Everything your mother didn't have time to tell you because she was too busy struggling!
As a woman in her mid-forties, I have been looking on with increasing horror the societal moves towards blurring gender lines to the point of complete neutrality, or worse; guiding men to lean towards a more feminine identity. We see it more and more in company advertising, like Cover Girl bringing in men to be makeup models.
Concurrently I’m reading a multitude of social media posts from women lamenting how “today’s men want role reversals.” Men are not the men they used to be–strong, assertive, focused, masculine–who provide and protect. The world is quickly becoming a gradient of some type of version of a female.
In an article published (predictably) in the New York Times, fashion houses are becoming for “hip” to gender fluidity. Those who have observed and support the trend even say that traditional gender-specific clothing is so…”cis” and basically, boring.
It is that putative way of life, and its vast accompanying social media cohort, that has suddenly made the young models so attractive to advertisers. These companies are eager to court and capture a generation of consumers in which, according to a report prepared by the J. Walter Thompson innovation group, 50 percent personally know someone who identifies as gender fluid.
This gives totally new meaning to “clothes make the man.” If clothes can make them, then the style, cut and feminization of them that obviously be neutering.
My question is, are today’s men simply just OKAY with this trend? In five years, will it become commonplace to see a hetersexual man in the makeup section at CVS and demand that dresses in the women’s section be more square to accomodate a man’s lack of hips?
Who are these people pushing this? Do they REALLY want REAL, MASCULINE MEN like this to just…go away? Is this too “rapey” for them?
And young women, are you really OKAY with men of your generation doing this?
Compare the two. I just…can not. This is so beyond the scope of tolerance for the queer community. This is now imposing on “heteronormative” folks by shaming them for being behind the times. Reminds me of the time that a person on my Facebook timeline who suggested that if straight women wouldn’t date transgendered people and expressed a firm preference for biologically born men, they were bigots.
If this is what goes for a man these days, get me a bunch lesbian.
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“Author of Swirling. Advocate for black women finding love across color lines. Creator of The Pink Pill.”
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