Let Us Adorn Ourselves
The Social Gaze: On Watching and Being Watched
“Today everything exists to end in a photograph.”
– Susan Sontag, On Photography
Sontag’s remarks were deemed controversial in the late 70s. In the digital age of image saturation, however, she’s the disseminator of the gospel truth. Everything today from our casual interests, beliefs, interactions across mediums, and even our personality – exists to end up in a 1080 x 1080 pixel and 4:5 aspect ratio photograph, nestled in a thoughtfully curated grid – for the feasting eyes of the other.
The malleability provided by social media platforms to alter our identities has been a matter of discourse since its inception. Our online personas have never existed in a vacuum. As social creatures, we’re in constant anticipation of the outsider’s gaze, in both awe and fear. The inherent need to be seen is always accompanied by the fearful clasp of judgment tight around its neck. The human herd instinct to seek approval makes most of our behaviour in social settings performative. From the clothes we wear and the movies we watch to the opinions we hold more often than not arise from the need to achieve a sense of belonging – the one slated third in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs[1].
While the performances persist, it’s only human to slip up at times.
Entrée the power of social media.
Social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and X (formerly Twitter) allow us to not only create a production out of our existence but up the ante as well – we get to control who views our performance, along with the parts they get to see.
Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine you’re (doom)scrolling through Instagram when you come across a post by a conventionally attractive, white woman. She’s seated in an outdoor cafe. The sunbeams bounce perfectly off of her black sunglasses. Her profile faces the camera as she peers into her phone’s screen, carefully reapplying her lipstick.
Seems cool enough right? What if you zoom in just a bit?
Those sunglasses are the coveted Tom Fords in Whitney, and her lipstick is the classic Rouge Dior. What else, the bottom half of the picture seems to cut off a pack of Marlboro Lights and what appears to be an incredibly expensive lighter!
There’s at least a fifty per cent chance that you’ll believe you’ve stumbled across the feed of an heiress out to lunch in Italy. Such is the power of branding. The mere association with brands established as luxurious converts a simple photograph into an identity definer, as Professor Nita Mathur notes, “commercial brands and luxury commodities have come to serve as signifiers of identity in society”[2], allowing individuals to construct, deconstruct or reconstruct their social identities.
References
https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm
https://sk.sagepub.com/books/consumer-culture-modernity-and-identity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14JGQ1JWSgc&t=632s
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2023/01/26/why-and-how-to-implement-social-media-branding/?sh=3c975389793b
https://internetprincess.substack.com/p/standing-on-the-shoulders-of-complex
https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/32/1/171/1796334?redirectedFrom=fulltext
https://www.wired.com/story/business-gen-z-social-media/
https://creative.salon/articles/features/is-social-media-over-for-the-younger-generation
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/new-nihilism-how-gen-z-is-embracing-a-life-of-futility-and-meaninglessness-20231016-p5ecra.html
https://www.businessoffashion.com/reports/news-analysis/the-state-of-fashion-2024-report-bof-mckinsey/
more from this issue —
Let us adorn ourselves
With the beauty of the world around us
Realizing our place in the natural order
Architecture as extension of nature‘s line and form
Calm stillness of stream and glade
Rich woods running with grain
Burnished to glowing sheen
Stone glinting with flecks of quartz in morning sun
Greens, browns, tans, rust
Let us adorn ourselves
With the beauty of the world around us
Realizing our place in the natural order
Clothing as adopted plumage
Unique statements of self
Tactile spinnings of soft fibers
Warped and woven to garments and covers
Dyed as rainbows after a gentle rain
Reds, golds, blues, greens
Let us adorn ourselves
With the beauty of the world around us
Realizing our place in the natural order
Ornamentation as reflection of perception
Contemplations real and imagined
Carved stone, metalwork, jewels
Chiseled, hammered, polished
Formed as tangible feeling and wonder
Onyx, pewter, turquoise, jade
Let us adorn ourselves
With the beauty of the world around us
Realizing our place in the natural order
Words as verbal expression
Of that known to our hearts
Poetry, literature, song
Recited, written, composed
Etched in stone, inked on parchment
Verse, sonnet, lyric, melody
Let us adorn ourselves
With the beauty of the world around us
Realizing our place in the natural order
Community as togetherness
One in our common humanity
Support, encouragement, empowerment
Equality, harmony, compassion
Embellishing ourselves and the Earth
With hope, peace, joy, and love
Appears in —
Mike Turner
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