KristinDotCom | Writer & Entrepreneur

Best Regards

As any social media user with common sense knows, each individual person curates their own experience. You choose who you want to follow and what content interests you. Tired of seeing your second cousin’s new baby be remarkable in the way that all new babies are remarkable (ie, mostly not at all, unless you love that baby)? Unfollow. Mute. Homophobic, unintelligible rants from someone you went to highschool with keep showing up on your timeline? Unfriend. BLOCK.

You don’t have to make a big deal of it, no need for major prounouncements – simply avail yourself of every feature that is at your fingertips to see EXACTLY what you want.

So, for yet another entry in the ‘Whites be Whiting’ category, allow me to bring your attention to London-based writer and podcaster Liv Siddall.

Yesterday on Twitter, Liv proclaimed to her 6k followers that, because of an image she deemed to be so egregious, so OFFENSIVE, she deleted her Instagram for the first time ever. Eight years of enjoying travel photographs of women reaching their hands backwards to an unseen photographer and sitting in giant birds’ nests. Over. Eight years of bubble blowing boomerangs. Done. Not even the ability to Clarendon and Lark her pictures were enough to salvage her Instagram relationship, because THIS was just TOO MUCH for her to bear.

So, without further ado, here is the picture.

Oooops! Forgot to issue a TRIGGER WARNING!

TW: Image displays a Black woman reading a book and having a lovely picnic by herself in front of a gorgeous home. She appears to be happy and unbothered.

Liv’s friends, appropriately named Maddie, Jenny, Tim and Mr. Bingo then piled on to her post to agree that this snapshot assaulted their senses. How DARE this woman stage a photograph with a bowl of apples?! Is that… OMG IT IS… A CERAMIC VASE OF FLOWERS?!

In a tweet-thesis, Tim Who Recently Found His Thesaurus writes, ‘It’s curated to the point of nausea, obfuscating any notion of realism with saccharin hyper-whimsy, an idolisation of all that is twee, and it is annoying.”

Mr. Bingo asks his dear friend Liv, “Could you stay on but just not follow cunts?”

The “cunt” in this case is Paula Sutton. An interiors writer, content creator, interior stylist and the author of The Hill House Vintage, which along with her Instagram, showcases her love of “traditional English country house style with the added freshness of mixing modern, vintage, decorative and antique.”

In other words, Auntie Paula is living her best life in the Norfolk countryside hanging out with her dog Coco and lounging on her acre of land dressed in vintage calf-length cinched-waist gingham and chunky knit sweaters.

We are in a WHOLE ASS PANDEMIC (I yell that out every 30 minutes), but THIS ended up being simply too much for Liv.

Liv has of course locked down her account as Black Women got in formation to drag her and simultaneously become Hill House Vintage stans.

 

Auntie Paula posted on Instagram today that she’d experienced the ‘strangest 24 hours’ and that Liv crawled out of her Covetous Cave to apologise (my words, not Auntie P). She went on to explain that she started her account to talk about the things in life that made her happy, ‘architecture, a styled room here, a cushion there, a baked cake, a summer dress or a bunch of flowers… ‘, and that it’s a space where she can write about feelings of ‘positivity and being grateful, and more recently, exploring my feelings of loss in losing my mother whilst still trying to seek out joy. I’m a firm believer in staking the responsibility to find the content that brings YOU joy and moving on from the things that upset you.”

View this post on Instagram

Well, it’s been the strangest 24 hours that I’ve ever experienced on social media. It started with a twitter rant using my picture as an example of what is wrong Instagram (the author has since contacted me privately and apologised) and ended with an incredible outpouring of love, support and kindness that I will be eternally grateful for. I – like many people – started this account to talk about the things in life that make me happy; Architecture, A styled room here, a cushion there, a baked cake, a summer dress or a bunch of flowers… It turned into a space where I felt comfortable to show my face and to also write a little about my feelings of positivity and being grateful, and more recently exploring my feelings of loss in losing my mother whilst still trying to seek out joy… It’s always been a safe little corner to explore a creative side that I kept hidden for so long after servicing the creative endeavours of others. I enjoy creating little scenes and stories… I’m inspired by old Hollywood, and by the fashion photography of the 1950’s and 60’s, and all that is reflected in my images. I suppose what I didn’t realise – in my naivety – is that some people look at the pictures without reading all of the captions and therefore understanding who I am… These images are meant to be joyful and fun, and are styled and created to please the eye. They are a tiny snapshot of an otherwise very mundane and normal life. Too shallow for you? Perhaps….but I’m a firm believer in taking the responsibility to find the content that brings YOU joy and moving on from the things that upset you. I just want to thank each and everyone of you who understands that, and who came out in droves to follow, cheer on, show solidarity and support. I’m not one to dwell on things, so that’s all I shall say on the matter, but THANK YOU. From every inch of my heart. With love ‘Auntie Paula’ – as it seems I am now known!! xx❤️💫 • • • #forevergrateful #joyseeker

A post shared by Paula | Hill House Vintage (@hillhousevintage) on

 

 

A GRACIOUS QUEEN. She went on about her business with her giant rosemary bush and 50k more followers. That post was the equivalent of ‘I wish you well’ and ‘Best Regards,’ which we all know means you hate the person with the heat of a thousand suns.

 

But I’M GOOD AND IRRITATED AND CAN’T MOVE ON.

This woman was simply living her life and it rose Liv and Mr. Bingo’s hackles up higher than I was after that chocolate bar I bought at Afropunk off a short-dreaded dude with a pink backpack carrying a tiny small cardboard sign … I’M RAMBLING CUZ THAT’S HOW IRRITATED I AM!

There are NUMEROUS accounts of women with similar aesthetics and staged photographs that showcase their design abilities and style.

But this one shows a Black woman.

And all of a sudden ‘it’s not difficult to see why a photo of such conspicuous wealth would bother people’.

Um what? Are you saying this to Anna Wintour or nah? Too often Black women are judged harshly for doing EXACTLY what white women do! Auntie Paula has a lovely sun hat, quietly munching on fruit, and all of a sudden she’s a ‘cunt’?

Why is it that when we have the audacity to unapologetically live the life of our dreams, white people are so triggered? #rhetoricalquestion

Friends of mine who own beautiful stores have had white people assume that white customers in the shop WERE THE OWNERS, because they couldn’t BELIEVE a Black woman has such business acumen and taste. When confronted with the ‘truth’, they still ask questions like, ‘oh but no really, who else is behind this shop?’. I get constantly asked about running a retail business ‘are you actually making any money?’ Girl are you buying something? DO YOU KNOW A WHITE INTERIOR DESIGNER BROUGHT CLIENTS TO MY FRIEND’S SHOP CLAIMING HE DESIGNED IT AND COULD DO THE SAME FOR THEM YES I’M YELLING??!!

They offer qwhite ridiculous unsolicited advice because surely we can’t succeed without their input. I was recently advised by some random man to reach out to yet another random man to schedule my tours in conjunction with his (as yet unscheduled, unrated, UNMENTIONED IN TRAVEL AND LEISURE) jet ski tours ‘because when couples come, the men will want do the jet ski tours and the women will want to do the history tours so it will be good for your business.’

WHO THE FUCK ASKED YOU?

And when all else fails and Jealous Jill and Schaudenfraude Sam still aren’t able to understand why you deserve the life you live, and that you do not require their support, advice or approval to be fabulous, they lash out. They call you ‘difficult’ or ‘sassy’ or… well we’ve already said the c-word 3 times so I’m done with that. They ask you ‘what you’re going to do with your platform that’s positive’, as if you owe them ANYTHING.

And so maybe this isn’t what Liv intended when she posted the photo of Paula Sutton, but in exclaiming how this photo upset her, she reminded Black women of every white person that has expressed surprise at how ‘well-spoken’ we are, feigned confusion at our success, and questioned our right to live out loud.

Keep Procrastinating