blog #7

At first glance, there is a sweet teenage girl with a touch of attitude taking a cute picture of herself by holding the camera in front of herself. But if you look closely, although her countenance mimics almost every online self-picture we have seen all too much, only the slight wrinkles around her arms really suggest that she took the picture, but with her arms cut out of the picture, no one can definitively know what her arms are doing. The second thing one would most likely notice in this picture would be the perfect pink ribbon tied over the girl’s mouth. It may look like she is holding it in her mouth, but that could also be gagging her. It is difficult to tell. By tying a pink ribbon in a bow over a girl’s mouth, the author of Image #1 claims that she simply follows the norms of beauty and has no say in what she does as she mimics others. This can be seen through the colors, textures, and individual aspects of the picture.
The colors, namely a pink ribbon and pink shirt, stand out from the black hair and background, suggesting youth and naivety against a harsher reality. The blue eyes suggest innocence in what she sees, especially as she is facing away from the blackness and yet there are shadowy figures reflected in her eyes. This could symbolize that although she sees the world with innocent blue eyes like rose-colored glasses, she physically sees more than she realizes. Therefore, the theme of distinguishing between what is seen and what is noticed appears in this aspect of the picture as well. A smooth pink ribbon over her mouth could symbolize that she did not struggle to be silenced and the simple cotton T-shirt suggests that she represents anyone from lower to middle class young and teenage girls. The pale skin against smooth, neat, dark, and slightly damaged hair also represents something mysterious, as does the car-window-like dark shape in the background. This seems like a normal, bored-in-a-car picture, but could also be a kidnapping (although not a very violent one) and this once again emphasizes the severity of taking away a person’s voice and parts of her in order to conform. Even though her other senses seem alert, eyes open, nose close to the camera with nostrils visible, arms probably out touching or doing something, she is missing her ability to speak her mind, notably a vital part of individuality.