Saskia Is My Doppelganger?
Feb 1st, 2010 by heidi
This is me.
That’s a head-shot of me taken by a colleague of mine because I needed something semi-official looking to put in all of my profiles for the iSchool (and for various other purposes). It’s a decent shot, although, as with all photos of myself EVAR, I look at it and think “omg uglyfathorrible”. Well, I think so at this size, anyway, despite logic telling me that when I look at photos of myself at a lighter weight, I generally think far more positively of the way I looked then, even though I hated myself in photos when I was that weight too.
Obviously the conclusion is that it’s all subjective.
Now, on Facebook there’s a meme going around about your “celebrity doppelganger.” Quite a few of my friends have had fun with this but it hit me (and thusly I posted) that I do not have a celebrity doppelganger, at least not in the present day, because celebrity women are not allowed to be my weight, at least not on the whole. There are a few exceptions but not enough that I can point at one and say “oh, hai, I look like HER” except insofar as we might have similar body shapes.
I might have more luck if I’d been born back in the Baroque era, where it was sexy and entirely acceptable to be fat. One of my friends suggested Saskia, the first wife of Rembrandt van Rijn, as a possible doppelganger (I found this quite entertaining, really, as my husband is something like one link away from proving that my mother’s side of the family was related to Rembrandt, although we’re not direct descendants.
Anyway, one of the joys of being married to a Baroque painter was getting used as a model.
What do you think? Are we doppelgangers, or even just slight lookalikes? Anybody else who IS a better doppelganger for me?
At least our body shape is similar. Except, that is, for my prodigious cleavage.
Who’s your doppelganger? How far back in history do you have to look to find somebody famous (and not for their size) who looks anything at all like you?
I’m glad you posted something about this: I’ve been a bit frustrated by the doppelganger thing. The instructions are to post the picture of a celebrity you’ve been told you look like… and it seems to me that a whole bunch of my friends who are closer to the culturally dictated beauty ideal are participating, but not many of us who aren’t. It’s like a whole celebration of people are are considered beautiful pointing out how beautiful they are? (One of my friends reports, though, that she saw a Doppelganger of Beaker from the Muppets, which makes me very happy.)
Anyway–your doppelganger is lovely, and you seem to be much warmer about the whole thing that I’ve been feeling. Thanks for the post.
…of people *who* are considered…
…the whole thing *than* I’ve been feeling.
Sorry: I’m Typo Royalty, I fear.
You know, I took one look at your pic and immediately thought ‘I’d like to be friends with her. She looks awesome and intelligent and fun and warm.’ Who wouldn’t want to look like all those things?
As for your doppelganger, I think she’s incredible. She was gorgeous and inspired one of the greatest painters the world has ever known. What’s more, I really do think you look like her. One could do a hell of a lot worse in the doppelganger department.
My doppelganger isn’t famous. I look exactly – and I mean exactly! – like my great-grandmother, for whom I was named. I also inherited her gift for baking, which is a lovely legacy. I’ve never had anyone tell me I look like anyone famous. My great-grandmother is plenty for me. She was an amazing, strong, generous woman. I’d love to feel I was living up to her name.
You are so beautiful! And you have a positively radiant smile! What a lovely photo.
Heritage.com has some facial recognition software to which you can upload your picture and it will match you to your celebrity twin by percentage of similar facial points. I was 73% Juila Roberts at one point. Go me.
me and mine think you look like chloe sevigny (used to do artsy films, now is starring in Big Love on HBO, epscially in the eyes, nose, and smile area…..
I agree with Twistie, you have a lovely warm energy coming from you and if I saw you in the mall or down the street (or anywhere else) I would give you a smile and want to chat with you.
I chose Shirley Hemphill from “What’s Happening” as my doppleganger because quite frankly, there aren’t many fat brown-skinned actresses out there and the two most identifiable, Mo’Nique and Queen Latifah, look nothing like me. One friend said that I sorta looked like Shirley, but thought I really resembled 70’s soul singer Phoebe Snow. I Googled her and we do resemble each other, especially in the face.
BTW, I think you resemble Eve Plumb, Marsha from The Brady Bunch.
Hey, Heidi! I’ve gotten back into blog(lurking)/reading and have been checking in here every once in a while
When you posted on FB about the doppelganger thing, I honestly thought of Jane Seymour when I looked at your pic – I think it’s your coloring, your eyes, and your mouth that make me think most of her. And that is NOT someone I think of often, but she jumped to my mind when I was trying to make a connection. I didn’t say anything then because I thought it was silly, but since you’ve mentioned it here – I thought the same thing when seeing your pic again.
She’s a little older in this pic than what I had in my mind, but I think it’s a good comparison: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VlmHNP9So5Y/SjC_cJCOBWI/AAAAAAAABrA/JuEVyN7qZBE/s400/jane-seymour-natural.jpg