Racism (Homophobia, Ableism etc.) Are Alive and Well — Just Check the Stock Photos
Why choosing the images that support your writing matters more than you may have thought.
I love writing. I love having a platform to share my insights, experiences and thoughts with the world. It’s a privilege and it brings me incredible joy.
I love putting together my articles. Hobby photography is a passion of mine and I am intensely aware of how impactful images are, and how much they can help our words on the page translate to emotional experiences for our readers.
So I have been getting incredibly frustrated each and every time I am putting a piece together and go looking for the images which will represent me and my writing.
Why?
Because the stock photo market, particularly the collections free from copyright restrictions, are a photojournalistic testament to the fact that racism, homophobia, fatphobia, transphobia, sexism and ableism are alive and well.
As a fat queer woman I have amassed my own collection of experiences with homophobia, sexism and fatphobia. Despite the fact that I have a solid relationship with my body and identity, I am constantly aware of the lack of representation of women who have bodies and relationships that look like my own. When I do stumble across such things, I know how good that feels.
And let me tell you, it feels even better when representations of my marginalized identities are present when those identities are not necessarily the focus of the content I am consuming.
It is for this reason that I have made a conscious choice to do my best at including meaningful images in my work which also happen to represent people of colour, queer people, families of different configurations, and a variety of body types, genders and abilities. When I say do my best I really mean it, but the limitations that exist within the stock photo market are a constant obstacle.
I have yet to find images to fit my work that include body type and ability diversity. It isn’t enough to simply find photos of people who exhibit this diversity — they need to be engaging in life in a way that relates to what I have to say. If I wanted to feature only slim white able bodied heterosexual people I could populate my articles with lovely photos with 15 minutes of work. My integrity is worth my time though, so I spend hours combing these databases in an attempt at a better distribution of representation.
Even when I do find more diverse images, the diversity is limited. I have not seen any photos of First Nations people going about life, for example, and have found little representation of people of colour generally who are not of African descent. The same tokenism can be found across the diversity spectrum which I seek to represent and in some cases such as fat and trans bodies there is no representation at all that is not an exhibition of mockery.
I hope that these statements of mine do not get picked apart at the cost of the overall message.
Yes, there are paid stock photo sites which offer minimally better representation. However, there are literally thousands of stock images available for free and it makes no sense that these should almost all be slim white able bodied heterosexual people.
No, there is nothing wrong with showing slim white able bodied heterosexual people. However, representation matters and there is absolutely no lack of representation for this particular group. If we truly want to see our world evolve to one of inclusivity, decisions like who we represent really do count. (If you’re unfamiliar, please take a moment to watch this clip about microaggressions here.)
My hope is that my fellow writers will consider the impact of diversity of humanity in the photos we choose to support our writing. Try on that lens next time you’re browsing your options and see if you can represent more races, bodies and relationships.
If you have any great tips on sources of rad, inclusive stock photos let’s help each other out and leave a link in the comments.
This is one of the ways we create the change.
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