089-1101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2009.04.003
Dyer, G. (1982). Advertising as communication. London: Methuen.
Featherstone, M. (2010). Body, image and affect in consumer culture. Body & Society, 16, 193–221. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X09354357
Ferree, M. (2003). Women and the web: Cybersex activity and implications. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 18, 385-393. https://doi.org/10.1080/1468199031000153973
Fiske, J. (1994). Audiencing: Cultural practice and cultural studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative methods (pp. 189-198). London: Sage.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of a prison. London: Penguin Books.
Foucault, M. (1978) [1990]. The history of sexuality, Vol. I: An Introduction. London: Penguin.
Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of the self. In L. H. Martin, H. Gutman, & P. H. Hutton (Eds.), Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault (pp. 16-49). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Giddens, A. (2010 [1991]). Modernity and self identity, self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Giddens, A. (1992). The transformation of intimacy: Sexuality, love, and eroticism in modern societies. Stanford University Press
Gibson, B. (2005). Co-producing video diaries: The presence of the "absent” researcher. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 4(4), 34-43. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690500400403
Griffiths, M. (2001). Sex on the Internet: Observations and implications for internet sex addiction. Journal of Sex Research, 38, 333-342. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490109552104
Harman, S., & Jones, B. (2013). Fifty shades of ghey: Snark fandom and the figure of the anti-fan. Sexualities, 16, 951-968. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713508887
Hasinoff, A. A. (2012). Sexting as media production: Rethinking social media and sexuality. New Media & Society, 0, 1-17.https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812459171
Hodge, R., & Kress, G. (1988). Social semiotics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Holm, G., (2008). Photography as a performance. Forum: Qualitative Social Research Sozialforschung, 9(2), 1-21.
Keft-Kennedy, V. (2008). Fantasising masculinity in Buffyverse slash fiction: Sexuality, violence, and the vampire. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 1, 49–80. https://doi.org/10.35360/njes.74
Koskela, H. (2004). Webcams, TV shows and mobile phones: Empowering exhibitionism. Surveillance and Society, 2, 199-215.
Lasén, A., & Gómez-Cruz, E. (2009). Digital photography and picture sharing: Redefining the public/private divide. Knowledge, Technology & Policy, 22, 205–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-009-9086-8
Lehman, P. (2007). You and Voyerweb: Illustrating the shifting representation of the penis on the Internet with user-generated content. Cinema Journal, 46, 96 – 132. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2007.0040
Leiblum, S. R. (2001). Women, sex and the Internet. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 16, 389-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681990126954
Luttrell, W. (2003). Pregnant Bodies, fertile minds: gender, race, and the schooling of pregnant teens. London: Routlege.
Markham, A. (2012). Fabrication as ethical practice. Qualitative inquiry in ambiguous Internet contexts. Information, Communication & Society, 15, 334-353. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2011.641993
Markham, A. (2013). Remix cultures, remix methods. Reframing qualitative inquiry for social media contexts. In N. K. Denzin & M. D. Giardina (Eds), Global dimensions of qualitative inquiry (pp. 63-81). Left Coast Press.
Markula, P. (2004). "Tuning into one’s self:” Foucault’s technologies of the self and mindful fitness. Sociology of Sport Journal, 21, 302-321. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.21.3.302
McCullagh, K. (2008). Blogging: Self presentation and privacy. Information & Communications Technology Law, 17, 3-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600830801886984
McQuire, S. (1998). Vision of modernity: Representation, memory, time and space in the age of the camera. London: Sage.
Muise, A. (2011). Women’s sex blogs: Challenging dominant discourses of heterosexual desire, Feminism & Psychology 21, 411–419. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353511411691
Mulvey, L. (1989). Visual and other pleasures. London: Macmillan.
Pink, S. (2005). Doing visual ethnography. London: Sage.
Pink, S. (2006). The future of visual anthropology. Engaging the senses. London, New York: Routledge.
Plummer, K. (1995). Telling sexual stories in a late modern world. Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 18, 101 – 120.
Plummer, K. (2007). Queers, bodies and post-modern sexualities: A note on revisiting the ‘sexual’ in symbolic interactionism. In M. Kimmel (Ed.), The sexual self (pp. 16-30). Vanderbilt University Press
Ray, A. (2003). Naked on the Internet. Hookups, downloads and cashing in on Internet sexploration. California: Seal Press.
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. California: Sage.
Roberts, B. (2011). Photographic portraits: Narrative and memory. Forum: Qualitative Social Research Sozialforschung, 12(2), 1-45.
Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies. An introduction to the interpretation of visual materials. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
Ross, M. W. (2005). Typing, doing, and being: Sexuality and the internet. Journal of Sex Research, 42, 342-352. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490509552290
Ross, M. W., Rosser, B. R. S., McCurdy, S., & Feldman, J. (2007). The advantages and limitations of seeking sex online: A comparison of reasons given for online and offline sexual liaisons by men have you have sex with men. Journal of Sex Research, 44, 59-71.
Schwarz, O. (2010). Going to bed with a camera: On the visualization of sexuality and the production of knowledge. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13, 637–656. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877910376581
Schwarz, O. (2010). On friendship, boobs and the logic of the catalogue: Online self-portraits as a means for the exchange of capital. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 16, 163–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856509357582
Sevcikova, A., & Daneback, K. (2011). Anyone who wants sex? Seeking sex partners on sex-oriented contact websites. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 26, 170–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2011.567260
Senft, T. (2008). Camgirls: Celebrity and community in the age of social networks. Berlin: Lang.
Sheff, E. (2005). Polyamorous women, sexual subjectivity and power. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 34, 251–283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241604274263
Simon, W. & Gagnon, J. H. (2002). Sexual scripts. In R. Parker & P. Aggleton (Eds.), Culture, society and sexuality: A reader (pp. 29-38). London: Routledge.
Siles, I. (2012). Web technologies of the self: The arising of the ‘‘blogger’’ identity. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17, 408-421. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01581.x
Tamboukou, M. (2010). Nomadic narratives, visual forces, Gwen John’s letters and paintings. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Tan, L. (2008). Psychotherapy 2.0: MySpace blogging as self-therapy. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 62, 143-63. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.2008.62.2.143
Tiidenberg, K. (2013). How does online experience inform our sense of self? NSFW bloggers’ identity narratives. In A.-A. Allaste (Ed), Changes and continuities of lifestyles in transforming societies (pp. 177-202). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Tiidenberg, K. (forthcoming). Great faith in surfaces – visual narrative analysis of selfies. In A.-A. Allaste & K. Tiidenberg (Eds.), "In Search of …” New methodological approaches to youth research. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Tsaros, A. (2013). Consensual non-consent: Comparing EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey and Pauline Réage’s Story of O, Sexualities, 16, 864-879. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713508903
Waskul, D. D. (2002). The naked self: Being a body in televideo cybersex. Symbolic Interaction, 25, 199–227. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.2002.25.2.199
Weiss, R., & Samenow, C. P. (2010). Smart phones, social networking, sexting and problematic sexual behaviors—A call for research. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 17, 241–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/10720162.2010.532079
Weisskirch, R. S., & Delevi, R. (2011). "Sexting” and adult romantic attachment. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 1697–1701. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.02.008
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Whitty, M. T. (2003). Pushing the wrong buttons: Men’s and women’s attitudes toward online and offline infidelity. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 6, 569-579. https://doi.org/10.1089/109493103322725342
Wood, E. A. (2008). Consciousness-raising 2.0: Sex blogging and the creation of a feminist sex commons. Feminism & Psychology, 18, 480-87. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353508095530
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2014 Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace