Posture: when image is everything

We all know that where there is society, there are people who judge. From haircuts to tattoo aesthetics, through the non-verbal language that is used and the products that are consumed, everything that unites us to life in community is crossed by a thousand and one labels designed in the most sophisticated marketing factories.

Yesterday, it was the urban tribes who were in charge of keeping these codes of aesthetics and conduct for themselves. Today, these take-out personality pieces have been diluted into a much broader concept: the posture.

Posture: about posers and ghettos

It is clear that the posture It is not a concept coined by sociologists or psychologists, but rather a new word that probably comes from the English "poser", which in turn is a loan from the French. This already gives clues as to in what context the root of the word postureo appeared.

Originally, the word It was used to refer pejoratively to those people who pretend to be what they are not. It was the urban tribes who were in charge of extending the use of this word to refer to the people who copied their aesthetics without having previously internalized their musical tastes, their values ​​and their traditions. Not in academic circles, but in spaces of dissent. On the street, far from fixed definitions. A place in which to externalize 

personality of oneself is, in part, reinvent itself.

So showing off posture meant imitate the aesthetics of a certain group without doing the same with their ethics, the content that gives meaning to those haircuts, those sensations that music transmits and that way of dressing to recognize each other among comrades.

Today all that has been left behind. Now, the postureo has become independent of those small ghettos of youth: it has become part of the daily life of a large part of the urbanites. It consists of giving the desired image, but not just any desired image: specifically, one that allows us to blend in with the crowd, not stand out. Now, this way of pretending is a product for all palates, easily marketable and exportable to all Western countries.

The posture is no longer related to the community, to the specific groups. Today, pretending what you don't mean means doing it as an individual who wants to appear to be something much broader, for all tastes, without fanfare.

The new ways of posing: personality to wear

The posture, as we understand it today, has appeared in the same breeding grounds in which the urban tribes appeared: the exteriorization of the signs related to life beyond work. In urban tribes, this "beyond work" in which the elements prone to being copied to keep up appearances were born were related to spaces of dissent: music, the concerts, the graffiti world and skateboarding in public places, etc.

Today, "beyond work" means, plain and simple, leisure time.

Not all people share the struggles of the left-wing punk movements, nor of the bikers who claim for themselves the right to transgress the rules of use of public space. However, many more people go to concerts, go on vacation or meet up with friends from time to time. And most of these people have access to their profiles in the social media.

Everything is based on social networks

It is in the laboratory of our facebook accounts and twitter where the new posture is given. If before they tried to copy some elements of an easily recognizable local band, today they do the same to appear to be a normal middle-class person, with aesthetic influences well assimilated by the middle class and typical situations of leisure moments. This song by the Sevillian rapper ToteKing sums it up quite well:

If before the posture was exercised in the street, today it is exercised from the solitude of electronic devices, at the time of selecting photos and giving the button to upload images. It is something that everyone with access to technology can do, regardless of social dynamics or local customs.

The selfie stick as a paradigm that something is wrong

An example of this is the very fast popularization of the selfie stick, whose function is make the task of graphically capturing a fact easier: "I was here". The new posture is such a refined way of pretending that it is not based, as it was until a few years ago, on the great artifices. It is based on selective attention. I was here, and for some reason I'm showing you this. I've also been scrubbing the kitchen, but for some reason I'm not showing it to you. I want you to know that I have been there, but not here. And if necessary, I will buy a stick to take a photo when there is no one to accompany me.

On the Internet you can find videos in which people appear posing believing that they are going to take a photo. It's a few awkward seconds, and it's this awkwardness that makes videos funny. This feeling of being ridiculous is one of the symptoms that you are pretending.

In those moments of discomfort, if you pay attention to the faces of the people who pose, you can see the friction between the image you want to give and what you are actually doing. It is not an effort to stand out, but to merge with the abstract image of a person living life, worth the redundancy.

The totalitarianism of normal appearance

The new posture is an artifact born in globalization that is governed by an all or nothing mechanism. If two years ago people laughed at the first Chinese tourists who traveled with a selfie stick, today it is perfectly normal to use them. If a few decades ago people pretended to distinguish themselves, today they do so to become more like members of the global village. Whoever we are, we all have leisure time and we like to live life, they seem to mean.

Increasingly, our social life is supported by the avatars we use on social networks. Increasingly, the image we give is similar to the one we want to give through these virtual profiles. Hopefully, in this effort to show what one is, the ways of living life in a spontaneous and original way will not be overshadowed.