Today in social media, bullying is something that comes second nature to much of society. We don’t think about what we post before we post it, which lead to hurting someone’s feelings. The picture I chose for this topic is one that can be interpreted in many ways. The only figure in the picture is a young lady with her arms crossed over her chest and words written all over her body. The words on her body can be understood in a variety of ways, weather they are her own thoughts of herself or how others think of her. Something interesting about this picture is that she is a young lady who doesn’t seem to fit the stereotype of someone who is bullied. By the crossing of her arms and the contrast of lighting, this picture visualizes the isolation effect bullying has on us. Based on the visual elements of wording, demographics, posture and lighting I believe that this picture shows us the deeper side of bullying and how it can make the victim feel.

There are many descriptive and personality words written on her body, that degrade her physical and intellectual appearance. Some of the words are placed on her body in certain places to symbolize what they mean and how she interprets them. On her forehead there are words such as: disappointing, try-hard, and rumors. I think that the words on her forehead are placed there because that is what she thinks about herself. She thinks that she is a disappointment to herself, friends, and family for not living up to the world’s standards. Since she views herself as a disappointment, she tries hard in order to fit the social norm, therefore the word “try-hard” is on her forehead. Close to her eyes are the words: fake, vain, wreck, weird, and ugly. These are words that describe how others see her. Another interesting placement of a word occurs near her heart is the word “liar”. Having that word close to her heart explains how she is trying too hard causing her to lie to the world and to herself because she is not showing who she truly is. Lying to yourself all the time can affect how you see yourself in the mirror everyday. It starts to wear on you that you are not perfect in everyone’s eyes, which can cause depression or lack of self-confidence. In the picture her shoulders seem to be weighted down. The words on her shoulders are: geek, cheap, and pathetic. These words can cause someone to not be confident in whom they are. When you walk with your shoulders upright you show confidence in yourself, rather than self-doubt that slouching depicts. The words on the young lady’s hands are simple four-letter words that, over time can influence her own perspective of herself because if you see something enough times, you will believe it’s true. The spacing and scaling of the words on her body play a big role when interpreting this picture. The words are in different fonts, meaning that for each different font, that is another person’s view of her. Also, where the words are placed on her body symbolizes how people see her and what they think of her. How big or little the word appears shows the importance of that word to the picture. The scaling of the word also shows how much it affects her, and how seriously she takes it. 

This image is clearly of a young lady who is a beautiful teenager. The realism of this picture gives even more meaning that because it is so real; it makes me connect with the image much more. When you look at this image, it is hard to not realize that the young lady is beautiful. To me, it is hard to understand when people that look nice are the ones to get bullied and put down by others. This goes against the typical stereotype that only nerdy people get bullied throughout grade school, because as we can see in this image, it happens to everyone. 

Her posture along with the lighting and contrast of color in this image plays a big role in setting the tone and setting of this picture. A black and white image represents timelessness and shows how something will never age no matter how long you have it. Since this picture is black and white that shows that if you are bullied once in your life, the words people say to you will never leave you no matter how old you get, and you will always carry that burden. The image also illustrates her posture. The image only shows the young lady, which gives the illusion of her being in interrogation. The lighting is why I thought of interrogation. In the upper left corner there is a bright light that looks like one of the single lights, and the rest of the room is dark. Since her arms are crossed, that shows that she is a prisoner to society because she lets what others say about her affect how she feels about herself. She is in isolation; she doesn’t feel a part of anything because someone is always putting her down. 

In the very center of this image, a piece of tape is over the young lady’s mouth. In all caps are the words “stop bullying”. Those words are the biggest words in the picture and on her body so that proves that this is the main message of this image. I think that is what the author is trying to get us to understand through this picture. That bullying can happen to anyone, regardless of your race, age, or gender.  This image uses many devices to put off the meaning that I interpreted. It uses spacing, scaling, realism, posture, and lighting to give the message that we need to stop bullying.