Recognition

So.

Several times in the last year or so people have linked to an image of Zooey Deschanel at some awards show with her trademark bangs swept aside (for once), almost universally as this amazingly trick question quiz of 'do you recognize her?'

Maybe you've seen it, maybe you haven't.  

Personally? 

I think its a shit photograph. Even after you reveal that its ms. Deschanel, you really can't see it... because its a shit photograph.  On the other hand it does say something about our culture that we really can't seem to recognize people once they strip off their 'uniform'.  I mean, are we really so incapable of basic recognition that we need fucking name tapes to know who's who?

Not me, man. 

See, I discovered rather late in life that I was more than a little nearsighted. Legally I can't drive without glasses on, which is hugely amusing to me since I didn't start actually wearing glasses until I was in my twenties, long after I had gotten my driver's license.  Anyway, as a result of my "Near Blindness" I learned to recognize people from a distance by the way they walk, so much so that I could tell you the gender of the person wearing a school mascot suit after only seconds of observation, and if I actually KNEW the person I would probably be able to tell you who it was despite almost any normally identifiable characteristics. 

Well, a decade and a half since I started wearing glasses I've gotten a little less keen on subtle hints of posture and walk (though I can still spot a tranny from a mile away, literally), but I've gotten really keen on smaller, subtle indicators of 'who'.  

See: i've really only seen Zooey Deschanel in two things: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and that crappy/interesting Wizard of Oz movie on Scify (where I liked the wicked witch a lot more...).  Now, these days we are inundated by her image thanks to that New Girl show (which, from what I know of it, was meant as a vehicle for Her Specificially, and has since morphed into a true ensemble show, possibly driving a nail in the coffin of the idea that Ms. Deschanel is particularly engaging as an actress, instead of merely being very pretty...), but a few years back, before the New Girl thing, I happened to catch an episode of Bones, mostly because I have a totally heterosexual man-love for David Boreneaz, or however you spell his name.   The show failed to properly capture my viewership in the long run, proving my man love was for Joss Whedon instead, which just shows how little taste I have in men. 

The point isn't my latent homosexuality, or lack thereof, but that within ten minutes of watching the show I realized that the female lead was, in fact, Zooey Deschanel's sister.   This, despite having no real interest in Zooey at all.  The only reason it took that long is that I had to verify my early suspicion against Hollywood's remarkably tendency to find a half dozen nearly identical actresses to shove in our face all at once in any given celebrity cycle.   I could reference here that as Thandie Newton got more and more attention, Zoe Saldana showed up to compete for the 'not quite white, skinny girl' crown... but I don't want to make a post about it, so you'll just have to pretend I did. 

Now, Emily Deschanel doesn't, to my knowledge, wear her sister's trademark bangs, and to be honest the closest resemblance I saw was in the eyes, not so much in the shape of their face or their relative acting chops, which sort of refutes the idea that I need Zooey's bangs to recognize her.

For you, however? Well, you tell me, imaginary reader.

However, to spare you the embarrassment, should you fail the photo 'test', I think it indicates far more how a crap, overexposed photograph can reduce anyone... no matter how famous... into a vaguely human manikin than it does for Ms Deschanel's bangs.