Everyone thinks im gay because of how i dress

With lockdown entering its twelfth week and every Netflix show on my list binged to completion, I did something that I vowed I would never do; I downloaded TikTok. With over 4. What does gay look like?

“But you don’t look gay”—Queer fashion and nightlife

And should we be enforcing aesthetic binaries based on sexuality? There are many styles that can immediately identify its wearer within a certain cultural or religious group; orthodox Jews, for example, are often visually recognisable when they wear traditional religious clothes— yarmulkes, and payots are particularly characteristic.

Whilst the LGBT community is firmly established within modern society, it is not as uniform or prescriptive as a religion. As a movement loosely built around ideas of individuality and self-acceptance, there are no rigid requirements for how to present as queer. To some individuals, environment is crucial to assuming sexuality.

Not only do we run the risk of perpetuating stereotypes, but we make ourselves vulnerable to prejudice and, in some cases, violence. Queer people must rely on contextual factors—and even then, assuming sexuality is a slippery slope. Why fashion has work to do in dismantling systemic racism.

Whilst straight-looking men are handled with suspicion, bouncers are often more lenient towards groups of women. To some straight people, the gay village is still wrapped in taboo, and becomes a kind of safari where drag queens and drug culture abound. This means that flirting as a queer woman in a queer space is not as straightforward as it should be, and requires us to fall back into making appearance-based assumptions.

Despite its emphasis on individuality and self-acceptance, those who are new to the LGBT community still face the challenge of fitting in. To achieve this, I dressed extremely butch because I thought that was the only way I could present as queer—snapbacks, joggers, trainers—I looked a mess.

Does she simply have a predilection for Doc Martens, padlock necklaces and obnoxious second hand blouses? Or has her style been tailored to convince club bouncers to let her through the doors? Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead. In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

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