This represents my sexuality/gender in the sense that I believe in female empowerment and in high school, I was ASB president; leading my school and my leadership class. In terms of race, as a minority, I had to run in an election where students voted for me and even though I had years of experience, I was up against other students of different races that had a different upperhand. This goes hand in hand with my socio-economic status-as a middle class and first generation child of an immigrant, my character and academic success has brought me to this position. I am very proud of what I did in high school. It has helped shaped me to who I am today.
I picked this selfie because this pertains to my sexuality and gender because I have my hair curled and my makeup done and since this is a ‘work’ selfie, I am also dressed up because I have to be… In terms of orgin and socio-economic status, my name tag says ‘Sales Supervisor’, which is my title at work. I work part-time at Lens Crafters and I have been working there for almost 2 years and I am one of the supervisors there. As a full time student, since I am considered middle class, I HAVE to work while in school to make ends meet. I wish I could just focus on school alone, but because of my socioeconomic status and origin, this is what I have to do.
This was an old selfie that I took when I was obsessed with Tpumps! This definitely depicts my ethnicity and origin, because of the tapioca in the picture. Tapioca is a loved dessert in my culture and my whole family can never turn it down. This represents my sexuality/gender because of my long black hair and of course me posing with the t-pumps drink… In terms of my socioeconomic status, since I had a phase where I was obsessed with boba, I bought it all the time which means that I could afford it, pertaining to my middle class status.
This is one of my favorite selfies because I am all dolled up and I really like my makeup in this picture. With that said, this pertains to my sexuality and gender. Probably half the time, I do take selfies in my car which connects with my socioeconomic status because my car is second-hand and also my first-car, fit for a middle class girl like me. In terms of my origin/race, the jersey that Im wearing is a basketball jersey which was a huge thing for me growing up. My dad was really into basketball and so were my cousins, so I became really into it too.
This selfie was taken on my snap chat, where is probably my favorite app to take selfies on since it is so fun and easy; which pertains to my gender and sexuality. One of the classes I took last year was Animal Physiology, which was a subject that was hard because I had to remember a lot of material, so I dubbed this book ‘bae’ since it was something that I always had me, something that I always was working on and studying for. In terms of my socioeconomic status and origin, it goes back to my love for school. As hard as it is being a Biology major, I honestly am proud and happy with the route that I’ve taken and Animal Physio was one of the more challenging classes that I’ve taken and powering through it successfully pertains to my origin because my mother always encouraged me to do good in school, always.
Aspects of my identity that are visible in my selfies is specifically my gender and sexuality, which is obvious in all five selfies. I am a female and that is illustrated in these pictures because of my long hair and my facial features and parts of my body that are shown. I think the obvious things that are illustrated is just parts of my identity, but it doesn’t embody who I really am. I think this is significant in relation with how others see me because someone can judge me by the way that I look and conclude a judgment of me, which wouldn’t be entirely true. I think my identity is different from my parent’s generation because the ‘selfie game’ was not popular back then and an age where technology did not dictate the way people live today. My parent’s generation were based on face to face interaction and being attracted to people you meet walking down the street.
Thinking about my own identity, what is seen is my gender and sexuality but what is not seen is the deeper content that my pictures hold, like my race/origin and my socioeconomic status which both play a huge role into the person I am as a whole. There’s this generalization that girls in particular love to take selfies and post them more often than boys, but I don’t think that is entirely the truth. At my site, the students at canal are provided resources not based on their selfies that show only the surface, ie. gender and even race. But, the way they look is just a fraction of who they are and they are judged primarily based on these two factors. Again, there is a deeper meaning there. These kids are provided these resources based on socioeconomic status, which also plays a factor into where they come from and why they continue to go to the Canal.
