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Anti-Self Portrait
![nia.pike's picture nia.pike's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1311.jpg)
I know a lot of people chose to truly put themselves out there with their anti-self portraits today. And I admire their choice. I would like to speak a few words on why I chose to address myself from a more general view. Because I did not put my name next my anti-self portrait, I shall tell y'all which one was mine. Mine was the one of a faceless person split into four parts surrounded by eyes and hands. My anti-self portrait addresses parts of who I am and parts of my life that I am still trying to figure out myself and reassociate myself with. I was not be as in depth as I wanted to be because I do not even understand who I am, so how can I attempt to portray it to others. But this experience of seeing many others' raw emotions and life experiences has inspired me to do this exercise again in the future, perhaps 6 months or a year from now, to see how I have or have not changed in how I chose to let others see me.
I wanted to share these thoughts with y'all via Serendip because I will admit I felt uneasy in the class with Haverford students because they had not shared in this jounrey we have been taking as a class this semester. I have a level of comfort with y'all as we support each other's explorations in sex, gender, feminism, and beyond.
Comments
My anti-self portrait
I agree with rachel.nia because, like her, I did not choose to put my name next to my anti-self portrait and I did not expose myself as much as other people. I appreciate everybody who did and I believe I will be able to later when I have figured out more who I am, although it is a long process that nobody is ever fully finished with. My anti-self portrait I think was more for myself than as a way for others to know who I am. It helped me to figure out more who I am. Mine was the outline of the woman with colorful words surrounding her.
I struggled with the idea of an anti-self portrait in the beginning because I believe that we are all so complex thta one picture cannot fully capture who we are as a person. But when I figured out I could choose one element of myself: my insecurity about myself, it became easier. The words surrounding the woman are all inspirational quotes and song lyrics that are important to me. One is part of a song that my mom sang to me every night before I went to bed, others are songs that are about people standing up for what they believe in. The outline of the woman defines me and reminds me that I can surround myself with all of those powerful words and face whatever is coming my way. It is purposefully not a picture of me because I feel like I defy many categories that people try to put me into. I also had trouble opening myself up to people when the Haverford students were there because they have not been present every day in class as we discover how we define ourselves and how we define feminism.