Coming out about being a “freak”
Originally published at Historical Personality Disorder. Please leave any comments there.
This floated up to the top of my Facebook feed this morning, and I thought “Uh oh, here we go.”
Florida House Candidate Defends His ‘Hobby Activities’, Sends Out This Picture Of Himself In A Costume.
I knew before I finished reading the headline that someone had “uncovered” this “bizarre” aspect of this guy’s private life and was trying to use it to derail his campaign, and sure enough, I was right. Sitting here as someone who essentially lives a “double life,” I used to dread that my employer might do a Google search and turn up evidence of my historical reenactment hobbies… Certainly, it was a concern at my previous job where I had been told early on not to mention anything concerning my hobby in front of my boss because she thought people who participated in renaissance faires were freaks who should get a life. Turns out she decided that she didn’t like me regardless of what I did with my free time, so it probably wouldn’t have mattered much if I had been out about my hobby. But the fact that it was made plain to me that my employer thought people who did reenactment/LARPing/Cosplay were freaks and should be shunned and laughed at, was enough to compel me to bury a very active part of my life deeeeeep in the closet. I told myself that they didn’t need to know about the “other me” that lurked just under the surface. In truth, though, it did matter. When people talked about vacations, I had to omit huge parts of my narrative just to sound “normal.” Going to France last year, I found myself telling everyone about how I had rented a house in France with some friends for two weeks. The end. Missing from that story was anything that made it interesting. I got a lot of questions about what I did while there. “Um. We… uh… drank wine.”
[REDACTED]
Turns out that job was highly toxic in so many other ways, so when I was offered a position at my current place of employment, I jumped ship immediately. But not only did I just shed the last job, but I also made a conscious decision to put it out there from the start: I am a historical costumer, and a reenactor, and feel free to ask me questions if you’re curious about what that means. I mentioned it on my resume. It’s even in my bio on the company website. My cubicle has photos of me in costumes frolicking in France and England, along with my growing collection of Doctor Who paraphernalia. I lead an active, and interesting life, thankyouverymuch.
Chances are people do think of that as a weird hobby, but by and large, they’re like “Oh, that’s different. Cool,” or “My cousin does Civil War reenactment, that’s cool.” And that’s the extent of it. I hope that’s the public reaction to Jake Rush’s “shocking” revelation of what is, honestly, a very common hobby. I mean, why is this even newsworthy? There are hundreds of thousands of people who participate in some form of reenactment or LARPing. Many are in the most mainstream red-blooded American profession of all, the military. It is way more common than mainstream media would have us believe.
So, are you out about your hobby? Why, or why not?
Share the love: