embracing the 4:5 aspect ratio

& other suggestions for sustained resistance.

On January 17th — two days before TikTok was (briefly) banned and three days before the inauguration — my Instagram feed turned from squares to rectangles.

On the surface, it was a superficial change. At most, it seemed like Meta preparing for the great migration from TikTok that they’d been lobbying for.

But just as the TikTok shut down was not about national security, I don’t believe that the Instagram aspect ratio change was about making the platform more appealing to TikTokers. I think it was about making Instagram more difficult to use.

Between Election Day and Inauguration day, thousands of posts were created with information and resources to prepare for, resist, and generally survive the oncoming administration. Not to mention the millions (if not billions) of posts that have been made since Instagram’s inception in 2010, documenting every major & minor event in U.S. politics from the perspective of millions of sources (users). Whether you like social media or not, Instagram as a platform has unintentionally become the most robust, detailed archive of the last 15 years that we have.

And until the weekend of the 17th, every entry in that archive appeared in a square frame. For those on personal accounts, the shift to rectangles was odd, but not the end of the world. But for accounts that exist to disseminate information, the shift had a more sinister effect. If an infographic, flyer, or call-to-action was designed to fit the square, its new rectangular frame now cut the text off in a way that made it much more difficult to read, if not completely illegible. Yes, every post can be read in full if you tap on it, it’s not permanently cropped to a rectangle. It’s the equivalent to someone tearing the covers off of all the books in the library. It’s not impossible to find what you’re looking for, but it is a hassle. And in the case of certain resources, like those related to abortion, the delay caused by that “hassle” could have life-threatening consequences.

Not to mention, the rectangles are fucking ugly, which is more than enough reason for many people to archive or delete their old posts — which, I think, is exactly what this administration wants us to do: Delete all our posts from before the 17th, as though this country began with this presidency. Wipe away the 15 years of free, open & crowd-sourced, digital proof that we’ve made any kind of progress since the mid 2010’s (of which we’ve made a lot, even if it doesn’t feel like it in this exact moment). So, we must resist the urge to erase our own digital footprint.

I know that this information exists elsewhere. There are other platforms, websites, corners of the internet that have documented the same things; many instagram posts are based on information from these places. But it would be foolish to say that having it all in one place is insignificant. If it were, then this administration wouldn’t have removed the compilations of resources on the federal websites, most of which were for women and the LGBT community. They know that we, the people, already have the information from these pages. They just want to make it more difficult for us to share it with each other.

And right now, even with the ill-fitting frames, Instagram is the easiest way for us to do so. So even though it’s ugly, even though we hate Zuckerberg, even if it can sometimes feel like we’re posting into an abandoned shopping mall (read: void), we must resist the urge to remove ourselves from the conversation. Resist the urge to disengage. Resist the urge to erase ourselves before someone else can.

Will posting save us? I don’t know, probably not, but I know that staying still & silent definitely won’t. They are tying knot after knot in our “democracy” (if it ever really was one) and hoping it will shock us into submission, that we will be too overwhelmed by the tangled mess in front of us that we won’t even try.

But here’s the thing. It’s not actually on any one of us to save the entire country, or the whole world. No one expects you to personally, singlehandedly save women, LGBTQ people, the Palestinian people, black people, immigrants, the ice caps, the animals, the National Parks, and the ocean. You should support the efforts to do so as much as you can, but do not let yourself get so caught up in saving everyone & everything that you don’t do anything at all. Figure out where you, personally, can be the most helpful (whether that is by focusing your efforts on a single cause that you have a lot of knowledge in or by supporting many causes through an overarching skill/resource you have). The best we can do right now is as much as we can. Choose a thread and pull.

Phase 1: Prepare Yourself
(NOTE: Do not stop after this phase. If you stop here that is self-care, not resistance.)

• Eat. Your body needs food to function, think, and regulate your emotions. Now is not the time to crash diet or otherwise restrict. You need food to think clearly, critically, and minimize anxiety spiraling. Food is not the enemy. Food is fuel.

• Lift. Any woman reading this has heard the threat that lifting weights will make you “bulky” (as if that’s the worst thing a woman can be). That is a lie and I’m convinced it was started by the patriarchy to keep us weak. Start picking heavy stuff up (and DM it to me on @girlscarryingshit if you happen to get a pic). The endorphins will make you feel better and the muscle you’ll build will prepare you to physically help yourself & others.

• Wear color. Studies show that this can stimulate dopamine. If you remember the popularity of “hot girl walks” in 2020, it’s the same idea. Color might not save us, but it can lift our spirits while we save ourselves. Same thing goes for those things you’ve been saving for a special occasion. As Joan Didion said, everyday is all there is. Wear things that make you feel like being alive for another 24 hours.

• Let yourself be a little fucked up right now. What’s happening in the U.S. is not normal. Don’t normalize it. Be a little fucked up.

• Scream, as-needed. Here’s a playlist, curated by GCS, to do it to.

Phase 2: Do Something & Commit to it for 4 Years

• Identify the battle you are most suited to fight and/or the weapon you are most suited to wield. Do you have deep knowledge of reproductive health issues? DEI, Title IX, and anti-discrimination? Immigration law? Latch onto the issue you are most educated on & get involved. Are you particularly good at organizing? Fundraising? Advocating? Writing? Shouting? Do you have a car? A couch? A camera? An Adobe subscription? A printer? Offer your skillset or tools to multiple causes, even if you don’t have the deepest knowledge of any individual cause; you will learn by working with people who do.

• Donate to mutual aid weekly, even if it’s $1. If you’re trying to figure out what you can afford and you work full-time, consider 1 hour’s pay per week & increase or decrease until it feels doable. Do not give so much you put yourself into the negative, but do expect that this donation will make you a little less “comfortable.” Donate to someone new each week and/or rotate between people from different marginalized communities you want to support.

• Volunteer in your community. Do so face-to-face if possible so that, if someone in your community needs discrete help with something (ex. frozen water, sexually-transmitted parasites), they know who is safe to go to.

• Stop supporting businesses that are acting against your best interest, even if it’s inconvenient. Start with the Feb 28th boycott and see how long you can go. Most anything you need can be found elsewhere with a quick online search (“[item] near me”). Better yet, see if you can buy it IRL from a small business in your community and pay in cash.

• Participate in the barter economy. Take some of the power out of the U.S. dollar by trading goods & services with your friends and friends-of-friends. Don’t know who in your community does or has what? Try posting on your Instagram story and seeing who replies (that’s what I do).

• Read, fact-check, and share information. While this can’t be all you do, under an administration that is censoring us more and more each day, this is something we should all be doing. Reading the news from multiple sources (to understand how it is being spun to each side), fact-checking it, and sharing what we actually believe to be true. There is too much going for us all to catch everything on our own. Catch what you can and throw it out there for your community.

• Do not obey in advance, or at all — be an inconvenience. Take your time finding your ID when asked for proof of citizenship. Do not clarify that you are cisgender. Call out discrimination in the workplace. Help women in red states get reproductive healthcare. Get used to saying “no.” Do it scared.