No you cannot take my picture

[newsboyhat]

Last summer, I was at the British Museum with my friend Ani. I had met up with Ani there so I could get away from my dramarama'ed and temperamental flatmates, and she was snapping a ton of pictures of me as I wandered around the statues and pottery. I didn't mind, because I can be a bit of a ham when it comes to pictures (as some of you may know,

Comments

[sartorias]

You're Asian and you are petite. Unfortunately there are some who fetishize that combo. Tall and very thin Asian women will also get that, from what I've heard.

[thistleingrey]

Seconding both halves of this re: fetishization. :/ There are websites, as one might expect, and that's where some candid, no-permission-asked photos go as well. An acquaintance was into the viewing part of it.

Though I'm neither petite nor tall, I get the photo request thing, too. If the person approaching seems like an amateur, as in your shot with the statue, I'd say, "No, but I'll take a shot of you with the statue, if you want." But then, I don't like sitting for photos much, so it's easy to come up with a deflection.... For the people claiming to be photographers, low key thanks-no-thanks as you've done it is a good way to go.

[theironchocho]

What Sherwood said and the fact that you have a friendly, approachable disposition. A guy asked to take a picture of my legs at an anime convention once. I talked to him for a moment, asking if he had a leg fetish, and he replied that he did not, but found my legs lovely. Then he suggested he could just take a picture of all of me. I thought about saying no, but since he was nice enough to ask me rather than take my picture without permission, I said yes. Maybe he's an artist and wanted reference material or maybe he wanted to use it for wanking. Another reason I said yes was because we were at a con, and plenty of guys had taken my picture in costume for god knows what reason. Fully clothed and out of costume wasn't much different for me.

Anyway, that's the only "may I take your picture?" request I can recall. If asked again, I would have to judge on a case by case basis. While I love art, I hate photographs of women pretending to be dead.

[lookslikelove]

I agree with several other comments. Part of it is that you have a lovely, approachable personality and also that you're adorable. There are probably some guys who at least part of the reason they ask is because you're Asian (I know this guy who would be stupidly all over my friend who was Korean the moment she walked in the door and then she brought one of her sisters and yeah...just uncool). SO I want to say...combo of both.

[arks]

Eeeewwww.

:(

[rosa_g]

You're adorable (you say it yourself all the time ;) ), and you enjoy posing for the camera, so it's not totally surprising... though I can only imagine how it could be quite disturbing at times. Wasn't there someone in Paris too who wanted to take a pic of you?

Maybe you need to practice your scowl more.