it's a sad world- Abby Farrington

It’s a sad world

Flash fiction:
It’s a smile. REALITY. It’s not.

Artist statement:
I chose to do a six-word story with this piece because using just six words the intensity and impact it can have on the reader is huge. I wanted to do that effect with the use of punctuation and capitalization. While tying it into my picture where my picture is simple but has an impact. From what you see is a smile from the paper cut out. Then the reality is its not. The paper smile is covering the sadness and pain I’m hiding underneath the smile that’s shown and put on. I wanted to show the kind of personality I have in my story and picture. When the viewer sees my picture, I want them to know why I was crying, but then why there’s a smile. Its because of my personally, I keep my emotions inside so even on my worst days, you can see me with a smile and think everything is fine. That smile is hiding my emotions. I do this because I don’t want my sad or down emotion to ruin someone’s day, so I laugh and smile even when I don’t feel the same way I’m showing myself as.
I chose to do minor edits on my photo because I didn’t want to take away from the message of the picture itself. I put a filter on it that makes it look colder and the black mascara lines more intense. To me, the filter shows the intensity through small things like my 6-word story, and how simple the picture is. The filter was just one change but brought more to how the picture can look.

Bias

While talking about biases, people can have different views on it. Some say with biases, they’re stories we make up about people before even knowing who they are. We all judge a book by its cover and that should be put to an end and step into a person’s life and get to know them before making your opinion.

In the class we looked at many different texts, ted talks, documentaries, and outside sources. In the ted talk by Verna Meyers called “how do we overcome bias? Walk boldly toward them” was one example that stood out to me because it caused myself to take a step back and think which I find important. The things she said in the talk had so much power, tone, and was overall beautiful. Verna said: “go against stereotypes” it was short but had a purpose within the three words. Walk towards the stereotype and break it. Another thing said in the Ted talk was “I learned on a bias I didn’t even know I had” we have so much power that we make ourselves think about something that someone else though for us. We have the power to form opinions but we, as a society, have the power to change how we see color. So, what’s holding us back from going against societies bias on people?
why don’t we treat each other equally and with the respect we deserve? I believe biases are just an opinion made up in our minds. Today we are all so quick to judge that we never take the time to put ourselves into someone’s shoes and just make an opinion on the spot. What can we do to make it an equal playing field in today’s world and no be bystanders, but advocates who have a voice? I’ve seen so many people be dragged down by others, put down, bullied, just because of who they are. I’ve also been in the victim’s shoes just because I hide my emotions and not speak about them. It was taken to social media where I was talked about online for basically who I am and how I act. I can’t change who I am and how I act just so I can be accepted by someone’s point of view. I shouldn’t have to change to make someone happy. The saddest part is, she was my best friend and I trusted her for years. That girl never put herself in my shoes on why I hide my emotions. She just went with what she thinks is right so then I must do what she thinks is right to be accepted by her bias. We all can love each other and just know we are different and its okay to be different. That’s who we are.