Gender identification, expression, and stratification.
Another update that isn't necessarily about my life! And a public one too. It's one of those pensive entries where your thoughts on the subject would be even more valued than usual (which is already a lot on its own
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what were you guys like?
Well...I wasn't extremely flamboyant but probably more feminine than was considered acceptable for boys my age to be, especially given where I grew up - originally from Minnesota, but I moved to the Bronx when I was six and lived there for six years - but most people chalked this up to me being a bit of a nerd rather than assuming I was gay. I didn't care for sports or rap music or anything like that. I was really into Britney Spears and Sailor Moon. And I liked to read slash fanfiction online, lmao. At the time I didn't understand why but I realize now it was because I was ~searching for some kind of representation of my sexuality that I wasn't getting from tv/movies/music. But then I discovered Queer as Folk at around 12, which helped.
As for Wonder Woman, they were going to do that television show but it got scrapped - which is probably for the better because it looked absolutely awful. I didn't know about the movie but I hope it ends up being goo.
Also, Noah is super cute and endearing.
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I don't think boys should have toy guns either, and thankfully my parents didn't really allow us to have any, because they didn't want us to grow up violently. It was always more a problem with my brother, who's obsessed with the Marines and was determined on joining it before my aunt gave him a preposition to stay.
It's particularly interesting that you bring up the "nerd" part. I think you and I are some of the special cases, being gay men of color. People would typecast us to be aggressive, ill-mannered, and pretty inconsiderate, but when they see how chill and in-tune we are with ourselves, they go into thinking one of two (or both) things: "oreo" (you have no idea how much I ABHOR this label) or "gay." "Nerd" can be categorized with the whole "oreo" thing, but anyway... we pretty much had the same situation. In fact, the only people that really gave me any crap about being gay were other POC's LOL.
And for so many years, I've tried looking for good gay representation too! We really are the same person. I've read yaoi, gay-themed books (some of which have been the most enjoyable reads), looking for movies with male-male love, lurking the hell out of gay blogs and sites (let's just say that AfterElton and I have had quite the relationship before), etc. I think it's important to know what you're perceived as, but to also not lose your sense of self in any representation. I'm not usually the advocate of "labels don't matter," because I find them to be too realistic to avoid, but lebels can be circumvented. It just takes people with some brains to look past them.
Also, I knew about the Wonder Woman show and am SO glad that it's not going through. Adrianne Palicky or whatever her name was... WAS SO SCRAWNY. It would have hurt my heart to see her being the woman that I consider perfect. I hope the movie ends up being good too.
AND YES, NOAH IS PERFECTION TBH.
Thanks for commenting. <3
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