2016 was a rough year, to say the least, and the bar is lowered for this year because of it. So what is the point of costumes in today's political climate? How can we even pretend everything is sunshine and rainbows for one day out of the year? How can we want to show our bodies when sexual harassment is encouraged? These are tough things to face but they are very real and not going away. We don't live in a perfect world but we sure as hell can imagine it and that's the power costumes have. Through our clothes and appearance, we gain the power of the image.
We can show the world what a black female president looks like or what a transgendered head of church would be like or how a republican who trusts science can run a government. Trust me, neither of them will look like what they try to sell you in those fucking plastic bags at the store.
A lot of people might feel that dressing up as these roles might demean them in some way. However, none of these things are out of the ordinary (even though a female president seems fucking mythical at this point). This is the power that images have. If we can visualize it then we can one day have it. Someone at one point thought of a sexy nurse costume and, while there are no real sexy nurses at hospitals, there are plenty of people that take on that identity in other formats. If we pretend to be president, that's almost half way there to the real thing because we have passed the first step of knowing it can exist.
So this is going to be 2017: A year of hopes, getting them dashed, getting angry about it, and not fucking backing down.
This is not a post about political agendas. This is about not seeing the representation we want and finding a way to make it true for ourselves. This is about having wishes and making them come true. Even if we never see the representation we want, our vision will at least spark the conversation of "why the hell not?"
We can show the world what a black female president looks like or what a transgendered head of church would be like or how a republican who trusts science can run a government. Trust me, neither of them will look like what they try to sell you in those fucking plastic bags at the store.
A lot of people might feel that dressing up as these roles might demean them in some way. However, none of these things are out of the ordinary (even though a female president seems fucking mythical at this point). This is the power that images have. If we can visualize it then we can one day have it. Someone at one point thought of a sexy nurse costume and, while there are no real sexy nurses at hospitals, there are plenty of people that take on that identity in other formats. If we pretend to be president, that's almost half way there to the real thing because we have passed the first step of knowing it can exist.
So this is going to be 2017: A year of hopes, getting them dashed, getting angry about it, and not fucking backing down.
This is not a post about political agendas. This is about not seeing the representation we want and finding a way to make it true for ourselves. This is about having wishes and making them come true. Even if we never see the representation we want, our vision will at least spark the conversation of "why the hell not?"
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