People don’t seem to be able to look past the artistry on my face and it stops them in their tracks. My relationship with it is so intense because it’s my favourite part of myself, but it’s also the most prominent reason that I received public prejudice.
It’s ‘intimidating’. It’s ‘too much’. It’s ‘unnecessary’. It’s ‘bizarre’. And what I’ve learnt from that reaction is that you can never be too much.
When you live in a world that doesn’t listen to you and marginalises your existence and look until it’s ‘profitable’, you can never be too much. Ever.
For queer people, and especially trans and non-binary people, our aesthetics and public visualisation is an act of political disruption.
We exist in a world where we are told not to, or where we are made to feel like we shouldn’t exist, hence why our aesthetics are so important.
It’s not just bold for bold’s sake. It’s a powerful statement that we are here, and we aren’t going to change.
Of course, there are trans and non-binary people who express themselves in their own way that isn’t so loud and bright and that’s absolutely valid.
But what’s important to remember is when cis people ask us why we express ourselves this way, it’s the exact same thing that they’re doing, just in their binary way.
>When people decide to present traditionally, in the sense of men stepping out the door in their three-piece suits, or when women throw on a little black dress and pumps, it’s the exact same as me.
We are presenting ourselves in a gendered, or not so gendered, way. It’s not our fault though that they just choose to do it so boringly.
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