At the theatre
Submitted by J, the model.
“As I get older I find that what I miss most about being young is my naturally androgynous youthful self. These were taken in 1985 on a visit to a historic Art Deco theatre. It’s been a long time since people couldn’t figure out whether I was a girl or a boy.”
Posted by omggeek on August 5th, 2011 at 04:00 pm
Category: faces 5 comments »
August 5th, 2011 at 8:06 pm |
You are amazing. These are really beautiful, but your story kind of terrifies me. I know that someday I will be in your shoes, and I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do about it. How do you handle that change in people’s perception of you?
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J replied:
August 14th, 2011 at 11:20 am
I don’t have any good advice. I’m over 40 now, and am heavier, and I’ve had more physical development in areas where I never wanted it. I have found it is almost too much effort to be more like myself and have fallen into more gendernormative habits of dress, because the things i want to wear just don’t suit the body I have anymore.
I find myself a little jealous of folks in my age group who haven’t had the degree of physical change to cope with that I have had.
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August 5th, 2011 at 9:20 pm |
I have been loosing a lot of sleep over this lately. I feel like I used to look a lot more naturally androgynous, and now it’s a very conscious effort. At the same time, I’m finding it hard to present as both gender-neutral and adult. People either see only my physical sex as a young adult or see me as an androgynous teenager.
Just the other day a flight attendant gave me that familiar trying-to-figure-out-if-you’re-a-boy-or-girl look before asking if I was old enough to be sitting in an exit row (in the US, that means under 15). I’m 24.
Does anyone have advice for androgynous adulthood?
[Reply]
Anonymous replied:
August 18th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
On androgynous adulthood, I know it is cliche but, Kate Moennig is always a good source and reference. The key to it is looking really “put together” in what you wear like nice button ups, ties, blazers, etc. not saying put them all together at the same time but like nice “classy” looking blazer that fits well with your favorite T-Shirt kind of thing. Anyway it is the change over I just made and my best friend said she loved it and I looked older and not like I was in high school anymore so yeah. Hope it was helpful.
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August 18th, 2011 at 9:06 pm |
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