Facing my fears and finding joy.

Someone wrote…

I like boots— always have. I’ve been accused of “stomping around” in them, of being un-ladylike. I have kept a pair of Blundstones for years without wearing them much, so as to avoid “stomping.” They were in the back of my closet, gathering dust. The more aware I become of how I have pushed down my gender noncomformity in my life so far, the more I wear those boots. Now I want ten more pairs of boots— with steel toes, with worn leather, with buckles and heavy soles. Stomping is just a part of being the real me. Wearing non-girly boots = facing my fears and finding joy.

What’s your experience?

And what are you thinking about gender right now?


Posted by on March 31st, 2010 at 08:00 am

Category: your voice 10 comments »

10 Responses to “Facing my fears and finding joy.”

  1. Adisson

    Boots rock! I just bought a new pair of jump boots. Congrats on finding your joy again! :D

    [Reply]

  2. Shayne

    i LOVE my Blundstones! i wear them everywhere. to school, shopping, driving, and they’re also my riding boots (i ride horses)! I also have these “butt kickers” as my friends like to call them, because they’re so clunky. haha. boots = love, so good on you for pulling yours out again!!

    [Reply]

  3. Lanthir

    I salute you, and your stompy-boots!

    [Reply]

  4. Fiona

    Gaun yersel, you sound like my sister.

    [Reply]

  5. Jay

    Yay for boots! My favourite footwear is all boots, plus one pair of hiking shoes. Go you. ^^

    [Reply]

  6. Alaina

    This is great. A testimony to the power of clothing.

    and three cheers for boots AND stomping!

    [Reply]

  7. Anonymous

    Boots and gender bending go hand-in-hand (foot?) for me; a certain radical queer and their ass-kicking boots (over itty-bitty feet) has permenantly entwined the two in my mind.

    [Reply]

  8. Taylor Trash

    I have more pairs of stompy boots than I can count. I remember in high school paring my grease covered workboots with a pink Little House on the Prairie-esque dress I bought from Goodwill. I love paring the ultra-masculine with the ultra-femme.

    [Reply]

  9. Len

    I love boots! Got two pairs of Steel Boots Rock Style, even wore them to prom. ;D

    [Reply]

  10. Poet

    I’ll trade you my stompy boots for chic boots any day you ask!

    [Reply]


Leave a Reply


Can I show your picture? If you have a Gravatar associated with this email address, it will be displayed as your photo. If not, I'll just put a picture of a fork next to your comment. Everybody likes forks.

Be nice. Judgmental comments will be quietly deleted and blacklisted. There's plenty of room for those elsewhere on the web.

For legal reasons, you must be age 13 or older to post a comment on Genderfork.

You can use some HTML tags for formatting, e.g. <em>...</em> for emphasis (italics) or <strong>...</strong> for strong emphasis (bold) or <a href="http://(url)">...</a> for links.


Back to top