Mira Theroux
[Starts with pop-punk music – electric guitar and drum set, slowly fades out]
MIRA:
Hey, I’m Mira. I use she/her pronouns – as opposed to he/him, they/them, or whatever else one may prefer. Because you’ve probably already been asking yourself this, yes, girls can have deep voices. But I didn’t come here to talk about my voice, I came here to talk about me, and what’s important to me.
When I’m not struggling like any other undergrad student, I’m often found staring at nature and wishing that I was a cat. I have two cats of my own, Jasper and Ricky. While they spend most of their time sleeping, eating, or plotting my inevitable demise and trip to Kitty Hell, sometimes they like to whisper the secrets of the universe to me. At least, I think it’s the secrets of the universe. Unfortunately, they’re cats, so I can’t actually understand what they’re saying.
I’m also a patron of modern Snapchat art. This includes, but is not limited to, selfies that can get… let’s say, creative. For those of you who may not know what a selfie is, it’s simply a picture that you take of yourself – a self-photo. They can be as simple as just a picture, or as complex as an art piece consisting of several edits and filters. Some of these artistic pieces include: lips for eyes; eyeballs for hair; and a piece that I’m almost sure was taken in a landfill, filtered, and all the flies in the photo were replaced with little stars. Any and all of these could (and would, to a particular audience) be called trash. I’m here to disagree whole-heartedly. Try to keep an open mind to the experiences of others who are not yourself.
The first thing that we can acknowledge here is a fun little thing called ‘body positivity.’ Known at times as self-love (though that encompasses more than just the physical), body positivity is all about loving your body. Seems simple enough, right? Where it gets hard is when you try to apply body positivity to people who have spent their whole lives being told that their body is something to be ashamed of or even disgusted by. It’s almost like you’re taking a salt shaker, pouring it out on someone’s tongue, and filling it back up with sugar. Now you’re expecting that same person to believe it’s full of sugar, and to let you pour it on their tongue again.
Whether it is sugar or not is irrelevant, because the person who had the salt on their tongue will always be wary of salt coming out of that shaker again. They may even be insistent that it is salt. Body positivity is coming to terms with the fact that, even if you experienced salt before, it’s sugar now. Many people who struggle with self-esteem were once ridiculed and have a hard time receiving compliments of any kind now, and body positivity is just one facet of that, albeit a hugely important one.
Now, to work Snapchat back into the conversation, it, along with Instagram and other social media websites that encourage copious amounts of photos, has several selfie features to get users to, well, use the camera to take selfies! There have been many people, myself included, who find taking selfies to be empowering, a form of self-love that unapologetically focuses on the self. In order to take a selfie, and subsequently post it to media or send it to friends, you have to be at least a little okay with how you look in the photo. This little bit of acceptance of your appearance builds up over time, helping shape a more positive mentality of the self.
Sometimes when people are feeling particularly good about a selfie or an outfit that day, they say:
“I’m really feeling myself today.”
This is not meant to be taken in any kind of sensual way, but rather that they are happy with their appearance. That’s it. This may come off to some as being conceited or full of themselves… but remember that when someone is proud of a selfie one day, they may spend the other six days of the week looking in the mirror and hating themselves.
If you don’t like selfies, then we should work on the problems that cause a lack of body positivity in the first place – such as bullying, a fashion industry that treats women like dolls, and toxic attitudes towards others in public spaces, where everyone should be able to feel comfortable in their own skin.
[Music resumes]
People who can be allowed to enjoy their lives are happier people. And all I want out of life is to see that become a reality.
[Music eventually fades out]