Digital and social media have fundamentally changed debates about objectification of women. By putting the means of production and distribution of representation into the hands of young women the visible power imbalances between a (male) photographer/distributor and (female) subject of representation have been destabilised. Now young women represent themselves. In this context many young women are representing themselves in sexy ways that disturb journalistic commentators and some academics, who critique them for “self-objectification”. This presentation is based on a research project working with young women who produce sexy selfies for Instagram to co-create representations, using that process and the images produced to think about the discourses employed to criticise young women’s self representation. What institutions of authority, and what associated discourses, are employed in making these critiques? Ultimately, what limits are currently being placed on sexual self-representation, and what limits – if any – should be placed on sexual self-representation?
Emma Phillips is a photographer and researcher/lecturer in Visual Communication. Her work focuses on the ways that image-making might be informed by classist, sexist and gendered assumptions and uses photographic methodologies which foreground the representational experiences of women and non-binary people. Emma has twelve years professional photography experience in Australian media, design and advertising and eight years experience teaching in photography and visual communications programs across Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. She completed her PhD on the intersection of sexy-selfies with class and has been a finalist in the National Photographic Portrait Prize. Emma is currently researching the visual cultures of elite women athletes.
Supports and fundings: UC DVCRE Cross-Faculty Seed Grant
This presentation was accompanied by slides. To view the slides head to EmmaPhillips_Presentation.pptx