Endearing photos of them in which they flaunt their near-perfect decked-up selves with family: cousins, parents, in-laws and adorable little children<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nInstagram, unlike any other medium, offers a platform to modestly parade yourself free of charge, globally, and forgiving of (or maybe even rewarding \u2013 the more you post, the more you tag, etc., the more you can \u2018collect\u2019 followers with time who are beyond your immediate known circle) one\u2019s tendencies to post the same kind of photos with an alarming frequency. So, everyday, I watch these women post their photos in cyclical routines: this event one day and that on another.<\/p>\n
A conscious attempt is made to show that they can\u2019t be put in silly boxes like \u2018traditional\u2019 or \u2018modern\u2019: they blend their Indian wear, sarees in particular, in exotic locations that you wouldn\u2019t associate with the clothing, such as a posh restaurant serving Mediterranean cuisine or in the Swiss mountains or a Parisian street or while baking apple cinnamon pie at home.<\/p>\n
They also showcase the variety in their wardrobe \u2013 and selves \u2013 with pictures of themselves in hot shorts, downing beer by the beach. Almost unfailingly, they look stunning in their pictures in a way that resonates with me, because there\u2019s makeup but it\u2019s mild; the clothes are subtle but they\u2019re classy, trendy and unique, with a mark of their individual style; their accessories complement their clothes well and are beautiful by themselves.<\/p>\n
My quiet consumption of Instagram is also guilty pleasure; belatedly, I realised (not without some shame) that most of these women are upper-caste and upper-class, representing, it seems, a microcosm of Chennai on the platform. My secretive Instagram journeys have no diversity!<\/p>\n
And so, aligned with the popular notions that upper-class, upper-caste women have associated with them, these women effortlessly switch identities \u2013 or should I say, display their multiple identities comfortably, one after another.<\/p>\n
I see them in sarees for a religious ceremony and a kalamkari<\/em> (hand-printed cotton from South India) dress for an evening of drinks with the girls. I see them in wedding finery with the husband who is shirtless, lines of sacred ash and a (Brahmin) caste-marker thread across his chest, while another image is of their pre-marriage shenanigans and cuddles (tagged #throwback). I see them happily displaying expensive Amrapali jewellery one day and Pondy Bazaar accessories (inexpensive street shopping) the next. It\u2019s Starbucks one day and food from kaiyendhi bhavan <\/em>(roadside food stalls) on another. Through these photos, there seems to be an unapologetic embracing of caste and class identity, a nod to their privileged background, but conscious efforts to show that that\u2019s not all \u2013 there\u2019s more to them.<\/p>\nAnd each time, it\u2019s this confidence \u2013 an unspoken but apparent \u2018I look good, I know it, and I enjoy it\u2019 \u2013 that I admire because I could never do the same: in this perfect-looking universe with these self-assured women, very few photos of mine qualify to be posted (less than a tenth of my Instagram photos have me in them).<\/p>\n
Living this dual life is a strange and comforting thing, and that\u2019s what I like about Instagram and these wonderful, unknown women who confidently and cheerfully flaunt themselves for the world to see. It gives them an opportunity to make no qualms about their social identity or feel guilty about it, even if on Facebook or Twitter, they could be up in arms against caste and class hegemony\u2026 or otherwise! The truth is, I don\u2019t know, and I don\u2019t have to. Instagram allows them to unapologetically, unabashedly be themselves and bask in their glory, and when they do it well, it rewards them with thousands of followers who lap up what they share. And it lets me<\/em> be in the know without putting me in the uncomfortable state of show-and-tell.<\/p>\n
\n[1]<\/a>Bryant, K., & Sheldon, P. (2016). \u2018Instagram: Motives for its Use and Relationship to Narcissism and Contextual Age\u2019. Computers in Human Behavior<\/em>, 58, 89-97.<\/span><\/p>\nAll images have been used with the permission of the Instagram users. Cover image by\u00a0AngryJulieMonday (CC BY 2.0)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Personally, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s because of how Instagram has evolved, or the people using it, or, well, me. Among its most wonderful sights \u2013 jaw-dropping beautiful travel destinations; delicious-looking home-cooked South Indian food neatly arranged on a stainless steel plate; doodles and handicraft \u2013 what I love about the platform is watching people, mostly women, dressed up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":9742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[775,1,6],"tags":[779,843,842,841],"class_list":{"0":"post-9728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-attire-sexuality","8":"category-categories","9":"category-theicolumn","10":"tag-attire-and-sexuality","11":"tag-instagram","12":"tag-ootd","13":"tag-outfitoftheday"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9728"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14951,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728\/revisions\/14951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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