What's in a Name?!?

My name is Olivia Frances Merritt, if you didn't already know.  I love my name, all three of them, because each of them is a piece of me and my family.  Olivia means olive in the Spanish and Italian origins, and peace (of the olive tree/branch) in the Bible.  I LOOOVE olives, and that is well-known in my family; it helps that I grew up in a Spanish-American household.  As for peace--the Bible is irrelevant in my naming but I really like its meaning--I, along with many people, believe in peace and am a peaceful person, and I am all for nonviolence and no war (even if that's naive).  I really like the olive branch/peace meaning, and as a small girl I would think about it, and it helped shape my values of peace and its importance in that, yes, war has to occur sometimes, but peace and discussion should be first and foremost in my daily life and in diplomatic affairs.  My child brain put that into more basic thoughts, but my name helped me reach that conclusion.

Now for my middle name Frances.  If I was given another name at birth, I would choose the name Francesca, because it is a beautiful name in my opinion and I read a series once where an awesome old ladies' name was Fran, and it would be cool to be called that when I got old.  Frances comes from my grandfather Francisco on my mother's side, who was a strong, stubborn (he had to be given the family he married to :) ), and caring person.  I am honored to have my middle name after him, and will always cherish that part that comes from my grandfather.

Merritt is the last name on my dad's side of the family, though my grandmother on that side's maiden name was Sykes, which is the part of the family I associate myself most closely with because of the multiple family reunions I have with them every year.  Merritt as the name does not have as much of a significance for me as does my first and middle name, but I like the way that it has two r's and t's, and is a homophone of merit.  Also, my family and I love a singer whose name is Tift Merritt, and she was raised in Raleigh, so that adds a few cool factor points to my last name.

The "two me's" is my life.  Having Vanessa for a twin is amazing and I would never change the twin relationship I have with her.  However, I am constantly called by her name, which would be fine except people then associate me with her and eliminate the concept of me as an individual.  Because my sister and I are together a lot and people mix us up, it is as if we are the same person for them. Some people don't care to distinguish us as separate people at all, they just talk to me when I know they don't know who I am, but since they act like we are the same person, their comments to me don't change if they knew I was Olivia and not Vanessa.  It is really frustrating to be viewed by so many people in this way.  To people I am very familiar with, Olivia and I are the same thing, but to everyone else, Olivia and Vanessa are the same thing.

Under normal circumstances, Vanessa and I will meet someone for the first time, and the person will ask, "Awww are you two twins?"  And, under normal circumstances, we will say yes (under circumstances of extreme annoyance or sarcastic moods we will say, "No, we just met each other," or "No, we are cousins"). This basically results in an automatic categorization of my sister and I as one being, one set of interests, one type of person, or one bad, one good; one sweet, one mean.  The positive side of this is that this realization affects the relationship as a whole and ensures that our friends are truly awesome in general, along with aware of us as separate people.  The down side is that the part of community that we know and aren't good friends with regard us as one person.  I am me, the smart, pondering yet outgoing person to myself and friends, and I am us, the smart, over-achieving, slightly socially awkward person to society. I choose Olivia and Vanessa.

Eat: A Look at a Wing Young Huie's Photograph

http://photos.wingyounghuie.com/eat/e58670c0a

This photograph, taken by Wing Young Huie under the "Eat" section of his collection, is simplistic at first, clearly portraying a reflection of the room.  The two lights, table, and portrait create a mirror-like and basic effect, while the two people at the table also mirror each other in hand movements.  The obvious disruption to the reflection image is the black and white subjects of the photograph.  Though they are both male, one is a middle-aged white man and one is a teenage black boy.  The white male is eating a salad with white dressing, and the boy is eating a rice dish with what looks to be Tabasco sauce.  This is an example of othering because of the contrast of normalcy between the two males: the mundane appetizer of salad with dressing and the strange mixture of Tabasco sauce and rice.  This suggests that white people's eating habits are what is "normal" and catered to in the real world.  The portrait is also noteworthy because it is of a black man looking disapprovingly at the white man.  This could indicate the photographer's own disapproval with the concept of white superiority.  Contrasting these negative views of the racial implications in this photograph is the fact that a white and black male are eating together in a house.  It suggests an intimacy that does not occur anywhere besides a home, and the combination of man and teenager is also unique and adds to the progressive ideologies of the photograph. 
The Handmaid's Tale and this photograph present othering in, overall, different ways.  They both show both sides of the power spectrum (the extremely powerful males and the subordinate females and the while adult and black boy).  The females in Handmaid's Tale are explicitly treated as inferior, but the photograph is much more implicit.  The slightly tilted view of the photograph represents othering; illustrating the superiority white people believe they have over black people. In reality they are just two people, whether eating at a kitchen table or otherwise.  The two sitting at the table in the same positions show this perspective, and this is never seen in Handmaid's Tale, for even Moira, the extremely independent, rebellious woman in the novel, falls to the power of the male.  Othering is also countered in this photograph because of the mirroring quality, as well as the idea mentioned earlier of black and white male coexistence--living together and eating together.  In Atwood's novel, the men and women live together, but the women are treated as "containers, it's only the insides of our bodies that are important" (Atwood 124). There is no coexistence, there is solely use of women.  Though the stereotype of black and white men normally not being together is proven time and again, this picture shows the opposite, rejecting some othering aspects.  In The Handmaid's Tale, othering is seen so much that it is clearly rejected by the author, and, like Huie, conveys to the audience a major issue that Atwood feels must be addressed.
Citation: Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. New York: Ballantine Books, 1985. Print.