Althouse: "For many gay people, the years they spent (attempting) to live a 'straight' life in the straight world were not pretty ones."

August 25, 2013

"For many gay people, the years they spent (attempting) to live a 'straight' life in the straight world were not pretty ones."

The Straight Years Project.

This is the best picture, seen large. Great expression (on both faces.)

And here's the Awkward Years Project.

What I like about these 2 projects is that they could give all sorts of people an idea of something they can do when confronted with any current photograph of themselves that they don't like. Visualize yourself in the future holding that photograph and laughing, because you like the way you look in the now that is the future. What do you look like? Go there. Get there knowing that you will be happy there, that there is a you waiting in the future and empathizing with the poor you that's here now.

13 comments:

southcentralpa said...: Caption to the 'best picture': "I looked hot. The horror!" Why does her now expression look so much like something you'd expect to see on a hipster Disney princess picture ... ?; 8/25/13, 10:12 AM
Carol said...: It's almost as if they really thought they know more now than they did then.; 8/25/13, 10:58 AM
David said...: She did a very good imitation of a straight woman.; 8/25/13, 1:25 PM
David said...: Interesting that the Straight Years project has, by and large, good looking people who are not overweight. The awkward project has predominantly average looking people who have put on a few pounds.

Why? I have no idea.; 8/25/13, 1:31 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I have a picture from the fourth grade that should win a trophy from the Awkward Years Project. But I was very happy then, as now, and thought the photograph was great.; 8/25/13, 2:04 PM
Sam L. said...: Everybody who has a picture in a high school yearbook will look poorly when his/her children look thru it.; 8/25/13, 2:05 PM
Anonymous said...: Most of the awkward years ppl still look the same to me. (I would further like to nominate Gwyneth paltrow for membership.)

Since I'm straight, laurel b is the only one that looks remarkably better after she came out.

The pic of the girl you linked to looks as much like the inner low maintenance non-sexual nerd screaming to get out of the hot formative lesbian identity. Reminds me of John Lennon's historically infamously transformation from moptop to skinny stoner freak in a way.; 8/25/13, 2:16 PM
Birches said...: Wow. I'm never going to get that time back. Yeah, you guys were so awkwardly straight---so embarassing /sarc off.

Really, I didn't notice that much difference in them now and back then. In fact, with the exception of the guy wearing pink, I wouldn't even be able to tell if they were gay and or if they were straight.; 8/25/13, 2:49 PM
Rocco said...: southcentralpa said...
"Caption to the 'best picture': "I looked hot. The horror!".

Werd. She went from a hot chick to looking like a female Woody Allen.; 8/25/13, 4:44 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: Posts like this one make me wish that I could still drink, Althouse.

Maybe if I was drunk, I'd get the point of your fretting and instructing about gays.

As it is, I can see that you're trying to accomplish something here. It's an odd obsession. You've got it bad. Maybe you need to drink more.; 8/25/13, 7:14 PM
TML said...: Ridiculous. How are those "before" photos in any way indicative or representative of fraudulently living the hetero life? They're just pictures of them from earlier in their lives. No context at all. Way too overly accommodating of a point the site's trying to make that's still boring and banal. Whatevs...; 8/26/13, 9:30 AM
Blair said...: I think in almost every instance those people look better in the photos they were holding.

"Gay" is just another word for narcissist.; 8/26/13, 12:01 PM
sonicfrog said...: Really, I didn't notice that much difference in them now and back then. In fact, with the exception of the guy wearing pink, I wouldn't even be able to tell if they were gay and or if they were straight.

That.

I'm not sure what that was supposed to show. I'm sure if I dig around in some old boxes, I could find a prom picture of myself and my date, and the expression on my face in retrospect might show that I wasn't very happy because I was with a girl because I wanted to be with a guy.

Of course, it's more likely that I wasn't smiling very much because I had braces.

Don't get me wrong, I would have rather have been out and with a guy and lived in a time where I wouldn't have gotten the snot kicked out of me for doing that. Prom was in a small conservative town in 1983 after all. But I wasn't unhappy taking my date Stacie to the prom. She was a nice girl and pleasant to be around.; 8/26/13, 3:49 PM