With her comics, Liv Strömquist questions a lot in our society. In her new volume, she seeks explanations why so many people love to take selfies – and why Snow White’s stepmother might have good arguments after all.
Berlin – When looking in the mirror, many people have probably asked themselves: Do I actually look good? Some people can then wipe the thought away, others try to get closer to their goal. The Swedish author Liv Strömquist now looks at our vanities in a new comic. “In the Hall of Mirrors” asks, for example, why people like to take selfies so much.
The author looks at US celebrity Kylie Jenner, the bust of Nefertiti and the Austrian Empress Sisi. It’s about beauty as status and the fear of impermanence. “Taking photos of yourself all the time corresponds to the desire to bring time to a standstill, to stop time,” writes Strömquist.
Constructed self-image leads to alienation
Try to keep your own looks. “It is a kind of protest against one’s own insignificance, one’s own mortality,” says her book. With comics like “The Origin of the World” and “I Don’t Feel It”, Strömquist repeatedly looks at life from a feminist perspective.
The new volume, for example, also deals with contradicting expectations of women. They should be particularly beautiful earlier – but not have to do anything for it. Pretzels were sometimes frowned upon. She also describes how people can become alienated from themselves when they show a specially constructed image of themselves on social media.
An interesting thought: when people publish supposedly imperfect photos, of greasy bellies and stretch marks, isn’t that just marketing?
The chapter on Snow White’s stepmother is definitely worth reading. Strömquist not only explains why stepmothers often have to be the bad guys (presumably because we can’t bear to see the harmful side of our own mothers too). She also has a certain compassion for the fairy tale character – after all, many studies have shown that women are judged to a considerably higher degree by their appearance than men. dpa
