heynikolinak

Taking a good old selfie… whether you are in the bathroom, just finished putting your face on for a night out or just got through the gym doors and taking a pic of the great progress on your body you have achieved in that whole 3 minutes, you just can’t run away from a selfie. We are all guilty of taking one every once in a while. It’s like a disease… you take a picture, post it online, get a few likes and think “Oh wow, I do look great in this pic” and then the craze starts. Where did it all begin? Can you remember life before selfies? Where did the term ‘selfie’ even come from?

The only time you will see a Bieber selfie on this site.

Well surprise, surprise… we all would have thought it was a hot young cracker of a female getting ready for a night out in town but we have all been fooled. The earliest recorded usage of the word selfie has been tracked to 2002, where it appeared on an Australian internet forum (ABC Online):

Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped over [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.

So there it is! The first recorded use of the term selfie was some drunken Aussie sharing an alcohol initiated wound online. Who would have thought! We can thank this guy for starting the biggest online phone sharing craze that has hit the modern world. What is the selfie doing to society? This hot topic was discussed in one of my media tutorials at uni which I found very interesting. What are the effects of the selfie craze on the younger generation? It led to a debate about the positives and the negatives of a selfie and below is what was discussed.

Positives of a Selfie:

– It boosts a person’s self esteem when they are recognized for their beauty, talent, results, hard work etc.

– It allows an individual to share life experiences with friend and family online by showing they are apart of it.

– It builds awareness e.g. the good old charity selfie where an individual takes a photo of themselves participating in a charity event.

Negatives of a Selfie:

– It creates blows to self-esteem when individuals are bullied, harassed or teased on their photos.

– It makes the younger generation vulnerable to the judgement of others and less acceptable of themselves.

– It leads to the following of bad role models and sharing of inappropriate photos online.

– It pulls a very young generation into the online world early on making them vulnerable to its dangers.

So as you can see, very unexpected results even though selfies can have a few positive effects on individuals. It was an interesting debate and a whole lot of ideas were raised about the selfie craze and its effect on the younger generation of internet users. Have a think about what your selfies mean to you: why do you take a selfie? Is it to share with your friends an experience or a photo which you love or is it to fish for some compliments on the outfit you chose to wear last night?

One thing that I realized is that as soon as I post a selfie it’s like a ticking time bomb. I nervously sit around and check my notifications about every 5 minutes to see if at least one person has liked the photo. I have a friend who stated “Once you get over 15 likes that’s when you know it’s a good photo.” I mean really? 15 likes, is that the bar which we have set for whether your photo is hot enough or not? What happens if you get 14? Is it time to pop on a face mask and work on your styling skills? The discussion could go on and on but let’s end on a funny note. There are the oh-so-common selfies which are so recognizable. The standard poses, locations and captions which are used. So let’s look at the most popular kind of selfies which are around:

1. The OOTD Selfie

– This is where you show off your taste in fashion, makeup skills and how banging you think your body looks in that outfit today/tonight.

2. The Nightlife Selfie

– The pout comes out and the caption is usually something along the lines of “Ready for a good night out !!” (lots of exclamation marks and also may include a drink in your hand).

3. The Just-woke-up Selfie

– You woke up, ran into the bathroom, fixed yourself up, perfectly placed your hair around your face on your pillow and took a photo of how great you look when you “just” woke up. NEVER forgetting a #nofilter hashtag!

4. The Gym Selfie

– Now this one is varied. It could be just of your face lying on the bench press or it could be a full body shot of you in the squat rack or weights section mirror. This one is almost always showing a little tensing of the biceps or your soon to come abs, though make sure it looks like you at least have one little sweat drop on your forehead to look like you have done at least one rep.

5. The Smile Selfie

– Now this one is customized to fit a range of captions. It is just a plain straight photo of your face smiling wildly for reasons to be explained in the caption field. It may be “Just got the job!”, “Happy birthday to me!”, “My boyfriend makes me happy!”, “Just smile because you are amazing!” (this one is a sort of ‘I look great but let’s give that a try to look like I’m complimenting my friends as well’).

6. The Body Selfie

– This is almost 99% of the time in a bikini or shirt-less for the guys. It’s a way to say “My body looks banging though my face right now… not so much.”

7. The Cheeky Selfie

– This is one of my most entertaining ones. It is when you post a silly selfie of you with your tongue out, or with your pearly whites showing like grills (this is sort of a bad-ass angle), knowing you look really cute and amazing though hash-tagging #bored #ugly #needmoresleep #imsostupid … It’s a way of promoting yourself as thinking you look horrid though making all of your friends jealous because you still look hot whilst pulling a silly face!

So those are my most obvious pics for the most popular selfies around! So now walk away, have a laugh at your news feed and also think about which category you are falling under next time you press that upload button!

– by Nikolina Koevska

I’m a big appreciator of a good quality movie… but it has to happen once in a while. I gave in to the secret desire of all women and watched a movie just for the pure pleasure for gazing at the big buff figure of Thor and my gosh I enjoyed every minute of it. The obsession began with the first movie though Thor 2 did not fail to disappoint!

You could classify it as an action packed buzzer, a romantic comedy as well as a futuristic entertainer. The movie was a great watch though a good 60% of my 10 out of 10 rating has to be credited to that tanned, toned and muscly hunk of Chris Hemsworth. So it’s the new never fail formula for a film. Center the story around a big buff hero, a story line with some thrills and some laughs and then throw in a gorgeous co-lady and Hollywood is racking it in. Oh times have changed.

It all started with the Male Gaze theory of Laura Mulvey during the 1970’s who proposed that there was a tendency of film to circulate around women objectified in film by heterosexual men who are in control of the camera. Her thoughts delve into the ways in which we as the audience as well as the characters within films subject an individual to a controlling and curious gaze for sexual stimulation through sight. This is certainly the case in Thor 2 though: when did the Male Gaze become the Female Gaze? Seems as if we have taken over ladies and what eye candy we want, we get! So let’s go through the decades and see how the sexual spectacle of the femme fatale became the big, buff glory of Thor 2.

1950’s:

The 1950’s were all about the exquisite Marylin Monroe and boy she WOW’d in the 1959 film Some Like it Hot. With a name like Sugar Cane, her sensual persona in the film pleases even the woman’s eye. The film follows the story of two musicians who escape their hometown disguised as woman to join an all-girl band.

1960’s:

Oh Audrey Audrey Audrey! She is classy, sassy and beautiful all in one and it was her time in 1961 in Breakfast At Tiffany’s. It’s a crime if you haven’t watched the film! The film follows Holly, a New York socialite who becomes interested in a young and handsome man who moves into her apartment building.

1970’s:

This is where Mulvey’s Male Gaze was at its peak and Olivia Newton John owned those last 10 minutes of Greece and is to thank for the inspiration for every girls 1970’s dress-up party outfit. I mean those legs in those tights and that red lipstick… gosh dammit just makes we wanna get to the gym and squat.

1980’s:

This is where the men make their debut and it’s all about the handsome, strong hero who swoops the girl away. Who better to get it started then Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride? I think I probably watched this film over 15 times in high school for English but I didn’t complain. The 1987 American romantic, comedy, fantasy, adventure film is the only one of its kind and did not fail to entertain. Look at the way the princess is clenching on to him from behind!

1990’s:

The crazy 90’s in which I was born and all the hype was over Pulp Fiction. Now this one is a bit tricky because the sexy Uma Thurman seduces us all as the mafia boss’ wife though John Travolta gets his dangerous, hit-man on and gets all the ladies a bit hot and steamy!

2000’s:

The Dark Knight Batman movie 2008. Hero of the city, fighting crime, seducing ladies just being an every-day man. Christian Bale does not fail to impress with that 6-pack and firm guns. The movie is a pleasure to watch in every sense.

And we come to the now. The big, buff pleasure of Thor. It makes you think about the reasons we watch films. We sit in a dark cinema room, in a rather comfortable chair with snacks to last us the hour or two and stare into a screen. Stare at the “lives” of others and be entertained… or pleased by that eye candy. I’m not going to deny it. The reason I went to watch Thor was for the pleasure of the candy and it did not disappoint. Plus… he is an Aussie so I’m just “supporting” our damn handsome Aussie talent! 😉

– by Nikolina Koevska

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