Selfies, which is not a word I use naturally in my real life, are a way of taking ownership of my body and deciding how I want to be seen.
Amy Rose Spiegel, from “Why we take selfies” (via theweekmagazine)
I was about to make a post on this. I don’t know how often I take selfies as such, it’s a bit hard to show how costumes work when not on the human form (will make a proper blog about that asap) but they are both consciously and unconsciously our own stories about ourselves. My story is that of someone far more interested in what I made than in how I look- and that can be interpreted several ways itself!
And I was thinking about how important it is to take hold of your story, because everyone is the lead of their own which makes you a bit player more often than the star. In heads and on paper and in photos and on film- no one wants to tell *your* story, they want to tell a story that might happen to include you.
I have been very lucky to have had a few very nice articles about me. I have though had enough experience with journalists to know that they are storytellers. And those they talk about are mostly characters to them. There is always more to write and another character to explore. And the real people can be left feeling blindsided or in shock.
I know this not just from a few interviews that went in a different direction to the initial discussion but also as the daughter of a journalist (radio and print). I learnt the pattern, I see it over and over again on so called reality TV. It’s disposable. Some can be fun, but ultimately it is hollow and leads to people being seen as heroes or villains. When in reality we all have quirks, we all have moments of heroism and moments of dumb luck and moments where we hurt others.