My mission: find a stock photo that either exemplifies or answers the question, “Can a Straight Woman Become a Lesbian Later in Life?”
1.
Description: “Thinking woman with braided hair holding small black board with gluten sign. Bakery and bread allergy problem contemplation.”
2.
Description: “Pretty business woman thinking with black glasses”
3.
Description: “Confused young blonde woman gesturing with hands.”
4.
Description: “Cheerful skilled middle aged life or business coach enjoying creative process of making new text, sitting at her workspace, writing down thoughts, ideas in copybook with mug, books and laptop on desk”
5.
Description: “Young doctor woman having doubts in the hospital”
6.
Description: “Young doctor woman having doubts in the hospital”
7.
Description: “Young doctor woman pointing to the laterals having doubts in the hospital”
8.
Description: “Young doctor woman pointing to the laterals having doubts in the hospital”
9.
Description: “Young doctor woman making unimportant gesture in the hospital”
10.
Description: “Senior woman uses a lap top computer.”
11.
Description: “woman look at mirror”
12.
Description: “Smile elderly woman face”
13.
Description: “idea woman”
14.
Description: “Mature man and woman are offended at each other because of the misunderstanding in his home.”
15.
Description: “Beautiful woman thinking and deep in thought”
16.
Description: “depress and hopeless woman laying on bed with absent minded”
17.
Description: “Happy elderly woman with thumbs up sitting on top of the hill and enjoying mountain view”
This post has been edited to remove and replace a photo that was actually pretty fucked up.
i’m freedom captivity
i’m No. 12 on my way to steal yr girl
im a 16 seeking a 4
i’m obviously #17
I’m “woman look at mirror” but only because it’s not actually her reflection but her shadow
The real mirror is the friends we made along the way.
definitely 11
I suppose I’m #1 since as a Celiac I spend far too much time thinking about gluten. Perhaps I need to start incorporating more doubtful lateral pointing into my life though. So aspirational #7-8.
Hello fellow queer celiac!
Hi! I’m always so excited to meet a fellow Celiac.
Me too!
I’m Young doctor woman making unimportant gesture in the hospital.
Which hand gesture doesn’t matter. Just that it’s unimportant.
Lucky 13, it’s a pretty meh idea though
I’m gesturing with hands
also i’m the laterals having doubts
Darn you beat me to it!
i’m “mug, books and laptop on desk” with the enthusiasm of 13
I’m the laterals having doubt
#11 who looks in the mirror and sees #3.
Wtf at #14 ?!! “HIS HOME”? I don’t think so!
AND HE WONDERS WHY SHE’S LEAVING HIM FOR A WOMAN.
thinking these two might get together, i’m feeling vibes
I for sure read “idea woman” as “ideal woman” and assumed she was pointing to #12 in a super sweet gal pal gesture.
I’m totes “depress and hopeless woman laying on bed with absent minded”
sammmmmeeeeeee
Hard same, friend
Totes sames
Same (while worrying about gluten)
i am the emptiness in #16’s outstretched palm
grad schools got me like
“depress and hopeless woman laying on bed with absent minded”
probably reaching out for a sense of purpose in the empty void of academia
or
trader joe’s microwavable mac and cheese
Saaaaaame (except switch microwave mac and cheese to oatmeal for dinner)
# 7 is literally the gesture I made last week while standing between two life-size cardboard cutouts of Dream Daddy characters
Is that doctor wearing a chef’s jacket?
Yes! THANK YOU
Anyone that has seen Fried Green Tomatoes knows the secret’s in the sauce
I’m the chef’s jacket.
Also, does that doctor work in a subway station?
i feel like they were doing a “chef waits for train going home to cook tomatoes for husband” photoshoot and someone was like “hey let’s put a stethoscope on her and knock out that hospital shoot tonight too, isn’t everything just a block of light when you really think about it”
“Isn’t everyone just a block of light when you think about it”
LOL
Gotta be #4 …skilled middle aged…enjoying creative process of making… sitting at her workspace, writing down thoughts, ideas in copybook with mug, books and laptop on desk.
Check, check, and check.
10, tbh.
Just got back from vacation and definitely also 10.
#3, just change it blonde-ish woman-ish with a Jewfro gesturing with hands.
i’m 13 sun, 11 moon, 16 rising
#4 is deffo my ghost of lesbian future
I’m a 1 (thinking about gluten) with 16 (depress and hopeless woman lying in bed) tendencies.
How YOU doin?
SAME!!!
I wanna be #17 when I grow up
I believe that by #7, Young Doctor Woman has shed her doubts to find her true self to be full of sass and devoid of fucks. I aspire to be like Young Doctor Woman.
…But I guess I’m number 10. Except my description would be: ‘When life gives you glasses, don’t poke yourself in the eye with them’.
Being the token black woman in the group awkwardly maniacally laughing about being caught between freedom and captivity is too real so is it time for happy hour yet or?
i realize now that it’s actually really fucked up that i used this picture and i’m sorry for not even considering the implications of the words ‘freedom’ and ‘captivity’ being above the head of a black woman (that it didn’t cross my mind is just a perfect example of my privilege wheeee!) and i regret including it. i’ve swapped the image out for another one and included a note at the bottom.
i’m sorry y’all, that was really stupid.
I’m the old lady watching the mountains, 17, running away from straights
#17 all the way. She looks like she has things Figured Out. I can only hope that the photographer is another older queer lady type person and that they’re on an afternoon hike together. That’s what I’d be doing, anyway!
(Also, I’d scarcely call that a “mountain view“. It look more like the Driftless region of WI than it does some alpine meadows. Still very pretty though!)
Def #16. I spend way too much time on my bed depressed and/or contemplating life. I even own similar shorts
I’m the doubtful young doctor woman (who’s also confused about why I’m wearing a chef’s jacket instead of a lab coat) hard pivoting to depressed and hopeless on a bed because she’s trying to figure out why she gave up her well-paying career to live off a grad student’s stipend.
I’m #2 looking at #7 and wondering whether they are meant to be a chef or a doctor?!
And silently judging, because in Australia in we don’t wear white coats.
I am “depress and hopeless woman laying on bed with absent minded” with a side of “senior woman uses a lap top computer.”
I’m the plaid shirt with the top button done in #1.
I’m the potted plant in #4. I definitely go with the decor but no one is *exactly* sure if I need to be watered.
I’m #13 because she looks so over it. Also 13 is my lucky number, and I have ideas.
4 on the outside, 3 on the inside.
Um, a misunderstanding in HIS home? Was the misunderstanding that he misunderstood whose home it was?
Also I’m mirror woman’s mirror and idea woman’s idea.
oh I’m definitely all of the doubts in the hospital
i’m obvoiusly depress and hopeless woman but also that young doctor is in the subway i think
Definitely aspirational 17.
I’m building up to be #17.
Right now probably a #16
I have a ways to go
17 in the streets 16 in the sheets
Exactly what I was about to say!
Everyone thinks I’m #15 but actually, I’m #13 and more specifically, I am #13’s slightly unzippered sleeve.
5 through 9: Storyboard for an upcoming film short, titled Which Way? The Indecision of Dr. Chef
OK this made me giggle. :)
Int. hospital. Camera approaches slowly.
Voiceover: Am I Dr. Chef? Or am I…Chef Doctor? There are tomatoes to my left and sick people to my right. The stethoscope suggests I should turn right. The coat whispers, “Left.” There’s a knife in my coat pocket. Do these people need surgery? Or salad? Who can say? Who can know? Is this to be a cooking show or a medical drama? Or an uplifting morality tale in which I cure illness via cuisine while an older woman murmurs to me that she _used_ to be straight? The hallway stretches behind me. Bright. Endless. It offers no resolution. I am trapped here forever, making unimportant gestures.
Slow fade to black as Dr. Chef/Chef Doctor continues to gesture. It doesn’t matter what gestures she makes.
And later, the sequel: Dr. Chef Dismantles the Patriarchy (and Feeds It to Itself), a dark comedy wherein our protagonist becomes incensed that everyone assumes she’s better off staying at home with the kids, so she decides she’s going to merge BOTH her dream jobs and take matters into her own (latex gloved) hands…
She becomes both the inventor of the patriarchectomy and the author of _1000 Ways to Cook Your Excised Patriarchal Residue_, which goes on to win awards for “most creative uses of excised patriarchal residue,” “best fried E.P.R.,” “worst fried E.P.R.” and “creepiest cookbook title.” Her papers in Journal of Surgical Research, Surgical Innovation, BMJ and Lancet become required reading for surgeons in training and for women’s studies majors. Years later, she wins the Nobel and Ig Nobel prizes in medicine in the same year.
Man…my sense of humor gets weird when I am avoiding working on my dissertation…
I’m 4 reminding 16 that it’s the patriarchy that’s hopeless, and here would you like a cup of tea whilst we workshop how to bring it down?
#mommigoals
Also ahaha wrote this before reading @dufrau ‘s comment; 16:4, squarely recommended pairing.
depress and hopeless woman laying on bed with absent minded
forever
Hah! I’m #2: “I know it’s just hanging out for a couple drinks after work. But did that sly side-eyed smile she shot as she wandered off to her desk “mean” anything? Or am I just an idiot, again.”
I’m number 8, that nerd who’s too cool for school (or in my case science). It takes some panache to wear a lab coat gurl!
14/16/17
Except 14 is all the time and not just at home.
I’m #16 but #4 is definitely #life goals or wife goals.
I am the chef with a stethoscope
I’m #2, but I particularly enjoy “having doubts in the hospital” as a free-time activity while making unimportant gestures
also a) that’s not a mirror, #11 (I am also #11 since stock photos enjoy portraying disabled people looking out of windows and I am a disabled queer so of course that is me).
Tagging aside, I really hope you went with number 12.
i’m a 17 through and through
#10 without coffee. Aspirational #4 with coffee. But really mostly #12.
Totally #3, especially since her body language suggests “who, me? Gay? Why would you say that?”
And then 6 months later she’s a loud bisexual who spends ~30 hours a week on tumblr
aw man im 1 and 16