facebook profile photos
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by vanillaface
I was on Facebook the today and was looking at the different profile picture that my friends had and with reference to the second lecture, I noticed the differences in the profile pictures of males and females and how they allow for the performance of gender. I did a small survey of 10 of my facebook friends, 5 of each sex at random and here are my results...
Females:-1 had pictures only of them self in poses that could be interpreted as sexually suggestive due to the facial expression and body language, were wearing makeup etc and had taken the photo them self.
-4 had photos of them with a group of friends while looking happy while dressed up at a party/town/ball.
Males:
-1 had a photo of a female celebrity in a bikini.
- 1 had a photo of their car.
-1 had a photo of them with their friends pulling a face that is not commonly associated with being attractive (although both guys are actually real babes... which is subjective of course...)
-2 had a photo of them with a group of their mates drinking alcohol.
Although the number of people of surveyed was small, I summarised from this was that females had photos where they appeared the most attractive or in a light which showed them as feminine while males had photos which showed them as masculine by having profile photos containing things commonly associated with masculinity (women as sex objects, drinking, cars etc) and also not caring as much about their personal appearance as females (having a profile photo which shows them not looking so attractive...). These photos allow for the performance of gender by both sexes picking a picture which shows them performing gender by having associations with attributes commonly linked to masculinity and femininity.
Females:-1 had pictures only of them self in poses that could be interpreted as sexually suggestive due to the facial expression and body language, were wearing makeup etc and had taken the photo them self.
-4 had photos of them with a group of friends while looking happy while dressed up at a party/town/ball.
Males:
-1 had a photo of a female celebrity in a bikini.
- 1 had a photo of their car.
-1 had a photo of them with their friends pulling a face that is not commonly associated with being attractive (although both guys are actually real babes... which is subjective of course...)
-2 had a photo of them with a group of their mates drinking alcohol.
Although the number of people of surveyed was small, I summarised from this was that females had photos where they appeared the most attractive or in a light which showed them as feminine while males had photos which showed them as masculine by having profile photos containing things commonly associated with masculinity (women as sex objects, drinking, cars etc) and also not caring as much about their personal appearance as females (having a profile photo which shows them not looking so attractive...). These photos allow for the performance of gender by both sexes picking a picture which shows them performing gender by having associations with attributes commonly linked to masculinity and femininity.