By Nan Zhong
When I posted my first selfie on Weibo (Chinese Version of Twitter), there was a comment I can still remember:
“Selfie is for girls and good-looking dudes. Clearly it’s not for you.”
Indeed, I’m not young version John Cusack or topless version Ryan Gosling. The idea that a guy like me shouldn’t post their selfie on internet so frequently, harsh, but makes sense. Who don’t want to be surrounded by beautiful things, since the internet is a place where people want to escape from the reality, contributing a world full of beautifulness (fake may be but fancy absolute) together, is each netizen should do.
Ok, all above is only the self-mockery of how non-good-looking I am, (just don’t want to use the word UGLY) which isn’t the whole relationship between guys and the selfies. But feeling unconfident about the appearance is a crucial reason why guys don’t take selfies as much as girls do. After all, they normally don’t use make ups. The relationship between guys and the selfie is complicated. There is a hilarious story (at least it’s hilarious to me) I can share.
Smiley is one of my life-long friend, and she broke up with her second boyfriend because of one selfie. Once her former boyfriend¬ — let’s call him Dong — told her he would go for a business trip, then flied to another city. That night before asleep, Smiley asked Dong sent a selfie to her, as the “good night gift”, and he did. When Smiley got a topless selfie from Dong, using the bath room mirror of a hotel room to take, she called me at middle of the night, complained tearfully for nearly two hours. Then dumped Dong without any doubt. Why? Because she found a used condom in the toilet behind Dong.
Surly I feel sorry for Smiley at that time, but that’s three years ago. Now Smiley would love to tell the story in a party as a laughable joke. I think the story is funny too now, and a sentence always appears in my mind each time I recall the story:
“Guys are all stupid.”
I don’t know who said it originally, must be some Feminist Fighter. But sometimes, it’s true, not only stupid, lazy also. For most guys, taking a selfie is troublesome. First of all, we totally agree with each selfie should be the best side of you, even the grimace should be handsome. However taking a perfect selfie isn’t easy, you should take at least ten shot first, then select the most gorgeous one, which isn’t sound like an easy and enjoyable job for a guy. And then, put filter on the photo, which is the most difficult job for a guy, because obviously, we don’t know which the most suitable filter for a dude’s selfie is¬ — we do know which one is the most suitable for a landscape or girlfriend’s portrait, but for ourselves? Not really. Yes, Rome was not built in one day, the skill of taking the selfie either. It’s impossible for beginners taking only five minutes to finish the whole process. For me, twenty minutes at least, I’d love to spend such time playing a video game, or just watching a basketball game. My life can be without selfie.
A photo provide so much information, a selfie provides more. The time you show the perfect side to the world, the dark side cannot be hidden perfectly. Meanwhile, some people choose to show the real side, just like the origin of the selfie, as Rachel Syme wrote in her selfie history. That means actually more and more non-good-looking people are posting their imperfect selfie on the internet. At last, let’s enjoy some splendid selfies from my spiritual model, famous musician, writer and philosopher, Xiaosong Gao. Hope you like them!
