Taking Her Down A JPEG

The girl I'm dating is pretty, funny, and exciting to hang out with, but I noticed that she always poses for photos EXACTLY the same way: left side to the camera, hand on hip, head slightly dipped, smiling slightly. On her Facebook page are dozens of photos like this, same smile, same pose. It seems to be incredibly shallow to need to stage every photo the same way. Should I see this as a red flag?

--The Boyfriend

The reality is, inner beauty alone usually isn't enough, which is why Estee Lauder got rich selling face cream and not books by Gandhi. Women, especially, are judged by their looks. Chances are, your girlfriend recognizes this, along with how indelible a photograph can be these days, in The Age of Uploading. The thing is, you can clean out your closet and burn shoeboxes of photos; it's harder to clean the Internet's closet of that shot that makes you look like you eat oats out of a bucket. In figuring out a photo face and sticking with it, your girlfriend has some company. (Google "people who make the same face in every picture.") As for whether you have anything to worry about -- from either shallowness or insecurity on her part -- look at the big picture: whether she shows an active interest in you and your welfare or whether she's too busy prepping a pose for the paparazzi waiting for her outside Pizza Hut.