Overview

Social media is replete with images of 'perfection'. But many are unrealistic and contribute to a pervasive sense of never being good enough: not thin enough; not pretty enough; not cool enough. Try too hard and you risk being condemned for being ‘attention-seeking’, don't try hard enough and you're slacking. Rosalind Gill challenges polarized perspectives that see young women as either passive victims of social media or as savvy digital natives. She argues the real picture is far more ambivalent. Getting likes and followers and feeling connected to friends feels fantastic, but posting material and worrying about 'haters' causes significant anxieties. Gill uses young women's own words to show how they feel watched all the time; worry about getting things wrong; and struggle to live up to an ideal of being 'perfect' yet at the same time ‘real’. It's the wake-up call we all need. Also available as an audiobook.

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9781509549719

Table of Contents

Reviews

‘Perfect is a brilliant, urgent book; Gill expertly details the profound ambivalence that young women feel about interacting on social media. Through in-depth interviews and robust theoretical analysis, Gill guides us in navigating the complex and contradictory affective practices of young people and social media, from inspiration and security to loneliness and despair. Importantly, Gill resists discourses of moral panics and narcissism when analyzing young women on social media, and instead insists that these practices are about “what it means to be human” in this world. A must-read for anyone working in feminist media studies!’ Sarah Banet-Weiser, co-author of Believability: Sexual Violence, Media, and the Politics of Doubt ‘A really useful, sometimes troubling, report of life from where it is lived by so many today. Disturbing and affecting.’ Susie Orbach, psychotherapist, writer, activist & social critic 

Author Information

Rosalind Gill is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at City, University of London.

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