To post lingerie shots on my social media..

I’d consider a few things

1. Who is on your friends list? Are they trustworthy? Do you have any colleagues who could be bothersome?
2. Is your profile private?
3. Do you intend to use these as profile pictures?
4. Are there school-aged children on your friends list? They can grow to be that immature age.
5. Remember that no matter how high privacy settings are, it only takes a screenshot.

Boudoir images are expensive (and I bet you paid a pretty penny for such!) so I understand why you want to show them off too. I’m sure you love them and you’re proud of them, and they probably make you feel good about yourself.

If you decide not to, you could find another way to display your pics, buy a nice photo album, or have one put in a canvas.

There is nothing unfeminist about publishing pictures of you posing in a sexualised manner in underwear online for randoms to look at? What’s feminist about it? People have lost the meaning of feminism if they think this is empowerment. It’s literally giving men what they want and women are presenting it as complimentary to have them like it. How many women do you think are going to be interested??

Why is it against female empowerment to question why you want to put out photos of yourself in lingerie to your friends, family, coworkers and strangers?

What benefit do you think you would get from it and why would it be empowering?

I can't imagine why they would be considered empowering.

What am I missing?

I'm glad they made you feel fabulous but if it all goes wrong, what then? Keep them for you and show them to trusted friends and family

You've got the confidence boosting photos, why ruin that moment by putting them up online for either a relative to cringe over or a random guy to wank over?

I've seen a few friends do this and the response has always been overwhelmingly positive in a 'you go, girl!' kind of way. If you feel good in them then go for it! Personally if I see pics like this I think its brill. I put a bikini pic on once and the response from my female friends was great and I was glad I'd posted it!

No
These kind of photo shoots are always cringe

OP, I totally get what you mean, you feel hot and you want others to see that too. Bold suggestion if people are saying it would feel weird to see their friend do it, would you consider posting them anonymously on Reddit or something? You could crop out or cover your face if you felt more comfortable.

You probably would get a bunch of creeps messaging you, but you’d probably get w lot of nice compliments too. It’s nice to feel like someone is appreciating your looks sometimes, there’s nothing unfeminist about it.

What sort of age are you, OP?

Your posts make me realise that we are about as far away from achieving gender equality as we have ever been.

It’s desperately sad.

Well if you thought “You do you” then just “you do you” and do what you like and don’t ask randoms on MN, then complain when the answer isn’t what you want.

Someone I used to work with did this and everyone else who worked with her thought it was really inappropriate to put it on social media, where customers could and did see it. Some of them definitely found it distasteful. And just weird really.

Cringe.

Low self esteem, screams needing validation. One negative comment and your new found fragile confidence would be shattered in an instant and it’s the only comment that you’ll pay attention to. Guaranteed.

What’s empowering about subjecting yourself to the gaze? Changing the discourse about females and their bodies doesn’t mean posting burlesque style pics on a saturated social media platform of vanity.

I think that it’s fantastic that you feel happy with your photos. What I would question is how sharing lingerie photos is any more ‘empowering’ than what you’ve already done, and why.

I’ve taken burlesque, pole and striptease classes and I’ve never shared the photos or videos from them online. To my mind, once you start posting those things publicly as part of the process of developing confidence you then actively seek external validation / approval etc from others. You look great and feel great, but why do you feel it would increase your esteem further to get others to feed back on that with comments?

I genuinely think that our happiest, most confident selves are the ones that genuinely don’t give two hoots if other people are impressed, approve, sneer or laugh. So, I’d resist the temptation. Once they are posted, you can’t undo it, Or, just use a head shot as a profile picture and turn comments off.

I post mine as it's part of (one of) my jobs
On IG I post with a place holder pic first so you actually have to swipe across to see them, then people can choose to look or not
I have my manager on social media and he isn't bothered at all

liberal feminism is not true feminism

You need to do a lot of work on why you place so much language like power and confidence on people’s bodies.

Please don't OP. It's so cringey. Posting pics like that no matter how 'tasteful' they are - especially if you've never posted pics like it before just screams "look at me, look at me. Like and comment!" It's not empowering at all. It's tacky and tasteless and if I had a friend share pics like that I'd be silently criticising and eye rolling behind my screen wondering WTF is wrong with you and assuming your confidence must be so low that you felt the need to share them so you could feel validated by other people's comments

Tacky and cheap. Don't do it.

It's not empowering at all. And you would be putting yourself out there for potential abuse. Agree with PP: if you need this to boost your self esteem, ask yourself why your worth relies on validation of your body by others.

It’s a no from me. Attention seeking and desperate.

Agreed

How many tasteful pictures have you seen of your boss, dad, brother in their pants

Quite. Female empowerment, my arse. Or your arse.

Exactly. When I think of ‘empowered’ women - say Michelle Obama, The late Queen, Angela Merkel, JKR, the Head of the IMF etc. would any of them enhance their status by putting a boudoir shot on their social media? Maybe someone like Beyoncé yes. But otherwise absolutely not, it would be an instant credibility loss and embarrassment.

Truthfully I have no desire to see any of my friends in their underwear! If you feel it's something you want to do then do it, but be prepared that you may not get the reaction you are looking for, which may hurt especially if your self esteem is fragile

I'm talking about people politely ignoring it rather than anything nasty, but if you are looking for loads of 'wow you look amazing' comments it may not happen as people may find it a little odd

IMO not a good idea for many reasons, but that's just me.