Duckface/Stoneface: Selfie stereotypes and selfie literacy in gendered media practices in Sweden

This article describes how Swedish teens use selfies for gendered self-representation in online peer-to-peer communication. The aim of the article is to critically question and add on to the extensive tradition of studies of large scale mass mediated stereotypes, by looking at how gender selfie stereotypes are produced and performed in social media through the interaction and participation of school children. The article combines constructionist perspectives on representation and gender with social semiotics. Based on empirical data from focus group interviews with student from grade 7 in four Stockholm schools (N=41) the article show that the way the selfie genre is played out and negotiated among teens is marked by gender stereotypes. These stereotypes are used to confirm a dualistic separation of sexes, the subordination of women, and a heteronormative order for sexuality, but also used for “stereotype vitalization” where prevailing gender norms are renegotiated, jested and mocked.

The norms revealed in the study reflected the principles of a gender system based on a dualistic separation of the sexes, the subordination of women, and a heteronormative order of sexuality. Yet. while some dominating gender stereotypes were confirmed, others were renegotiated, jested or mocked.