This is me. When I wear these glasses, I've been told I look like Enid from Ghost World. 
I really like Ghost World, so generally I welcome the comparison.
Last year for Halloween I was Frida Kahlo. Interesting fact: I've been her for Halloween more than once, and always buy reproductions of her paintings when I go to Mexican town in Detroit.
I don't actually look like her, but no one has ever mistaken my costume for someone else.
This comparison though, was surprising: Last week at the dentist office, the dental hygienist told me that as a child, I looked exactly like a real life "Dora the Explorer". This made me jealous, because I really wish I could speak Spanish, and have a show on PBS.
As I've gotten older though, I've lost the Dora appeal. As a freshman living in East Quad, I was often told I looked like Ugly Betty. This was in part because I constantly walked the halls in sweatpants, stressed out and wearing my glasses.
Not that there's anything wrong with looking like Betty—I think America Ferrara is gorgeous.
During my more portly/punk/looking stupid years in high school, I was told that I highly resembled Kelly Osbourne. This once happened at a MUN conference, to which I replied, so very un-diplomatically, that he could go "fuck himself".
Of course, what I should have done was try to wash out that awful black hair dye.
Last year, the day this photo was taken, my Uncle Leon, who works as a black jack dealer, brought a "lady friend" to our house for Thanksgiving. Said lady friend arrived drunk, and kept repeating that I looked just like Marie Osmond. Best. Thanksgiving. Ever.
Visual Argument Breakdown:
I thought this post was fun to do, since I choose a topic that was personal. In fact, I've always wanted to do a visual comparison between myself and people that I allegedly look like. I think what was hard about making the visual argument was that I felt that I didn't have much control over the order of the pictures—It was post or perish. Also, when I was finding the images, I had to look for ones that had similarities to photos of myself from my i-photo library, which was not always easy to do. Other than that, I really liked using pictures and less text, because I felt that the post was more true to something that I would actually read. To see the original photos of Kelly, Betty, Marie, Dora, Enid, and Frieda click on the links provided.
Hey Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI liked your choice of topic here. It's definitely fresh and not what I expected to read (see, mostly). I would agree that the topic definitely lends itself to the very specific order that you did, but it worked well. You spoke of your choice to use the text as though you didn't use much, but I think it would have also been interesting to see the pictures without text even. I bet the comparisons or lack thereof depending, would still be there. But the text added a casual tone that was easy to read. Well done.
Your choice of photos of yourself looking like said celebrity was great. You're sort of a chameleon. You really do look like all the celebrities listed. Quite a story. By the end of your argument, I'm really curious how you feel about your celebrity look and how it affects your sense of yourself. Are there any overarching claims about identity you can/want to make? The celebrity look alike thing certainly seems to affect the way people interact with you and you respond to them. I know I get tired of people telling me I look like Mare Winningham. It shuts the conversation down pretty fast.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! It was so entertaining and fun to read. I've never been told I look like anyone famous so I'm kind of jealous :-P Seriously, though--your post is a unique visual argument. I think most people in the class chose more political issues to discuss, so it was refreshing to read something completely personal and unrelated to current events.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, it was interesting to see how you've reacted to others' perceptions of you. I laughed when I read about your varying reactions: when someone told you you look like Kelly Osbourne, you swore at him. When someone told you look like Marie Osmond, it was the best Thanksgiving ever. Haha...I love it! :)
Question for you: do these celebrity comparisons ever factor into how you view yourself? Have you ever altered your appearance as a result? Just wondering...
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI really liked this post. I thought it was funny, and best of all, it was something I couldn't find anywhere else. The internet is littered with sites that do the same thing. So to do something unique is an accomplishment.
I thought the text worked great to take the reader from picture to picture, too. The whole post was put together well.
-Dan