SELFIE MADE
Hillary Clinton has established herself as a social media force.
It was apparently a non-“selfie” zone.
Asked backstage at Roy Thompson Hall, where Hillary Clinton was by last week, if any — yes “selfies” — would be forthcoming, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state blithely shushed the inquisitor. Then, laughed off the question. Quipped possibly the most famous woman in the world, “I’m trying to limit my selfies.”
Oh, how times have changed since those old headband-wearing days, and when — remember? — she famously and controversially once blurted out in an interview, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies.” With relatively little left to prove, and much more time on her hands — the 65-yearold Clinton is currently enjoying her first period sans public role since 1983, when Bill became governor of Arkansas — Hillary has even taken to joining the me-snap revolution, as it were. With the so-called selfie having such a pop culture moment lately that even “lexicographers at the Oxford dictionary Online are considering it for inclusion,” as reported recently by The Independent, and it being the prerogative of everyone from Beyoncé to
Bieber, she prompted international headlines when
‘I’ve learned to take criticism seriously, but not personally’
she posted a twit-pic with daughter Chelsea, recently, even going as far as to use the word “selfie” in her tweet. (It was — aha! — not the first time, Hillary having reserved her “selfie” debut for a photo with Meryl Streep, taken some months ago during the Kennedy Honors.)
Propelled by the ubiquity of smartphones, and the rise of Instagram, “the spontaneous selfie,” The Independent further muses, “does everything the well-staged pap-snap fails to — it is warm and natural, and provides the viewer with a sense of being part of an intimate moment.”
All of which, actually, also kinda cannily describes Hillary’s address to 5,000 of her best friends in Toronto the other night. Selfie or no selfie! Much has been written about her appearance, and a discussion led by Canadian activist Samantha Nutt, but one moment, above all, is enjoying multiple echoes. Asked about jabs targeted at her about her appearance over the years — what hasn’t been said about Hillary, really? — the maybe president-in-waiting, smiled, and gave good, very good, quote. “I’ve learned,” she said, “to take criticism seriously, but not personally.”