Stop Self(ie) Shaming By Susan McLean

We’ve grown to mock the selfie culture, making fun of selfie sticks and Instagram filters. We laugh at teenage girls’ Facebook profile photos and cringe when Kim Kardashian releases a book of selfies. We shake our heads at ‘mirror pics’ and act faux sympathetic toward those annoying people who post selfies almost every day.

I say screw it. In a world where self love isn’t taught and only the lucky learn it, we need to stop the chastising. If someone loves themself in a moment and decides to capture that feeling- who are we to make fun of them? We are the insecure playground bullies pointing fingers and laughing just because someone felt good about themself. We are one of the reasons self love is so hard to find.

Making fun is only perpetuating the culture that tells children they aren’t good enough and women they aren’t airbrushed enough and men they aren’t masculine enough. So why do we keep laughing? We are enough and we need to stop perpetuating the message that we’re not. We’re already bombarded with this message everyday through both subliminal and overt advertising, do we really need to add to it?

It’s doing more damage than good and so what if Jessica posts a Facebook selfie twice a week? Good for her. Maybe one day we’ll all love ourselves as much as Jessica.

Keep taking selfies. Keep posting them. Keep loving yourself.


Originally posted on Her Looking Glass