There isn’t half some nonsense written about naked ‘selfies’ and how they’re ’empowering’.

While I regard myself as a feminist, I recognise that there are many arguments where feminism ties itself in knots and simply looks dumb to everyone else.

Naked selfies being ’empowering’ is one such area.

There’s nothing wrong with taking nude photos, either as selfies or as a subject or photographer. I place nude photos in the same category as I would any other family/holiday memories, as I would photos of me in a bikini, a sun dress or work business suit. They’re just…memories. Of course, when I’m 90, in a nursing home and looking back on life, such photos of a young me, dressed or undressed, will be lovely memories to have. I won’t necessarily be differentiating between the nude and textile shots. It’s just memories of naturist holidays.

Neither will I be feeling ’empowered’ by such photos.

Every mainstream media (MSM) story I seem to read these days, if there’s any sort of nude, or semi-nude angle to it, appears to focus on how it’s ’empowering’, an in-vogue word which I feel means nothing.

Yes, there are elements to it where it’s…not quite empowering, to my way of thinking, but possibly confidence building. We don’t see ourselves nude in a mirror in quite the same way we see ourselves in a photo of ourselves nude in a mirror. We can linger over the photo longer, and are now detached from that mirror image. We can observe the image and conclude that we look lovely or presentable in a way we won’t while in the bathroom, preparing for a shower. So if naked selfies have any value, it’s that the images can build our confidence, so I suppose it’s slightly ’empowering’ in that respect, but to say that every social media photo, naked and pouting, is ’empowering’ is laughable.

Consider this… men take nude selfies too. Are they doing it to be ’empowered’? Or just showing off their ‘assets’? I tried to find some images of male selfies, and found lots on Google Images, but the entire purpose of the naked male selfie appears to show themselves in a state of some, or full, ‘excitement’. Put it like this…we aren’t a porn blog…and selfies in which some ‘manipulation’ wasn’t done prior to the shutter clicking appears not to be a thing. If there’s a flaccid naked selfie out there, I’ve yet to see it. (Note: I didn’t tarry too long in research before making this claim: I’m sure there’s one or two photos out there amongst the thousands of ‘excited’ pictures.

There’s times when the naked selfie has its place if a couple are physically separated, a reminder to home (or the partner elsewhere) of what they’re missing. I imagine doing such photos could be quite exciting to take and receive. But hardly ’empowering’.

Enough, already!

Naked selfies have their place, but not in a sense of them ever being ’empowering’. It’s just a lot of lazy BS perpetuated by the media and celebrities.

Ella