Women take sexy selfies to compete with
other women and climb the social ladder in economically unequal environments,
new research from an Australian university has found.
A study, published Monday in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, found women took sexy
selfies in environments with greater economic inequality, rather than where
they might be oppressed because of their gender.
The researchers analysed more than
68,000 sexualized self-portrait photographs, or “selfies,” posted on
social media platforms Instagram and Twitter across 113 countries.
They also looked at where in the
world the most selfies were taken.
The researchers found the
association between sexy-selfie prevalence and income inequality was directly
related, with greater sexualisation in environments where incomes are unequal
and people are preoccupied with relative social standing.
“We found no association with
gender oppression,” the
study said.
“It’s all about how women are
competing and why they’re competing,” said the study’s lead author, Khandis
Blake from University of New South Wales.
She said women are “more likely
to invest time and effort into posting sexy selfies online in places where
economic inequality is rising, and not in places where men hold more societal
power and gender inequality is rife.”
“Selfie” was the Oxford
Dictionaries’ word of the year in 2013.
In recent years, especially since
the advent of smartphones and social media platforms, the images have become a
ubiquitous symbol of the perceived self-obsessiveness of the younger
generation.
Researchers in the past have found
women take more selfies than men.
The PNAS researchers said income
inequality increases competitiveness and status anxiety amongst people at all
levels of the social hierarchy, making them sensitive to where they sit on the
social ladder and wanting them to do better than others.
“That income inequality is a big
predictor of sexy selfies suggests that sexy selfies are a marker of social
climbing among women that tracks economic incentives in the local environment,” Blake said.
“Rightly or wrongly, in today’s
environment, looking sexy can generate large returns, economically, socially,
and personally.”
The researchers found the same
pattern of “income inequality” spending in other real world experiences
in physical appearance-enhancing areas, like beauty salons and fashion.
“So, when a young woman adjusts
her bikini provocatively with her phone at the ready, don’t think of her as
vacuous or as a victim,” Blake said.
“Think of her as a strategic
player in a complex social and evolutionary game. She’s out to maximize her lot
in life, just like everyone.”
(dpa/NAN)
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