Image is Everything: How and Why Your Accurate Representation Matters

In a competitive world, image is everything. You may think it is hardly important – how you and your group, family, friends, ethnicity, are represented in conversation, at work, in the media, in official publications, or in other social media. Indeed, we put ourselves to trouble if we obsess about what people think since we cannot control what people think. But how about what is put forward as representing you – reports, images, historical or contemporary accounts of events or a narrative which offers the preferred perspective of the narrator, rather than your story? Should you care? Image matters, here are 5 reasons how and why.

1.???Know that image is everything and represent yourself appropriately: Your representation of yourself matters just as much as other people’s representation of you. If you care little about yourself, others learn to care little about you. If you disrespect yourself – allow others to dismiss you, trivialise your opinion, shut you up when you have the right to speak, leave you out of conversations you should be present for, or choose to treat you however they like, others will become comfortable disrespecting you. After all, if you do not care about yourself why should they? A saying ascribed to Francis of Assisi goes: ‘at all times, preach the gospel, where necessary use words.’ The origin regardless, this saying can be transposed to our personal representation of self: ‘at all times be your best self, where necessary say who you are’. We don’t need specific occasions where we are ourselves, we should be our best selves all the time. Take greater care with your everyday self-portrait: be comfortable with the image you want to project and project it.

2.???Exercise your right to be represented accurately: This is both a legal and a moral right; legal where the law makes it so but generally, moral, because we are who and what we are and this should be respected. This is not about picking a fight every time you are called names – sometimes it’s simply not worth your time correcting people who wish to hold on to a false image of you. However, bear in mind that a negative or inaccurate representation may be because the person at fault does not know any different. In this day and age, some people of African origin still get asked if they have tails, if they can play chess, if they live in houses, if their blood is red. Sounds preposterous, but it is true and I can personally testify to that. What matters however in such circumstances especially where there is an official, institutional or political misrepresentation, is what one does about it. Do you walk away preferring to wait for someone else to say something or do you accord yourself with the respect you deserve and demand that you are represented accurately? You have a duty and a moral obligation to do the latter politely, but firmly. If you do not correct the misrepresentation, it will only continue. If however you pick up the courage to stand up for yourself, chances are that you can put things right and you need to put it right every time you can.

3.???Be aware of programmed people and narratives that misrepresent you: Here’s a rather unpleasant truth: some people are programmed to see you in a bad light regardless of what the reality is. Sometimes try as you might, you cannot change their perception since they need to hold on to it as a crutch for life. In such circumstances where you find that despite repeated conversations the other is not willing to let go of their negative image of you or your group, you may want to leave them with their views and move on. Where you are fortunate however to encounter people who are themselves courageous enough to let go of their negative notions about you and yours, it is best to challenge their negativity by respectfully presenting the positive. It may take a while since beliefs can be difficult to shift but it is always worthwhile, illuminating darkness. You are the hero of your own story. Know when you can change the narrative and how to do so.

4.???Be what you want to see: If you want to see positive representations of yourself and of the things that matter to you, you have to put in the work. If you want to see images of women respected in the media, and you are a woman, be that kind of woman. If you would like your ethnicity represented better in pictures or narratives, be the way you want your ethnicity to be represented. If you are in a group and you think your group is not seen as smart as other groups and this can be a class group, a work team, etc, you have to put in the work to be as smart as you want to be considered. At a foundational level, [positive] affirmative action is good for society but it not a sustainable policy in perpetuity, if the society or group is to progress. Expecting to get a turn rather than to earn a turn, a playgroup approach where ‘everyone has a go’, only breeds resentment and retards progress. If you think you are not represented well, you have to do something about it. If you need upscaling your skills, signing up for etiquette, grooming, or diction classes, going back to school, getting training on leadership and management, improving on your own achievements whether in academic or extra-curricular, please invest in these things. If you want better images of yourself, make the effort, pay attention to detail, produce things of quality and you just may change the narrative. You have to put in the effort to be what you want to see.

5.???You cannot give up: The advertising and marketing industry teaches us many lessons about representation as does the public relations sector. If you want to get across a particular message on a brand, consistency is key. Whether you need innovation, creativity, an overhaul of historical inaccuracies, to sustain a positive image requires that you maintain that image year on year until it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Apparently, Coke makes you feel good, Apple technology is unbeatable, western education is second to none; democracy is the best form of government; the question is no longer whether these representations are true, they have been repeated over time so much that we presume them to be true. It is the same with your image and that of the group you represent. You cannot decide to be an honourable man or woman in society and then give yourself an off-day to be dishonourable. Mistakes happen, yes and we are human but if you give up on yourself, you cannot expect others not to give up on you. To curate a positive image and be represented appropriately, you cannot give up on yourself. The goal should be that your representation of yourself becomes your normal such that you elicit surprise (not mocking laughter) when you fall off the wagon. If you want people to expect the best of you, you have to consistently give them the best you can give and for as long as you live. Your best has to become your image.

It helps to know that everything we have learnt to see as wonderful- the positive images we have in our minds about people, places, things, etc, are carefully curated and consistently channelled, as wonderful. This is only possible because some have long understood that image is everything. Hopefully, others will come to understand this as well.

With best wishes,

Elimma.