Selfies
I don’t take many selfies. Mostly because I don’t really like how I look on camera. I have an asymmetrical face – my eyebrows are not aligned. My father once told me I had a chin you could use as a start-up handle for a Volkswagen. While said in jest (apparently), it has managed to stay with me. When I smile in photos all I can see is chin. In an attempt to debiggen the chin I have developed a “camera smile”, which simply manages to look fake. So, I tend to shy away from the front end of a camera completely.
I’m actually quite adept at it. In my 13 years in eircom they only managed to capture me on camera twice. My photo appeared on my ID card (which was placed back-to-front in its holder) but not on our employee directory. When our department director decided to market our department by making a video of us each explaining our role and what we loved about the department, I scheduled a series of very important meetings for filming day so as not to be available. When our new CEO made a similar PR piece, doing a meet-and-greet through the office building trailed by a camera crew, I hid in the bathroom until they had passed our section.
The only time I use selfies is when I’m clothes shopping. I dislike clothes shopping almost as much as being on camera and am painfully slow at it. Rather than drag my poor husband around the shops I use selfies to vet purchases. If I find something I like I try it on, snap a photo and send it to him for comment. These photos are not for general consumption and are usually deleted on the same day.
But selfies are rife, to the extent that “selfie” is now a generally accepted term in our modern vernacular. And they are not just the remit of teenage girls, doing themselves up on a Saturday night and snapping themselves poising with lips pouted and hip popped. The Irish Farmers’ Journal recently ran a competition called “Selfie on the Farm“, where they asked farmers to take humorous photos of themselves. The competition went viral.
Of course, my husband thinks I’m nuts. He thinks I’m beautiful. And sometimes I even agree with him. It’s not that I think I’m unattractive – I just don’t think I look good in photos. I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling this way. While some of us are comfortable posting selfie after selfie on social media sites, others are a little more self-conscious. We think our nose is too big, our teeth too prominent, our eyes too small. Once you get self-conscious about a particular aspect of your appearance it’s the only thing you can see in a photo. Not the fantastic view or the fun that’s being had or the love that’s being shared – just the bloody big chin.
It is coincidental that this challenge should come in the week when I published my first ever selfie. It passed inspection as I’m wearing a ski mask, so all you can see are my eyes. Even at that I was tempted to “fix” my eyebrows so that they were symmetrical. I was pressed for time and so published it unedited. I did the edit later, just for fun.
I’m not sure that the ski-mask selfie sufficiently meets the requirements for the challenge so I’ve taken another with a bit more of me in it. Just for you guys. I hope you like it. Just don’t show it to anyone.
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My Food Odyssey 
Love this post! And OMG, I HATE MY CHIN, too!! I think I look like a cartoonish witch in the photos, especially if I smile 🙂 You are beautiful!
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Thank you Angelica – you’re very kind. I sometimes see myself as witch-like, too – like the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz! At least I’m not green…
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I love felfies but it is very difficult to take a flattering photo when you are trying to include a wriggling lamb or calf too!
What chin?! Try having half a dozen of them ;0)
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Yes, yes. I periodically post a photo of myself and then snap it back off and hide, like a sort of cyber space hide-and-seek. You are totally understood.
About the asymmetrical quality though – I don’t think anyone’s face is exactly symmetrical. An artist would not get a likeness by duplicating one side to the other. And chin = sign of strong character! And matched by a high, intelligent brow! No worries! You’re just right!
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Thanks Jan – much appreciated!
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Love this! I feel exactly the same. HATE myself in photos. I realised that I should get over it a bit though a few years ago – I had pics of amazing places all over the world and I wasn’t actually in any of them 😉 I could have just swiped them from Google! Does your dad read your blog? I hope so! Great selfies by the way 😉
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I’m the same, Linda. I have a ton of amazing photos that I took on our trip round Europe and the only ones I’m in are the ones hubby took with his phone. At least I can prove I was there!
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I usually try to scuttle to the back in group photos as well but they always make the midgets go in front 😉
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I was blessed in that regard, Linda – being Tally-Tallerson I always gets put at the back!
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I’ve heard Jennifer Anniston feels the same way about her chin – she censors and airbrushes all photos for publication – and yet she is one of the most envied women in the world for her good looks. I like a bit of asymmetry, it gives you character and that is where true beauty lies. What are our bodies but vessels for the beautiful people we are in the dark? I love your selfie. It captures the essence of ‘June’ – a bull-shit free zone, mind like a steel trap, eyes that have seen lots and questioned everything and that quirky, all pervasive sense of humour! This would impossible to see if your eye-brows were aligned….. x
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Thanks Audie! Love that description. x
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I also hate myself in photos, I’ll do anything to get out of appearing in one.
Great post 🙂
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I was wondering if you were going to take part in this week’s challenge as I’ve never seen a photo of you! Go on – we’re all friends here. 😉
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Oh, there are photos of me on my blog… just not very many 😉
There’s one on this guest post I wrote, if you’re THAT curious
http://languageboat.com/2013/12/07/perspective-collective-simone-baroken-lady-of-the-cakes/
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Oh my goodiness! A photo AND a name! My search is over!
Beautiful, relaxed photo.
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We are our own harshest critics. And if dads only knew what off-hand silly comments do to our self-images, they might think before they say them. My own dad made fun of the way I walked — all in jest — so what am I supposed to do? Not walk??? 🙂
You are beautiful.
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Thank you, Carol. It is funny the impact that throw-away comments can have. I hope you still walk your own walk!
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Lovely picture. Beautiful lady. Never even noticed the chin. Ever.
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Thank you, Stephen – that is really very nice to hear.
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great post.
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