Embracing Your True Self

 After reading through the topics of the week, I think the pieces that resonated the most with me were "You're so brave for wearing clothes and not hating yourself" by Lindy West, "Hollywood Summer" by Samantha Irby and "Untied Shoes" by Evie Ruddy. For the first reading, I really resonated with a lot of the descriptions West had about body image, and struggling to see yourself in a certain light.  One passage that struck me particularly was "When I looked in the mirror, I could never understand what was supposedly so disgusting. I knew I was smart, funny, talented, social, kind--why wasn't that enough? By all the metrics I cared about I was a home run." See, I feel like these qualities are what really matter, yet society often views physical appearance as more valuable. I find myself often comparing my physical appearance to other women, something that usually ends up in me feeling insecure. As I mentioned I have struggled with body image a lot, and it's comforting to know I'm not alone. I especially like how she turns the narrative around toward the end and decides to embrace her body. I love this passage: "Then, one day, they were beautiful. I wanted to look and be like them-I wanted to spill out of a crop top; plant a flag in a mountain of lingerie; alienate small, bitter men who dared to presume that women exist for their consumption; lay bare the cowardice in recoiling at something as literally fundamental as a woman's real body." Here, she is referencing bigger women as "they" and changes her own opinion toward the end of this piece. I just love the descriptions she uses to finally not care what other people think, indulging in her own body utilizing descriptive imagery.

I also enjoyed "Hollywood Summer" by Samantha Irby, and the humorous descriptions she had as a midwesterner braving the streets of LA while writing for the show "Shrill." Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed her descriptions of LA and how she felt like an outsider coming in and getting the chance to write on a show for Hulu. It provided a great background for the premise of the show, and I can appreciate the genuineness behind Irby. She was fully not expecting to get to do the work she did on the show, and when she did, she did not hesitate in pitching her ideas. I enjoyed reading about her entire experience, and I could truly see the passion that she has for writing through her words. 

Lastly, I thought that the interactive website "Un/tied Shoes" by Evie Ruddy was very interesting and engaging to click through. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at when I first visited the site but now that I've had the chance to click through it I really like the idea of having an interactive tool to convey the message of the narrative. I like how each shoe represents a different experience in her life that ultimately led her to create this platform where gender fluidity is welcomed and embraced. I think that having this platform is a place for trans and non-binary individuals to share their own experiences with others. As I mentioned, I really like how they used interactive tools to create a real-life online shopping experience to convey the challenging decisions that non-binary and trans people have to go through on a daily basis.