Then I started working as a news writer for a women's fashion magazine in 2018, which had been a dream of mine since I was 6. There were a lot of knee-length flower situations. For a long time, I was worried that people would intuit I was bisexual unless I overcompensated, so I perpetually looked like spring was erupting out of me. Eventually I landed on a style I now refer to as "inoffensive hetero." It was…a lot of Ann Taylor, to be honest that SNL skit about " dressing like a fashion coward because you're a stranger to yourself" would have applied embarrassingly well. If a person doesn't place focus on it, bisexuality itself can translate to "passing" as straight. So, clothing was an excellent - and effective - way to hide. If I dressed too "sexy" or even too feminine, it would place me squarely on the bad side of the madonna-whore binary. Marten every now and then, it would be a dangerous signal of nonconformity.
If I dressed in any way that was masculine beyond a trendy Dr. The restriction of religion, both on my body (sex education was simple: no sex) and my sexuality (it wasn't homosexuality, it was sodomy, and you were definitely going to hell) was a different problem. Being gay (i.e., a loser) was a social death sentence, and I didn't need another reason for people to exclude me. "Gay" in my Catholic, all-girl, uniformed middle school just meant you were weird and had braces and didn't wear Hard Candy nail polish like the other girls.
In the '90s, we weren't really at a place to understand the definitions within the LGBT community, much less embrace difference. I was raised conservative, both religiously and socially. Did you know I’m bi? ? Mike Igoeįor a long time, I wanted to avoid any and all indications of my sexuality. The general advice if you want to "look" like a bisexual is to wear whatever you want (see also this hilarious Quora post on being your best, "bi-sexy" self), but lots of bisexuals find their own particular balance between masc and femme. It sometimes requires a bit of mental arithmetic if you want to signal who you are clearly through your clothing, short of wearing a shirt with the word "bisexual" on it - or in my case, clothes with rainbows and one shirt with a cheerful "Why Not Both?" emblazoned on the front. A bi person in a relationship with a masculine partner - as I am - might get labeled as straight unless we signify otherwise similarly, a bi person in a relationship with a feminine partner might get labeled as a lesbian. There's no "one" way to dress bi, and it's not as clearly defined as, say, butch and stud lesbians.
It's both the subject of light ribbing, thanks to ever-present meme culture - you love hoodies, flannel, or leather, always expose your ankles, and cuff your jeans and tuck in your shirts all of them except the flannel apply to me - and a way to de-erase ourselves from the queer community. Bisexual style, then, is an interesting kind of intersection. The post gained over 1,000 likes in two years.Intentional dressing can be a powerful form of expression and an important signifier. On November 29th, 2019, Instagram user deathrapco_ posted a similar meme, placing a logo of Honda motorcycles on the shirt (shown below, right). On November 25th, 2019, Instagram user c10movement posted the first known meme based on the cartoon, replacing the image on the shirt with a Ford logo and an image of a red Ford Mustang car, with the caption altered to "I like your gay pride shirt." The post received over 130 likes in two years (shown below, left). The first meme to use the cartoon as a template is unknown. On October 16th, 2019, Redditor pixxelzombie reposted the image to /r/funny subreddit, where it gained over 15,200 upvotes in two years. On October 13th, 2019, cartoonist Made by Jimbob posted a cartoon in which a woman compliments a man wearing a shirt with the cover art of the album The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd on it, saying, "I like your pride shirt." The cartoon (shown below) gained over 5,100 likes on Instagram and 330 reactions and 80 shares on Facebook in two years.