Tag Yourself in 17 Rejected Feature Images for My Link Roundup Today

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.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

lnj

lnj has written 310 articles for us.

91 Comments

  1. I’m “woman look at mirror” but only because it’s not actually her reflection but her shadow

  2. 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.

  3. I’m Young doctor woman making unimportant gesture in the hospital.

    Which hand gesture doesn’t matter. Just that it’s unimportant.

    • I for sure read “idea woman” as “ideal woman” and assumed she was pointing to #12 in a super sweet gal pal gesture.

  4. 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

  5. # 7 is literally the gesture I made last week while standing between two life-size cardboard cutouts of Dream Daddy characters

  6. 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.

  7. I’m a 1 (thinking about gluten) with 16 (depress and hopeless woman lying in bed) tendencies.

    How YOU doin?

  8. 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.

  9. …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’.

  10. 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.

  11. #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!)

  12. Def #16. I spend way too much time on my bed depressed and/or contemplating life. I even own similar shorts

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. I am “depress and hopeless woman laying on bed with absent minded” with a side of “senior woman uses a lap top computer.”

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. Everyone thinks I’m #15 but actually, I’m #13 and more specifically, I am #13’s slightly unzippered sleeve.

  19. 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…

  20. 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?

  21. 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.”

  22. 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!

  23. I’m #2, but I particularly enjoy “having doubts in the hospital” as a free-time activity while making unimportant gestures

  24. 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).

  25. 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

Comments are closed.