30-Day Blogging Challenge
Day 6 Prompt: Masks Off
We’re less than a week away from Halloween! If you had to design a costume that channeled your true, innermost self, what would that costume look like? Would you dare to wear it?
I was going to write about sweatpants, but I have written about this before on Facebook. So I’ll paste what I shared as a Facebook status in January:
The word that best expresses my gender is “Sweatpants.”
I feel most like myself when I’m in sweatpants. The first thing I do when I get home is put sweatpants on. Other ways of expressing my gender feel like drag. I want to be perceived by others as a person who wears sweatpants and challenge cultural assumptions about sweatpants-wearers. They are an important part of my identity, and when I’m fortunate and in comfortable places where people aren’t too judgmental, I can express this identity.
Yesterday I answered the door for the pizza delivery guy in a full sweatsuit. I felt like he saw me for who I truly am. (Interestingly, on the man/woman perception thing, he went for “sir” then tried “ma’am” and finished with a “thanks, man.” I thought to myself, That’s right, dude. I am a sweatpants-wearer, and I just blew your mind.)
Other people have other gender identities, and I don’t know how mine fits in, but this really feels like me. To be more precise, my preferred gender expression includes a 100% cotton navy blue t-shirt, black or dark grey sweatpants (although jeans are okay sometimes), and sneakers. If it’s hot out, gym shorts. Where that puts me on the gender label spectrum, I don’t know. Limitations of the spectrum, perhaps–needs a sweatpants dimension?
As far as I know, there are no preferred pronouns for this gender. #radicalgenderqueer #sweatpantspride #genderfuck