Real bodies on demand.
Urbanears Pink collection by Arvida Bystrom
Every generation of women introduces new media to feminine narratives, which create different possibilities to communicate with the body. More than just tools, social media are technologies for the self and have been changing the debate on sexuality and female body exhibitionism.
The Renaissance Venus, pin-up girls, sugar tits in beer ads — for a long time, women have been flashed by two different and extreme angles: desired objects for men or angel-mother beings.
It is safe to say that one of the first antagonisms to this so-called order was the crack of intimacy. Photographers such as Nan Goldin were the first ones to register their private worlds. And now, almost 30 years later, there is a new feminine action that also puts images above words or better yet: uses exhibitionism as a speech.
Since the advent of the internet, photography started to be consumed in a different way. When the front-facing camera was released in 2010, self-perception of the female body, whether trans, transvestite, or cis, has become even more controlled and disseminated. In order to create its own narratives (romantic, queer, porn, or shocking in other ways), every woman can respond through aesthetics that go from aggressive to girlishly cute. The material for that is the body itself in realities and trivialities colored with shades of humor, irony, and excess that can be captured in the privacy of home and sent to the world.
IN SUCH VIRTUAL FLUIDITY, THE BODY DOES NOT GET LIMITED TO PATTERNS AND GOOD MANNERS.
Boogie and boobies are finally clear! Tik Tokers have even sealed the bootylicious culture. Bimbos, e-girls, @gostosaspobres, identity doesn’t matter, as long as the image imitates reality and becomes viral. Anything goes because it’s created in subversity (therefore, made for confrontation) and might as well be also deviant, after all, what could be expected from all those years of fictional femininity subjected to a patriarchal society.
BEING WATCHED MEANS COMING TO LIFE AND BEING SOMEONE.
Internet and social media have allowed a new generation of women’s speech to get out there. Through selfies, performance, and exhibitionism, they are able to explore the thin line between on and offline. The reason why we look at photos that are more and more shocking is that the body needs to remain fresh. And only by repetition and excess, such images can create new truths.
To those who are critical and conservative, it is safe to say that if all of this seems to be a bit rude and unreal, well… then stop consuming these images, otherwise, they will consume you. Just keep the fiction going, ok?
To those who are critical and conservative, it is safe to say that if all of this seems to be a bit rude and unreal, well… then stop consuming these images, otherwise, they will consume you. Just keep the fiction going, ok?
