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2020-04-17

(HIST30060) Quarantine Beauty

(HIST30060) With lockdown lasting for many weeks and hairdressers and beauty salons being closed (even for a while as restrictions were eased), people's well-kept and manicured looks went out the window, being replaced with long, untamed hair and eyebrows and tracksuits. We went from looking like Princess Mia to ordinary, bushy-haired Mia as in the image. Many people resorted to giving themselves and family haircuts at home (I cut my hair twice and fringe multiple times throughout lockdown), which had varying results and became an essential covid experince on social media.

2020-04-17

Humans of Covid-19 AU: Molly

“Online schooling is definitely not ideal. I’d rather be at school with my friends. But considering it’s the only option, it’s going ok so far. The biggest challenge for me is trying to keep on top of the work, because there’s so much being thrown at us and no teacher there to guide us. I miss school a lot, especially my friends, sport and socialising with people. I find that social media is not the same as actually seeing your friends. I prefer being one-on-one with someone so we can actually talk properly. I’m a lot calmer than I was at the end of last term. Everything around me is organised and clean, so I feel a lot less stressed and chaotic. But now I'm ready for my life to go back to normal.” Instagram post on Molly, a high school student, and her experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives.

2020-04-17

Humans of Covid-19 AU: Alissa

“I’m feeling the totality of the experience, the lack of any space or any break whatsoever. It leaks into every aspect of life, every minute of every day. This has definitely been a challenge. Being ‘forced’ to have quality time with my kids, actual quality time, is the best part. I’m loving the slowing down - no more rushing or hurrying the kids. Even on relaxed weekends, we were always pushing ourselves: try the latest cafe; take the kids to a new park; see friends we hadn’t seen for a while. Now there’s a stillness to things and reality is making my partner and me more present with the kids, and they’re loving it - for now! Apart from when it comes to the phone… that’s almost become a source of evil, with too much going on. I’m trying to put it aside when I can.” Instagram post on Alissa, a teacher, and her experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives.

2020-04-17

Second Adolescence

This photo is of my little brother, who is sixteen this year, as we were spending time together on the balcony of our house. This was out of sheer desperation in terms of getting out of the house, even though it is freezing outside at this time of year in the afternoons. For two months during lockdown my brother and I spent more time together than we probably have in the last three years combined, given that I am ten years older than him and have lived out of home up until last year our relationship was always a bit like ships passing in the night. In addition to that our relationship has always been vaguely parental due to the age difference (and possibly my own gendered conditioning to adopt a caregiver role), yet in this period I have had such a strange feeling of emotionally revisiting my adolescence due to the amount of time I am spending with my brother and cousin who is eighteen, which has been such a strange and disorienting experience. I feel like this has been such a pointed sensation for me as someone who doesn’t drive, and with public transport it is just bearable as I have some access to independent travel. But when I could no longer go anywhere at all without my mother driving me, I felt like my identity as a capable adult essentially crumbled overnight. There are elements to this that are positive, I feel like my brother understands me much better now and my relationship with my cousin borders more on the side of best friends than cousins in a way that would probably not have happened if I hadn’t been forced to put aside the cloak of adulthood which made me essentially relate to my cousin from a caregiver perspective.

2020-04-17

2020 Disaster Prediction Meme

The meme was created and posted on a Facebook group during April, and was part of a trend of memes predicting what terrible event will happen in the next month for 2020. The meme is comprised of two images taken from the show Avatar the Last Airbender, and contains a quote which has been changed to fit the memes theme. It shows the community online dealing with the pandemic through memes, but also highlights how tired people becoming because continued disasters throughout 2020. HUM402