Facebook

Whenever I'm bored, I click on the new photos in my mini-feed on Facebook. A classic pose, first mastered by most as early as seventh grade, is fish face (head tilted, lips pursed, eyes wide). It's a standard but I don't really understand it. I guess that it's to "accentuate the cheekbones." Whatever.

I even find Model posing pretty amusing. I mean those poor girls probably spent a really long time finding the right angle on their back porch...in a bikini...trying to flip their hair just so it's sexy enough but not covering their eyes. Although whenever I look at those pictures that obviously weren't taken by that person on photo booth...I sort of just wonder about the person who took them. Awkward.

While previous generations had the hairbrush-lip-synching-bathroom-mirror experience, we have the Mac-PhotoBooth-low-cut-top-lip-pursing-experience.

I don't think this one needs a deep analysis. Girls want that comment from all their friends and hopefully some hot guy going "dayuuuum" or "this is SO pretty!" Sort of like how some people still go on those superlatives to check their "Hot" rating. I once knew this girl who was #2 hottest, and asked #1 if they would vote for her so she could be #1. Because OBVIOUSLY it was very important to her. OHkay.

But when I log on and the first thing I see on my mini-feed is some freshman's bare chest, I have a problem. And when the comments read "U WHORE! Luv ya :-P"  It pisses me off because there's a difference between reclaiming the word whore...and actually celebrating a girl who acts like she'd do it with just about anyone.

Plus, it's really not that hard to spell words like "you" and "love." I hope.

It may be freshmanitis, but I think not. Girls, put your boobs away. Don't lick them, don't let someone else point to them. Don't pretend you just want to buy the bra your wearing and that's why you have a picture posted for everyone to see.

First, it's repulsive. And secondly I think we've all read enough Seventeen "True Life" stories about how once you put a picture on the Internet, it will be there forever. Your profile may be private, but if someone is determined enough they can get to it. Most likely, it would be someone you're friends with anyway.

Ultimately, we are better than that. It's not funny and any "compliments" you get are just from gross guys whose brains are half dead from playing Halo, anyway. Just use common sense. I mean, hey I like getting complimented on my pictures. I'm not going to pretend that just because I'm a feminist I don't need reminding that I'm loved.  But lets not let a good portion of our lives become basically devotion to boys whose only achievements are associated with killing virtual aliens. That's just wrong.