Her

Flash Fiction

She’s different, unique, one of a kind. She does what makes her happy with no intention of offending people. She’s usually neutral with opinions because she doesn’t like to anger anyone. For the most part she likes to stay in the background, observing everyone else. She prides herself on having her own style because it’s practically the only way people notice her. The main reason she stays in the shadows is because there’s a lot of room for failure when talking to other people and she just really doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. She’s very comfortable in her own skin or so you might think. However, she tries to cover herself as much as she can, in an attempt, to hide herself from the world. She’s confident in who she is but shy when it comes to others. 

Artist’s statement

My piece of art is a cartoon-like version of myself that reflects my visual presence. I put myself in an outfit that is both professional and comfortable to show that I am comfortable with myself but also want to be professional. I put my hands in my pockets to show that I am trying to hide myself in a subtle way. I also didn’t put any specific emotion into my facial expression but that is to show that I am reserved but I seem content or happy. I put color into the shirt to show that I am vibrant person but it’s not in your face. I am wearing a dress to show that I am feminine. I put short hair, not only because I have short hair, but because I feel the short hair on girls is a unique feature. My image and flash fiction strengthen each other because the drawing is a visual representation of what I have described in the flash fiction.

Reflection

            Most people would deny that they have biases or that they are affected by them every day. They say that because they don’t want to believe they are being negatively affected by their own unconscious mind but it’s something we all have. Usually biases are created by our past experiences or by what we are taught as children. I’ve learned our biases have a large effect on how we resolve, or don’t resolve, issues. Biases are what we believe so our opinions are affected by them.

            In Growing up Trans, a documentary on PBS, there is a father who is biased by religion and believes that being transgender could be “an eternal death” (Blanchard). The religion he follows says it’s wrong, so he believes it. In the Ted Talk “Why we think we’re right even when we’re wrong,” by Julia Galef, she tells a story about a soldier being wrongly convicted of being a spy. In this story the soldiers that convict him are blinded by their biases because they already think he’s the spy and so anything that could be used against him is used. They were trying to prove something they already believed. Another Ted Talk called “How do we overcome bias? Walk boldly toward them,” by Verna Meyers, talks about how biases can be hidden inside you. At one point she was talking about how she needed to get directions and immediately wanted to ask a black man and after her friend said something to her she realized she had a bias toward black me knowing where they’re going, and she says, “I leaned on a bias I didn’t even know I had” (Meyers). I feel she has a nice description of biases, she describes biases like this, “Biases are stories we make up about people before we even know who they are" (Meyers). The same thing applies when it’s not a person as well, you could have a bias on a topic, for example, global warming.

Biases effect our daily life, especially when we’re confronted with issues. I know that when I feel strongly about a subject I’ll disregard facts and refuse to see it any other way. In class we took tests, on a cite called Project Implicit from Harvard, to see if we had any biases and I found out I had some I would’ve never guessed about myself. Turns out I have a bias for Judaism, which is surprising because I was raised a Lutheran, and that I prefer old people and that’s weird because old people can be mean, and they don’t apologize for it, and that scares me. Preferring older people might mean that I prefer more intelligent or wise people because I tend to not listen to people who sound dumb and arguing with them is annoying because they don’t seem to really understand what they’re saying. You learn a lot about yourself when you find out your biases. Maybe you have some biases that you don’t know you have.