ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the discursive practices through which men take and look at selfies, in a gendered visual ecology that centers women as the primary object of the gaze. We examine the forms of looking and objectification that inform masculine subjectivities, and the kinds of selfie performances that are situated as “natural” and authentic for cis-men. Drawing on empirical research with participants, selfie masculinities will be examined along three inter-related registers: adaptive strategies of humor, irony, and prevarication; the centering of the hegemonic masculine body and especially the jawline as a visual focal point; and how performances of heteronormative masculinity congeal and are negotiated through digital personages like the “Fuckboy” and “Chads.” This chapter examines the shared insider discourses, subtle and overt meaning systems, personal experiences, as well as the peer interactions that render men visible as objects of intelligibility and desire within selfies.
