Dressed in Me-Drag
I was leaving the house for work this morning, and caught sight of myself in the mirror. I thought that I looked like I was dressed in office worker drag. Makeup, hair done, crisp white shirt, sassy jacket, lots of jewelry. It’s a uniform, to make me feel like I fit in that world, when the world I really fit in has more to do with zip-up hoodie jackets with bleach stains down the front.
And for the millionth time I wondered at our fixation with taking what we are, as female humans, and making it look like the opposite. If it’s naturally shiny, de-shine it! If it’s naturally matte, make it shiny! If it’s naturally ruddy, make it paler! If it’s naturally pale, make it more colorful! If it’s curly, straighten it! If it’s straight, curl it!
Blah blah, evolutionary imperative and attracting a mate via healthy biological signals be damned, shouldn’t we (esp. those not wanting to spawn) have evolved past that? All this complicated social signalling. Taking everything that is and making it other – no wonder I love most those days when I don’t have to leave my house and have people judging what kind of job I did in pretending to be some matte-finished someone else.
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