elierlick:

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the double bind of fashion that queer and trans women are put into. For queer women, dressing too masculinely means we’re ugly. Dress too femininely and we’re not really queer. For trans women, dressing to masculinely means we’re not really women and merely invading lesbian spaces. On the other hand, dressing femininely means that we’re trying “too hard,” fetishizing women, and not queer. There is no way to win aside from pushing back against these narratives and sharing our own stories instead. Our identities, journeys, and aesthetics are always already valid. But we have to let others know that is the case while building our movements and legitimacy.