“I Don’t Want to Seem Trashy:” Exploring Context and Self-Presentation Through Young Gay and Bisexual Males’ Attitudes Toward Shirtless Selfies on Instagram Jeremy Birnholtz Northwestern University Evanston, USA [email protected] ABSTRACT of one’s own body, from naked [8]; [44] to topless [47]. This Mobile devices and social media have made it possible to raises the spectre of the “shirtless selfie,” a common theme share photos, often selfies, nearly instantaneously with in images shared by some gay men who are widely followed potentially large networks of contacts and followers. Selfies on Instagram [24] and others. These images, particularly for have become a frequent component of young people’s online men in the United States and other cultures where female -- self-presentations and shirtless male selfies, a common trope but not male -- toplessness is legally or normatively among some gay Instagram users, present an interesting self- restricted, present an interesting self-presentation dilemma. presentation dilemma. Images of shirtless males, normatively appropriate, attractive and innocuous in some This dilemma is particularly acute for young social media contexts, can also be vulnerable to misinterpretation or users seeking to broaden their following [50], such as by unintended sexualization in ways that can negatively impact using hashtags or receiving a “shoutout,” in which one’s others’ impressions. This paper reports on an interview study photo and username are shared by somebody with a larger of 15-24 year-old gay and bisexual Instagram users’ attitudes following to draw attention and gain followers, while still toward and experiences with shirtless selfies. Results suggest being perceived positively by their extant friends and family. that they see a clear tension between these images conveying These are important choices, especially for LGBTQ+ young attractiveness and possible negative connotations such as people who are developing their social identity [20];[9], promiscuity, and have different strategies for navigating this grappling with how to project masculinity/femininity (eg., tension. The results have implications for consideration of [37]) and may be coming out as LGBTQ+ [40], all at a time the contexts in which mobile social media content is when they are more likely to engage in risky behavior [22] produced and consumed. and can be particularly vulnerable to negative consequences of social media posts[48]. Author Keywords Self-presentation; Social Media; Selfies On the one hand, shirtless selfies have been discussed in the popular media [23] and prior research as a way to gain social ACM Classification Keywords media followers, and/or portray oneself as attractive or K.4.0 Computers and Society interesting [44]; [47]. On the other hand, shirtless selfies can INTRODUCTION have negative consequences. There is some evidence that Smart mobile devices with cameras have made it easier than posting these pictures and seeing those from others affects ever before to take and share pictures anywhere and anytime one’s self-perceptions and body image [31]. Selfies of any [12], and to distribute these to friends and social media kind can also negatively impact others’ impressions of the followers. Shared photos have become an integral part of poster [43]. Shirtless selfies, moreover, may be seen by some self-presentation for adolescents and young adults, as inappropriate or sexually provocative, depending on the especially “selfies” [11], which include everything from context and intent of the poster (e.g., [1]; [38]). quotidian moments to special occasions [14]; [34]; [4]. Moreover, this plays out on social media platforms that span Mobile cameras also make it easier to share revealing images multiple contexts (e.g., [16]; [7]) and require participants to anticipate multiple audiences for shared content and Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are constructing their identity [28]. In that regard, Instagram and not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies other mobile social media platforms are distinct from those bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for largely used by particular communities (e.g., [5]), and from components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be early online environments where one could freely honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific experiment with identity with little fear of impression permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. consequences from ‘real-world’ contacts [45]; [41]. MobileHCI '18, September 3–6, 2018, Barcelona, Spain From a practical standpoint, this puts audience-expanding, © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery. selfie-posting social media users in the situation of having to ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5898-9/18/09…$15.00 negotiate several tensions as they present themselves. How https://doi.org/10.1145/3229434.3229460 do they decide whether to share shirtless selfies? How do protect participant privacy) that aims to connect young gay they negotiate between a desire for followers and visibility and bi males. The shoutout genre varies across social media, versus the potential reputational or impression but in this community a shoutout consists of 3-4 self- consequences/risks? If they do share these images, how do submitted images of the shoutout recipient that contain their they decide what is appropriate to post? And third, how do face, a 1-2 sentence bio they have composed and a tagged they weigh the benefits and intended consequences against reference to the recipient’s username (see Figure 1). These the potential negative and/or unintended consequences? materials are sent to the shoutout account via direct message, and shared by the account owners. The shoutout post is then In the paper that follows, I explore these tensions using a visible to the account followers as an ordinary post and those self-presentation lens via an interview study of gay and who view the shoutout can tap on the tagged username to bisexual young men and adolescents who share photos of view the recipient’s profile and perhaps follow them. themselves on Instagram, and seek to increase their social media audience. Results suggest a range of attitudes toward Informal observations suggest that followers and shoutout and responses to shirtless selfies, with implications for how recipients live all over the world. I focus here on those who we think about the contexts in which mobile social media say in their profiles or shoutout bio that they live in the content is produced and consumed. United States. Most shoutout recipients are 15-25 years old, the study age range. Most recipients also appear to be using their primary Instagram accounts (and not a secondary one). Many shoutout recipient profiles use real names, make general references to their location (e.g., city, high school or university), and informal observations of public posts and contact lists further suggest that it is common for shoutout recipients to have many non-LGBT contacts, and post what seems to be content for a general audience. I focus on this population because: 1) many LGBTQ individuals, as a sexual minority, use technologies to meet and connect with others like them, (e.g.,[19]; [39]) and may not have easy local social connections, 2) gay and bi males have long used social technologies to meet [35]; [41], and 3) shirtless selfies are an especially interesting domain in the United States, because being shirtless per se is normatively acceptable for men in many contexts (e.g., pools, beaches), but not for women. Thus, men sharing photos of themselves are faced with choices around self-presentation and contextual norms that women are not. BACKGROUND There has been significant recent research on sharing selfies and Goffman’s model of self-presentation [18], which reflect Figure 1. Mockup of a fictional shoutout post. three tensions at the core of this study. Note: true shoutouts include a real face photo. Rewards and Risks SHOUTOUT GENRE AND CONTEXT The first tension is between the desire for followers and This paper reports on a a particular community, so I describe attention, the ways that shirtless selfies can help with that, the context here to position the background and research and risks taken in sharing these images. There is evidence questions. Study participants use Instagram, a popular that some people use social media to see attractive people mobile social media platform on which users can share and to get attention/validation from others who find them photos (visible until deleted) and ephemeral ‘stories’ (visible attractive [1]; [31]. Popular pages provide tips strategically for 24 hours) with their followers. “Following” is a one-way self-presenting [18] in ways that will attract followers via tie (i.e., A can follow B, but B need not follow A), in contrast shirtless selfies [23], providing initial evidence that these to the two-way “friend” tie (i.e., A and B are both ‘friends’ may be used to further this goal. with each other) on platforms like Facebook. All content shared by a user is governed by a single privacy setting, At the same time, sharing shirtless selfies, or any selfies, can which can be ‘public’ (i.e., visible to all users) or restricted pose risks. Sharing selfies on Facebook, for