You're a freak
"There's something no one seems to notice.. if you dress so fashion forward like you do, you're obviously not going to attract any guys whatsoever... men would much rather go for the basic skinny jeans and strappy top kind of girl... and please... you can be fashion forward and avant grade and NOT look like you're old ... and can't you be more feminine???? YOU'RE A GIRL , NOT A WOODEN MANNEQUIN. And anyway, I've been to London tons of times before, and I have yet to see someone so poorly dressed :| (It's) like you have robbed an entire thrift store or something." (a commenter on Susie Bubble's blog, to whom she responded quite reasonably)
At a comics convention a few years ago, the guy next to me asked me--in a way that implied he was waiting for me to laugh and agree with him--why this place was full of such freaks and losers, walking around in their trenchcoats and cosplay outfits. Just then, a fat girl in the Slave Princess Leia metal bikini walked by; he made a disgusted sound and pretended to shield his eyes, then got out his phone to tweet about it.
Besides the obvious sexism and fatphobia, I was thinking about this earlier today because of Threadbared's post on Susie Bubble's troll, quoted above. What I've always liked about Susie is that her love of fashion is so enthusiastic and so true to herself that it becomes transgressive; this is also what I love about (female) fandom/fanfiction, and what I love about nerds and cosplay.
It isn't as transgressive for a skinny girl to wear a Slave Princess Leia costume to a con, and although it's frustrating that society would draw a distinction, to have a body that society deems unacceptable and wear the outfit anyway despite people's reactions, simply because you love it--that's what I want fashion to be. That's why I get angry when fashion editors hate on bloggers, because those bloggers carved out a space for us amid all the do's-and-don'ts lists, the performances of conventional femininity, the "skinny jeans and strappy tops," the double standards, the fashion editorials that focus more on the fantasy of being rich and skinny and idle than the clothes.
What I love about clothes is that they can be transformative and empowering for the nerds and freaks, for the disenfranchised, the fat, the brown, the queer. I like that you can take control of how people see you. You can craft yourself. You can express your most challenging self, or you can perform a pitch-perfect suburbanite, city-dweller, executive, debutante, butch, and nobody will be able to mock you for it. There's an implicit or explicit sense of "fuck you, I'm amazing".
And when/if you are dressing for yourself, I want you to never have to feel ashamed about what you wear out of love, whether it's a Slave Princess Leia bikini, a three-piece suit with a tie, a frilly pink dress with mesh pants over electric blue leggings, a black leather trenchcoat. You look amazing--so sayeth Wangie.
That's what I mean when I say fashion is cosplay. That's where we freaks excel, and that's why we have an advantage. You've been made fun of, you've been made to feel like shit, and now you don't have to be scared of people judging you. You have nothing to lose, and you're burning up with enthusiasm for the uncoolest things. You are Grace Jones, you're Lady Gaga, you're Susie Bubble, you're in the front row of the fashion show, you're trashy, you're a basement-dwelling gamer, you've got a pompadour, you're minimalist, a tomboy, you're a drag queen, drag king, a furry, a freak.
At a comics convention a few years ago, the guy next to me asked me--in a way that implied he was waiting for me to laugh and agree with him--why this place was full of such freaks and losers, walking around in their trenchcoats and cosplay outfits. Just then, a fat girl in the Slave Princess Leia metal bikini walked by; he made a disgusted sound and pretended to shield his eyes, then got out his phone to tweet about it.
Besides the obvious sexism and fatphobia, I was thinking about this earlier today because of Threadbared's post on Susie Bubble's troll, quoted above. What I've always liked about Susie is that her love of fashion is so enthusiastic and so true to herself that it becomes transgressive; this is also what I love about (female) fandom/fanfiction, and what I love about nerds and cosplay.
It isn't as transgressive for a skinny girl to wear a Slave Princess Leia costume to a con, and although it's frustrating that society would draw a distinction, to have a body that society deems unacceptable and wear the outfit anyway despite people's reactions, simply because you love it--that's what I want fashion to be. That's why I get angry when fashion editors hate on bloggers, because those bloggers carved out a space for us amid all the do's-and-don'ts lists, the performances of conventional femininity, the "skinny jeans and strappy tops," the double standards, the fashion editorials that focus more on the fantasy of being rich and skinny and idle than the clothes.
What I love about clothes is that they can be transformative and empowering for the nerds and freaks, for the disenfranchised, the fat, the brown, the queer. I like that you can take control of how people see you. You can craft yourself. You can express your most challenging self, or you can perform a pitch-perfect suburbanite, city-dweller, executive, debutante, butch, and nobody will be able to mock you for it. There's an implicit or explicit sense of "fuck you, I'm amazing".
And when/if you are dressing for yourself, I want you to never have to feel ashamed about what you wear out of love, whether it's a Slave Princess Leia bikini, a three-piece suit with a tie, a frilly pink dress with mesh pants over electric blue leggings, a black leather trenchcoat. You look amazing--so sayeth Wangie.
That's what I mean when I say fashion is cosplay. That's where we freaks excel, and that's why we have an advantage. You've been made fun of, you've been made to feel like shit, and now you don't have to be scared of people judging you. You have nothing to lose, and you're burning up with enthusiasm for the uncoolest things. You are Grace Jones, you're Lady Gaga, you're Susie Bubble, you're in the front row of the fashion show, you're trashy, you're a basement-dwelling gamer, you've got a pompadour, you're minimalist, a tomboy, you're a drag queen, drag king, a furry, a freak.