I don’t get to play with my gender presentation nearly as much as I would like to for a number of reasons. But life is short and I’m old so I plan to start screwing around with gender presentation a lot more.
The most obvious way to do this is with clothing choices. Thankfully we no longer have laws that make cross-dressing illegal. Not that I can convincingly cross dress, I bear a strong resemblance to Uncle Fester of the Addams Family. Still given my current limitations I still want do something out of he ‘male’ spectrum whatever that is. I used to wear mascara regularly until my mascara disappeared; I blame the Huskies and/or cats for that. So one of my first bits of gender transgression is to get some basic makeup and make regular use of it. Just some basic light cover and mascara I think for now. Clothes are a bit of a problem, finding something I like in my size is not easy as I am a big girl. I am not necessarily looking to buy women’s clothes; gender-neutral clothes would do nicely thank you. This of course brings up the question of what is gender-appropriate or gender-neutral clothing. That can’t be determined without cultural context, what would be gender-appropriate in the Goth sub-culture would cause apoplexy in the Southern Baptist sub-culture. I work in L.A. County, which is a mosaic of different cultures and sub-cultures which presents both problems and opportunities with fooling around with gender presentation. Reports will follow
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3 comments:
"...what would be gender-appropriate in the Goth sub-culture would cause apoplexy in the Southern Baptist sub-culture."
You say that like it would be a bad thing...
:)
Not at all, Baptist apoplexy is always a good thing
Living in the South (that is, the southeastern United States, not to be confused with the southern part of anywhere else, even though those places have every right to call themselves "the South" as well) I always love seeing some Baptist apoplexy. In fact I often have a front-row seat.
As far as your clothing conundrum goes, though, in a way it's kind of bad that there's no longer an overarching societal convention to rebel against. On the other hand I think a world where the attitude is "if it makes you feel good wear it" is a happier, healthier place. To paraphrase Eddie Izzard, getting to wear all the clothes and shag everyone is a truly groovy thing.
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