The Selfie: Exploring the Shift from Self Expression to Social Justice in an Era of Global Crisis and Civic Upheaval

How do your selfies produce or obscure a sense of your identity?

How do we create ourselves? These days, one selfie at a time. Each selfie bears information that can be used to read our identity characteristics. Identity characteristics include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, culture, religion, profession, family role, personality, and physical attributes.

1. Take or choose 3 selfies of yourself. You may be alone or with another person, but try to make sure you are a central and large part of the photo. All of your selfies should be different. Remember, a selfie means that YOU are the person who took the photo of YOURSELF.

2. Write a thesis-driven essay (500 words) that answers the prompt: how do your selfies produce or obscure a sense of your identity? Analyze the 3 selfies you chose for your construction of 3 intersecting and overlapping identity characteristics. Although you will be choosing 3 identity characteristics, please do not write a 5-paragraph essay where you give one paragraph to each characteristic. Instead, create a thesis and develop your argument, building and deepening your argument, adding nuance as you go. Essay should be typed in MLA format. Include your selfies at the end of your paper or attach on Teams assignments separately. Your essay will be scored using the AP Language argument essay rubric.

3. Questions for reflection as you prepare your argument:

   1. What in your selfies is accurate?

   2. What is ambiguous or obscured?

   3. Does the image portray one identity trait more than others?

   4. Where do the images place you in the spectrum of possibilities for each identity trait? For example -- more or less feminine or masculine?

   5. How might different audiences perceive the images differently?

   6. How is the viewer addressed in the images?

   7. What is the apparent context for the image? How might that impact how it might be read?

   8. What choices do you make to present yourself and what does this say about you? (clothing, pose, facial expression)

   9. How do you frame the picture to construct meaning about your image? (background, lighting, proximity, angle of the camera)

   10. Other elements in the picture? (objects, other people, location)

   11. How do your selfies play off one another or famous images?