In Finn’s Writing as Inquiry class, our final research project was to turn the skills students had learned in close-reading argumentative essays towards close-reading something more personal: an app on their phone. As in their previous essays, the goal was to uncover a value the app seemed driven by, or perhaps projected into our increasingly online lives. Finn’s essay “Swiped off My Feet — Tinder Gold and Superficiality in Modern Relationships” takes an admirably fearless dive into the biggest, blurriest value of all: love.
A daunting project for any writer, indeed! But Finn shows two crucial skills here. First, there’s his close attention to defining his terms: he begins examining Tinder Gold through the broad lens of love & dating, and then narrows it down, source by source, to physical attraction, ultimately building his argument on the distinction he’s drawn. Second, he makes an inspired connection: instead of forever arguing with the clucking Tinder commentary, Finn jumps silos to explain the app’s matchups not as love but as an example of networked individualism. This comfort in both explaining others’ ideas and taking them to new places — along with his dry, self-deprecating humor about the whole project — makes Finn’s essay an excellent example of rigorous, engaging scholarship.
Around 5 years ago, Chinese scholar Qian Liu examined the “social integration status” of migrant workers’ children in urban public schools, attempting to understand whether migrant workers’ children were accepted as part of the urban communities they were living in (395). According to an entry in his field diary, a teacher from an urban primary school told him: “… since the parents (migrant workers) aren’t well mannered, it is hard for us to manage them, and the parents don’t understand what we are saying” (398). The quote displays a negative view of migrant workers and their children, where they are viewed as illiterate and bad-mannered in the urban spaces that they live and study in.
In this essay, I define migrant workers (‘农民工’ in Mandarin) as people who grew up in rural areas, and moved to urban areas for work in China. Migrant workers are commonly considered as a group ‘in-between’ urban andrural residents in China, in that they grew up in rural areas but are now working and living in cities. By the term ‘urban residents’, I refer to Chinese nationals who are born and have lived continuously in cities in China, as contrasted against rural residents, who are born and live in rural areas.
With urban residents and migrant workers now living together in closer proximity, migrant workers are often blamed for their children’s lack of literacy skills, and perceived as lacking in their own sense ofpersonal responsibility for their children. This is evident in surveys conducted in four major cities by the Chinese sociologist Li Zhu, who noted the presence of strong negative reactions against migrant laborers in urban populations (48). Such negative reactions include instances where migrant workers, their children, and larger rural populations are considered as illiterate and lacking any ability or potential to become literate (48). Read together with Qian’s field research, Li’s surveys illustrate how negative attitudes about the literacy of migrant workers and their children are common among urban residents. However, I argue that such negative attitudes against migrant workers are unreasonable. Lower literacy skills in migrant workers’ children are due to long working hours imposed upon their parents, where their parents are unable to provide adequate informal literacy activities to support their children’s education. Rather than seeing migrant workers’ children as incapable of becoming literate, and their parents as irresponsible, we should see migrant workers and their children as victims of a cycle of low income and inadequate education, and inherently capable of achieving stronger literacy skills, instead of placing the blame of lower literacy skills on them.
Some children of migrant workers have relatively weaker literacy skills because their parents move into the cities to find better jobs, leaving them unattended and lacking in informal literacy activities. These children are commonly referred to as ‘left-behind children’ in China, whose parents migrate from rural areas into the cities for better jobs, but leave their children behind in these rural areas.In their study on the effects of family involvement on the development of literacy skills, Jingying Wang, Hui Li, and Dan Wang have defined daily activities between parents and children which help children practice their language as “informal literacy activities,” which complement the “formal” literacy activities offered by public schools (119). Moreover, according to their research, these activities play a vital role in the development of children’s literacy skills, where the presence of such informal literacy activities are linked to better academic performance in primary school children (130).
However, children of migrant workers have fewer chances to meet and interact with their parents, and would thus lack the opportunity to have such essential informal literacy activities. In a study by labor scholars Guanglun Michael Mu and Yang Hu, both authors highlight the living conditions of ‘left-behind’ children by conducting interviews with them. One of these children said:
At the New Year Party, all other kids had their parents around, but my parents were busy at work… When the show started, all the other kids were lifted above by their parents… so they could still see what’s going on out there… At that time, I just want my parents to be with me.
(25)
This excerpt highlights how these children are affected by their parents being “busy at work,” who cannot spend time with their children even on New Year’s Eve. Given this geographical separation and the lack of time with their children, migrant workers have generally fewer opportunities for interaction and activities with their children, as compared with urban residents. Given such circumstances, it is understandable that these children would face greater challenges developing stronger literacy skills, as compared with urban residents.
Some children of migrant workers do move and live together with their parents in urban areas. While such children would live in closer proximity to migrant workers, they still face limited opportunities in strengthening their literacy skills — not due to any irresponsibility on the part of their parents, but due to the economic hardships and labor conditions they face. Most migrant workers have to work fairly long hours, leaving them with less time to spend with their children, as highlighted in a report by Hong Kong labor scholar Kaston Siu. Siu spent several months living with migrant workers to observe their living and working conditions. He writes that a typical factory migrant worker in Shenzhen needs to work 9 to 10 hours a day, but this can go up to 14 hours a day in the rush season (55). In contrast, according to the China Labor Statistical Yearbook, the average weekly working hours of urban employees is 46.2 hours in 2018 (“Survey of Average Weekly Working Hours”). Though urban employees also work quite long hours, migrant workers still work longer hours on a more consistent basis than urban residents. Furthermore, as most of them work in factories and other industrial areas, these workers are faced with more rigid working conditions and hours, leaving them with less time to spend with their children as compared with urban residents. Under such difficult economic and labor arrangements imposed upon them, migrant workers face considerable challenges in helping their children to develop stronger literacy skills.
We have discussed how migrant workers’ children have poorer literacy skills than the children of urban residents, due to lack of informal literacy activities and the economic conditions faced by their parents, instead of some born inferiority. With this understanding, we might wonder: how might these children perform, if they have the same material conditions and educational opportunities as their urban counterparts? Under the same conditions, it is likely that migrant workers’ children will display a similar level of literacy skills and academic performance as the children of urban residents. This is supported by a study by Gerard A. Postiglione and several Chinese scholars, who randomly sampled the academic scores of students from urban and rural areas who were admitted to top Chinese universities. When comparing the scores of these two groups of students, the authors found out that the average Grade Point Average (GPA) of urban students is 77.75 out of 100, while the average GPA of rural students is 76.74 out of 100 (68). Though urban students have a slightly better academic performance, this difference is, in the researchers’ own words, “not statistically significant” and can almost be ignored (71). Since the children of migrant workers are born in rural areas, they are more likely to take college entrance examinations in their hometown, and so may be considered as a part of the group of “rural students” examined by the authors. These scores highlight how there is no inherent inferiority in the children of migrant workers; if given more opportunities to receive a better education, these children have the potential to develop strong literacy skills, and to achieve academic success as well.
In light of this study, we should reconsider the common negative perceptions of the children of migrant workers. Rather than adopting a view of them as inferior by their own or their parents’ faults, we should see such children as possessing great and equal potential for academic success. Furthermore, we ought to see the children of migrant workers as victims of a cycle of low income and weak literacy skills. In light of their parents’ lower income levels, the children of migrant workers are less likely to get high-income jobs because of their weaker literacy skills, thus perpetuating and transmitting lower income levels into future generations. Many studies have been done on the intergenerational transmission of poverty in China, but most focus on the specific conditions faced by poorer rural residents of being unable to work while not fully accounting for the specific challenges faced by migrant workers and their children (Zhang 56). For instance, migrant workers’ children can attend the same public schools as their urban counterparts, but still face a greater difficulty in achieving academic success under the economic and social challenges faced by their parents.
Consequently, migrant workers’ children continue to face the effects of intergenerational poverty. In their study, Fangwei Wu, Deyuan Zhang, and Jinghua Zhang used mathematical models to explore the relationship between inadequate education and low income. Their study highlights that families with the same initial income level but different educational backgrounds may have differing economic outcomes, forming an income gap after some time (314). Moreover, if a family begins with a lower educational background and with poorer economic conditions, the income gap grows in severity, as time progresses (314). This model applies to the migrant workers’ children, as their weaker literacy skills makes it more challenging for them to achieve academic success and gain access to higher paying occupations and positions. While the children of migrant workers may possibly attain marginally higher income levels in the future, they will remain as victims of a more severe income gap, thus transmitting poor economic outcomes into future generations. The model therefore demonstrates the effects of lower literacy levels among the children of migrant workers, painting a more complete picture of the vicious cycle of poverty and poor educational outcomes faced by this population.
In this essay, I have explored how poorer literacy skills in migrant workers’ children are not due to the personal irresponsibility of their parents or family members, but due to economic and labor conditions — such as the parents’ movement away from home and longer working hours, which prevent them from playing a more active role in supporting the development of literacy skills in their children. Understanding the causes of lower literacy skills in these children helps us to see migrant workers as victims of the unbalanced economic development of rural and urban areas, and as victims of cycles of low income and inadequate education. As ordinary citizens, we may not have the ability to solve this complex problem comprehensively, but understanding the causes of the literacy gap helps us to show respect to migrant workers and their children that we meet in daily life. While policymakers have made great efforts to ensure the minimal income of migrant workers, more attention should also be paid towards protecting their rights and improving their working conditions, while also investing more in schools and educational programs for left-behind children. Such investments would improve the well-being and literacy skills of migrant workers’ children, and may eventually free them from the vicious cycle of low income and inadequate education.
Works Cited
Gerard A., Postiglione, et al. “Rural Students in a Chinese Top-Tier University: Family Background, School Effects, and Academic Performance.” Chinese Education and Society, vol. 50, no. 2, 2017, pp. 63–74, doi:10.1080/10611932.2017.1326774.
Li, Jie and Nikolas Rose. “Urban Social Exclusion and Mental Health of China’s Rural-Urban Migrants – A Review and Call for Research.” Health & Place, vol. 48, 2017, pp. 20–30, doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2017.08.009.
Li, Nan. “The Left-behind and Migrant Children of China: 2017 Statistics.” Translated by Luxia Broadbent, China Development Brief, 2018, www.chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/news/the-left-behind-and-migrant-children-of-china-2017-statistics-full-translation/
Mu, Guanglun Michael, and Yang Hu. “The Wellbeing of Floating Children and Left-Behind Children.” Living with Vulnerabilities and Opportunities in a Migration Context: Floating Children and Left-behind Children in China, Sense Publishers, 2016, pp. 25–46.
Qian, Liu. “Three Types of Social Integration Status among Children of Migrant Workers in China: Scenes of Superiority of City Residents, Co-Existence of Urban Culture and Rural Hometown Culture, and Weak Social Capital under Strong Policy Discourse.” Chinese Education & Society, vol. 50, no. 4, 2017, pp. 393–408, doi:10.1080/10611932.2017.1382132.
Siu, Kaxton. “Continuity and Change in the Everyday Lives of Chinese Migrant Factory Workers.” The China Journal, vol. 74, 2015, pp. 43–65.
“Survey of Average Weekly Working Hours of Employees in Cities and Towns”, People’s Republic of China, National Bureau of Statistics of China. China Labour Statistical Yearbook 2018, China Statistics Press, 2019.
Wang, Jingying, et al. “Bridging the Rural-Urban Literacy Gap in China: A Mediation Analysis of Family Effects.” Journal of Research in Childhood Education, vol. 32, no. 1, 2017, pp. 119–134, doi: 10.1080/02568543.2017.1388308.
Wu, Fangwei, et al. “Unequal Education, Poverty and Low Growth—A Theoretical Framework for Rural Education of China.” Economics of Education Review, vol. 27, no. 3, 2008, pp. 308–318, doi: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2006.09.008.
Zhang, Huafeng. “The Poverty Trap of Education: Education–Poverty Connections in Western China.” International Journal of Educational Development, vol. 38, 2014, pp. 47–58, doi: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2014.05.003.
Zhu, Li. “Quntixing Pianjian Yu Qishi-Nongmingong Yu Shimin De Mocaxing Hudong [Group Prejudice and Discrimination-Grinding Interaction between Peasant Worker and City Residents].” Jianghai Academic Journal, 2001, pp. 48–53.
In Writing as Inquiry I (Spring 2020), Chen Kuntian was interested in exploring what causes the unequal literacy abilities children of migrant workers exhibit in large Chinese cities. In “Inequality and Rural Discrimination: Causes of the Rural-Urban Literacy Gap for Children in China,” Chen brings to our attention a few important issues: the struggle of migrant laborers’ children for literacy, and the bias against migrant workers who are often seen as irresponsible parents. Chen however does not accept these negative attitudes and popular accusations. Instead of blaming the migrant parents, Chen argues that we should pay more attention to the multi-faceted nature of inequality these migrant Chinese parents and their families face if a real change is to happen. “Inequality and Rural Discrimination” indeed explores an important issue that needs attention. Chen uses reliable sources to advance a clear argument. His work is informative and educational. I congratulate Chen Kuntian on this achievement.
Since photo-editing apps have emerged in China, Chinese young people are spending lots of time and effort editing their selfies using all kinds of beauty apps, before posting them online. In “China’s Selfie Obsession,” Jiayang Fan points out one disturbing phenomenon caused by these beauty apps: they are making young people’s selfies look more and more homogeneous: all with big eyes, double eyelids, pointed chins and pale white skin, flawless yet losing authenticity (Fan). This phenomenon is disturbing, because scholars agree that selfies are “a valuable means of self-presentation and self-expression” in social media cultures nowadays (Lobinger and Brantner 1849). Homogeneous selfies mean that young people are not expressing their real selves through this valuable means of self-presentation. As Fan argues, “the freedom to perfect your selfie does not necessarily yield a liberated sense of self” (Fan). In other words, Chinese young people’s self-representation through inauthentic selfies distorts their sense of selves. They create the illusion that they have expressed their individualism by achieving their ideal self-image, which is in fact not their true self, as they are conforming to the social aesthetic standard. I agree with Fan’s opinion that the inauthentic selfies posted by Chinese young adults are associated with lower self-esteem. However, a selfie with authentic self-representation does not necessarily mean higher self-esteem, because of the subconscious existence of self-objectification. By considering the recent trend, several years after Fan’s article was published, where more and more Chinese young people are appreciating less-edited selfies on social media, I argue that these selfies may not be authentic self-representations. Instead, unedited selfies that are posted without seeking outside confirmation are less affected by self-objectification and truly have a stronger sense of self.
The concept of “sense of self” is not yet strictly or scientifically defined by scholars. However, as a branch of self-concept, “sense of self” involves ideas like self-esteem (Skoglund). Self-esteem refers to a person’s overall sense of personal value or worth. It can be considered as a measure of how much a person “values, approves of, appreciates, prizes, or likes him or herself” (Adler & Stewart). Another concept, which can also be regarded as one branch of “sense of self,” is self-objectification. Self-objectification is defined as “the adoption of a third-person perspective on the self as opposed to a first-person perspective” such that people who post selfies “come to place greater value on how they look to others rather than on how they feel or what they can do” (Calogero 575). It refers to an individual’s internalization of an observer’s perspective as a primary view of their own self (Zheng 325). In other words, self-objectification happens when people look at and evaluate themselves as objects based on appearance. “Sense of self” is a complicated concept that of course includes more than these two components, but this essay will focus mainly on these two aspects.
To figure out the relationship between a person’s sense of self and the authenticity in their selfies posted on social media, the concept of “expressive authenticity” needs to be employed, following the work of Marcus Banks. A photograph achieves expressive authenticity when the representation of the person is consistent with their own nature (Banks 168). In other words, we regard a selfie as having expressive authenticity when it is an honest expression of the user’s true appearance, personality, and beliefs. “Authenticity” in my essay mainly refers to expressive authenticity based on Banks’ theory, which means that the photograph is not only less-edited technically, but is also closely related to the true self of the depicted person. The following image is an illustrative example of a photograph that demonstrates expressive authenticity:
Fig. 1 Screenshot of a selfie posted on Zhihu
The selfie above, taken from Zhihu, which is the largest question-and-answer platform in China, is a highly rated answer under the question “What do you think of people who post selfies without any Meitu processes?”. This user posted a caption along with her selfies that said, “Most people regard beauty as features like white, flawless, big eyes, slim, etc. But beauty should be diverse and tolerant and I like myself with flaws, with my freckles, pimples, and black circles.” Her selfie has the property of expressive authenticity as she looks natural rather than staged, authentic to what she looks like in real life. The girl stresses that she didn’t edit the selfie at all while admitting and embracing the existence of the “imperfections” on her face.
On the other hand, inauthentic selfies basically include the features appearing in Fan’s article as wang hong lian (“internet celebrity face”), as shown in Fig. 2: double eyelids, big round eyes, white skin, and small mouths, as a result of having the selfies heavily perfected using Meitu apps (Fan). Such selfies do not have expressive authenticity, because the selfie cannot really represent the person depicted, as not only his or her appearance, but also the state of life shown, is faked into an ideal yet dishonest and unnatural image.
Fig. 2 Example of Wang hong lian (“internet celebrity face”)
A lower level of self-esteem will result from young Chinese posting more inauthentic selfies, as they use photo-editing apps as tools to achieve their dreamy self-images, losing confidence in their true selves. Rachel Grieve et al.’s study “Inauthentic Self-Presentation on Facebook as a Function of Vulnerable Narcissism and Lower Self-Esteem” reveals the congruence between self-representation on Facebook and the participants’ true selves. According to the researchers, “for individuals with average and low levels of self-esteem, there is more incongruence between the true self and the Facebook self (as a function of increased vulnerable narcissism)” (144). Though Grieve et al.’s research was on Facebook, we can still see similar phenomena happening in Chinese social media: those who spend more time and energy editing a selfie to a “perfect” one before posting it online, such as the internet celebrities described in Fan’s article, tend to care more about the likes and followers they receive. When they edit their selfies, they tend to focus more on the “unsatisfying” parts of their appearance, denying their own unique features. Their actions imply the negative self-perception that they do not think people would accept who they really are, signifying their low self-esteem. Young people can be trapped in this vicious cycle, just like the internet celebrities in Fan’s article, who stare at their phones all the time to see whether their new posts have gone viral (Fan). As Grieve et al. claim in their research, “greater discrepancies between the [true and Facebook] selves may be indicative of an individual attempting to mask feelings of inadequacy” (148). Because these young people have comparatively lower self-esteem, they care much about what other people think about their selfies and want to exhibit a perfect image of themselves; however, as they over edit their selfies, they deny their own images, conforming to the social aesthetic standards, instead of accepting or even admiring their uniqueness, leading to an even lower self-esteem.
Much different from the homogeneous and inauthentic beauty described in Fan’s article, Chinese young people have started appreciating natural and authentic selfies more and more in recent years. One example of this trend is the heated “Selfies without Editing Contest” on Weibo starting from 25 April 2020, with 100 million “reads” and 20 thousand “discussions” so far (Fig. 3). In addition, a new BeautyCam app named Qingyan Xiangji, released in 2018, which focuses on natural filters and especially avoids wanghong editing styles, has gone viral, and now occupies a large share of the beauty camera app market in China (@CharisApril). In the study “In the Eye of the Beholder: Subjective Views on the Authenticity of Selfies,” researchers Katharina Lobinger and Cornelia Brantner examined how people’s evaluation of the selfies posted on social media is affected by the photographs’ expressive authenticity. They found that some participants regard selfies as “inauthentic” because of the apparent staging or visibility of the photo editing process. Their research also suggests that teenagers admire photos showing people in “natural, everyday situations” instead of “artistic and visually scripted or composed pictures” (1856). It can be seen that expressive authenticity has become an admirable quality in this new trend.
Fig. 3 “Selfies without Editing Contest” on Weibo
However, a selfie with expressive authenticity is not equal to authentic self-representation in the selfie, even if the person has high self-esteem, because of the influence of self-objectification. According to Dong Zheng et al.’s study on Chinese adolescents on social networking services (SNSs), their selfie-posting behaviors on Qzone were positively associated with self-objectification. This relationship is specifically moderated by imaginary audience ideation, which refers to the assumption in one’s mind that others are “looking at and thinking about oneself all the time” (326). Therefore, when young people post selfies on social media, they are preoccupied by the idea that a group of imaginary audience would be gazing at their images and evaluating them based on their appearance. For instance, winners from the “Selfies without Editing Contest” on Weibo, who received more likes and comments than others, all fit into Chinese beauty norms, with fair skin, big eyes, and slim bodies. They also promoted their selfies to seek complimentary comments, and enjoyed increased likes and followers on their platforms as a result of being rated high in the contest. No matter how “authentic” the selfies posted by people with high self-esteem are, they are still under the process of self-objectification, subconsciously seeking for positive feedback from the “subjects,” namely, other people who are viewing and judging them.
The selfie on Zhihu in Fig. 1, belonging to the girl whose image demonstrates expressive authenticity, further emphasizes this point. Her entire post actually emphasizes the technical tips to take a beautiful selfie that will gain likes and followers on social media, using just a smartphone camera and without photo-editing apps. When people emphasize on social media that their selfies are “not edited,” they are actually seeking a sense of satisfaction from others’ compliments. In other words, they post selfies with expressive authenticity that are not staged or edited; but they post them only as evidence of “I look beautiful even without any Meitu process”. It is true that these young people may have higher self-esteem, as they have the confidence and courage to post unedited authentic selfies that highly represent their true self. However, they are still stressing to their imaginary audience that they did not edit their selfies, reflecting how much they care about getting compliments from others, to confirm their beliefs that they are beautiful. Self-objectification is thus almost always playing a subtle role when Chinese young people post authentic-like selfies, even for those who have high levels of self-esteem.
Compared with those who post authentic selfies with captions that emphasize how their selfies are “non-edited” or “filters-free,” young people who post authentic selfies without highlighting this fact are less affected by self-objectification. According to the study “Clarifying the Relationships Between the Self, Selfie, and Self-Objectification: The Effects of Engaging in Photo Modification and Receiving Positive Feedback on Women’s Photographic Self-Presentations Online” led by Megan Vendemia, engaging in the selfie modification process does not affect the state of self-objectification significantly; however, receiving comments on one’s appearance would increase the level of self-objectification (37). Though the study mainly focused on women, some findings can still be applied to young social media lovers as a whole: it is not the photo-editing process, but receiving favorable feedback that heightens self-objectification for people who share selfies on social media, enticing them to focus on their appearance as “a valued commodity” (40). Young adults who post unedited selfies without any sign of looking for outside compliments, in contrast, are more likely to be accepting of what they look like, including those parts of their bodies that are regarded as “imperfect” when examined by social media norms. As they do not depend on receiving favorable comments on their appearance to gain their sense of self-worth, such behavior can be considered as lower self-objectification. Interestingly, there is no measure for determining the reason why they are not stressing the fact that their selfies are unedited — while they might not care about outside confirmation, they may also believe that their natural appearance is good enough for receiving favorable feedback, and therefore are still seeking external confirmation consciously. Therefore, even when a photo demonstrates expressive authenticity, it does not necessarily demonstrate authentic self-representation.
Young social media users may always be looking for favorable feedback like complimentary comments, likes, and the number of followers, when they present themselves through selfies on social media platforms. In other words, self-objectification always seems to be playing a part in self-presentation on social media, whether through heavily edited or unedited selfies, and unedited selfies posted without drawing people’s attention to their expressive authenticity. On a superficial level, low self-esteem is associated with more inauthentic self-representations. In this case, expressive authenticity is not achieved, since the person’s true self is either distorted or hidden by the photo-editing process. However, higher self-esteem does not necessarily lead to authentic self-representation, because of the subconscious existence of self-objectification, which entices young adults to stress the non-edited aspect of their selfies, in order to gain likes on social media. In turn, these likes allow young adults to gain a sense of self-value. Therefore, despite the decreasing popularity of wanghong-style selfies in China, in favor of less-edited selfies, Chinese young social media users need to recognize that their self-worth is embedded neither in heavily edited selfies nor the texts posted along with the selfies. To gain a better sense of self-worth, they need to hold the belief that their natural appearance can be appreciated no matter what, as long as they believe that they are representing their authentic selves.
Works Cited
Banks, Marcus. “True to Life: Authenticity and the Photographic Image”. Debating Authenticity. Concepts of Modernity in Anthropological Perspective, Edited by T. Fillitz & A. J. Saries, Berghahn Books, 2012, pp.160–171.
Calogero, Rachel M. “Objectification Theory, Self-Objectification, and Body Image.” Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance, Edited by Thomas F Cash, vol. 2, San Diego: Academic Press, 2012, pp. 574–580.
Grieve, Rachel, et al. “Inauthentic Self-Presentation on Facebook as a Function of Vulnerable Narcissism and Lower Self-Esteem.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 102, 2020, pp. 144–150.
Lobinger, Katharina and Brantner, Cornelia. “In the Eye of the Beholder: Subjective Views on the Authenticity of Selfies.” International Journal of Communication, vol. 9, 2015, pp. 1848–1860.
Skoglund, Elizabeth R. “Self-Esteem, Self-Love.” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Walter A. Elwell, Baker Publishing Group, 3rd edition, 2017.
Vendemia, Megan A. “Clarifying the Relationships Between the Self, Selfie, and Self-Objectification: The Effects of Engaging in Photo Modification and Receiving Positive Feedback on Women’s Photographic Self-Presentations Online.” The Ohio State University OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, 2019.
Zheng, Dong, et al. “Selfie Posting on Social Networking Sites and Female Adolescents’ Self-Objectification: The Moderating Role of Imaginary Audience Ideation.” Sex Roles, vol. 80, no. 5/6, 2019, pp. 325–331.
@CharisApril. “轻颜相机产品分析报告 –‘颜值时代‘下的‘她经济.’ Product Analysis Report of Qingyan Xiangji — ‘Her’ Economy in the ‘Beauty Era’.” 简书, 16 March, 2019, www.jianshu.com/p/758fa8a72c9a. Last accessed 9 April 2021.
@小枫儿童成长学. “Example of Wanghonglian”. Kandiankuaibao, 9 December 2019, https://kuaibao.qq.com/s/20191209A0OF0700?refer=spider
