What's in a name?: Victoria Elizabeth (Wordless-ish blog)

Part 1

Haha, well...

Names aren't all they're cracked up to be.

Victoria is the Spanish word for victory!

I like that my middle name is the same as my mother's and also has religious significance.

I was named after...

            The nurse who took care of my mom while she was in labor. Thank God for her otherwise my name would have been Ashley. Yikes!!!



Named after royalty.



So I'm basically a Queen.



Where's...



the...



lie?



Who doesn't love the queen?!?



Being asked what my secret is on the regular does get quite annoying.



If I did you wouldn't know ;)




I just don't believe people only started calling me this last year.



I hated it at first.



Like a lot.



But now I love it so much.



On occasion I've also been referred to as Sicky Vicky...

Part 2



Yep pretty much.



Sometimes the struggle is too real.



True but opposite for me.



Is it just me or???



Don't we all sometimes or all the time.

I usually find that the two parts of me that struggle the most are the person I am at home or when I'm alone, the individual, and the person I am in public or at school, part of a larger group. At school I try my best to look presentable and be the person I aspire to be to the world, but at home I am completely different. I am very focused, outgoing, and energetic while I'm in public or around my peers in school but when I am at home I lack all of the qualities people know me and like me for. Sometimes it is a struggle to maintain the two because I do like to be alone and sometimes absolutely despise people, but other times the only thing I want to do is be in the presence of someone even if there is nothing to say.

"Othering" in The Handmaid's Tale & Wing Young Huies's University Avenue Project

Wing Young Huie 2007-2010

The first thing I noticed in this picture were the messages written on the boards. The messages, "People say I'm an uh-oh Oreo (white girl that acts black) because I'm not your typical "white girl" " and "Because I use big words people call me an Oreo, but yet I have always lived in the hood!", contrast each other so much that it is hard to disregard them. After reading the messages I noticed the girls' clothing, the photo is in black and white so their outfits stand out more so than they would if it was in color. The white girl is wearing all white and carrying a black purse and the black girl is wearing black and dark gray and carrying a white purse. The colors that they are wearing contrast from their messages but in the same way that what they are saying does. This photo shows the weight given to stereotypes based on race and how if an individual is to go against them they are "othered". The stereotypes that are imposed upon us as a society impact us all heavily and negatively, but minorities receive the brunt of it. The messages that both girls have written enforce the negativity of stereotypes against blacks. For example, giving a name to a white person that "acts black" is saying that "acting black", if there is such a thing, using the word "uh-oh" to describe them is reinforcing the stereotypes that all black people are innately bad and the message on the black girl's board does the same. The use of "big words" is not some privilege limited to white people and living in the hood is not a life only reserved for blacks and other minorities. The black girl's message also shows her trying to fit into her stereotype by saying that she's not an Oreo because of the fact that she lives in the hood and whereas the white girl's message shows her wanting to break out of her stereotype of being a typical "white girl". 

Both Atwood and Huie use color as a means of "othering". Atwood uses colors throughout The Handmaid's Tale to separate women from each other and as well as symbolically. Red, in the way that she uses it for the Handmaids' dresses, hints to fertility and the menstrual cycle but is also ironic because red is the color of passion yet Handmaids are in no way allowed to be passionate and stripped of the normal facets of human sexuality. Atwood also uses green, the color of the Marthas' dresses, to symbolize the jealousy the Marthas feel towards the Handmaids for their ability to bear children. Huie uses the colors black and white as a means of separating races. In all of the pictures from the University Avenue project he uses combinations of black and white photography, minorities, and messages written on chalk boards to portray "othering". In my chosen photograph this is exemplified because of the contrasting messages written on the chalk boards as well as the clothes both girls are wearing. The messages themselves contrast due to the problems each girl faces and the clothes do because of the style of photography Huie chose to use. Because he uses no color in this and many other of the photographs from this series the issues of "othering" he succeeds in portraying are stripped down to their deepest roots, black vs. white and good vs. bad. Although the images show other minorities as well as blacks the particular stereotypes against blacks are illuminated.