On the Power of #Selfies

Confession: I am 44 years old and I take selfies.

I see it as a way to document those things that change day to day, to remember what I was doing, thinking or feeling when I took the photograph. For all the mocking women endure for taking and posting self-portraits, it can be a powerful artistic medium.  I use these images to capture my moments of illness, my good days, myself in a moment of time that is elusive and slippery, to hang on to something in a permanent way.  I look back at where I've been and reflect on where I'm headed.

Sometimes I use Instagram filters, but I'm not uncomfortable with my flaws.

I'm okay with the changes brought by time, the signs etched in my skin.

I appreciate the portraits posted by friends on social media sites, like Facebook or Instagram.  I see it as a kind of empowerment, to choose and curate the images we share, to write our visual identities rather than have them written by some external force.  If we want to see images of women that show strength and beauty at all ages and sizes we have to wrest that power from conventional mass media ourselves and selfies are one of many ways we can do that.

If painting a self portrait is an accepted art form, why not this?



Listography:

Reading: Just finished The Queen of The Tearling ^^
I like the way Kelsea (the heroine) is written.  Not all princesses are conventionally beautiful, and princesses grow up to be badass queens.  If you like YA fantasy (and oh, I do!), it's worth a read.
Today I started on The Night Sister: I'm loving this one so far, probably because I'm a sucker for crumbling Gothic decay and suspense and murder.

Watching: I'm all caught up on The Blacklist and I think Penny Dreadful is my next attempt at binge watching, because MONSTERS.

Cooking: I'm thinking a pot of Carrot-Ginger Soup should be up next.  The recipe I found uses coconut milk and sounds amazing.  I recently had a version of this while visiting my parents in Assisted Living and it was surprisingly good!  I'm certain my version will work well and also be dairy free and tummy friendly! Also, I'm going to juice the bejeezus out of some fruits and vegetables this weekend.  Cantaloupe-Cucumber and Pineapple-Carrot juices are in the works.

Writing: Still beating my brains out on this one piece that I'm just not happy with...I think I should set it aside and do some freewriting for a while.  (Spellcheck just tried to change "freewriting" into "ferreting.") Heh.