My Embarrassing Moments A shared journal of embarrassing pictures and stories from our awkward childhood to the present.

Because The Orchestra Leader Told Me To

Several years ago I was a member of an all-female accordion orchestra. Our conductor firmly believed that we should all wear pigtails when we performed, and for some reason we all went along with it.

One rehearsal, a photographer came to take press pictures of us. We all had to wear a white shirt and pigtails to rehearsal. The player seated next to me had quite an impressive bosom and the photographer took countless pictures of her. When it came to my turn, we were out of time so he took one photo — the image to the left.

Now, I know I’m funny looking but generally I photograph reasonably well. It’s hard for you to see it in this poor copy, but, it was without a doubt the worst photo ever taken of me. And it got sent everywhere on all press materials. It was mortifying. It was even on the orchestra website.

I told a friend about the photo and she just couldn’t believe it could be that bad, so I made her look at the website, at which point this very kind and generally sensitive friend blurted out “Ohmygod! You look like someone’s retarded kid sister!”

So, I campaigned to get our photos retaken and they were. The photo on the right was the new photo, the one I was pleased with.

Months later, a friend found this picture featured heavily on a pigtail fetishist website.

Tags: fetish, pigtails

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