Thinly veiled ad for supermarket clothes makes out that dressing just like thousands of ordinary women is a brave, exciting statement of non-binary identity

[Vermeil]

www.stylist.co.uk/fashion/gender-identity-…clothing-choices/429403?fbclid=IwAR0BkrvE6eF-xDxOiN-tioRTk8q5L3yq6FnAdtKtqF8Gd9eJf1WPHhKFJLo

Came across this on FB and found it incredibly irritating. Can someone please explain to me how wearing ordinary supermarket clothes that wouldn’t warrant a second glance in the street is actually a brave and exciting expression of non-binary identity? 🤷‍♀️

Hang on, so, buying clothes in a supermarket has become an act of revolution?

Cos, I'm dressed by "can also get milk and bread at this shop".

Didn't realise I was channelling my inner Eva Peron.

Oh yay I've been non binary for years if all I need is jeans and a jumper.

I plait my hair occasionally so I'm 100% in the club.

I'm wearing essentially the same thing as her today AND I'm wearing a hell of a lot less makeup AND my hair is shorter than hers, so I win the non-binary competition!

Must be a right mindfuck trying to buy a jumper or t shirt in a charity shop. Usually nobody knows or cares if that garment was intended for a man or a woman (or a non binary person).
What happens when there’s no gender yardstick to superimpose identity requirements onto? That would almost amount to Tervishness surely...

Somebody said before that rebelling for teenagers in the future would be having impeccable manners, being a prefect and (I’ve forgotten the other thing!), I wonder then if this “non-binary” look is an antithesis to the heavily made up, very revealing/sexualised clothing some girls wear? Someone else mentioned they were clothes that made you blend into the background/rendered you invisible too

Eyes opening yes but unlike in the previous decades

The idea is you're opting out of being female

And accepting that all the other girls/women are 2D stereotypes.

In short. Regressive.

Also it misses a whole load of stuff around. Changing through your life.

I enjoy getting 'dressed up' for work. Make up. Fancy clothes. Used to have some really quirky gorgeous heels.

But I hated being dressed up like a dolly by my mum. And in teens - 90s- it was fine to wear jeans etc on the alternative scene I loved.

Where is the play? The fun? Loads of people enjoy experimenting with colour/ clothes/ makeup/ hair/ jewellery. Men and women.

Where is the flexibility and discovery?

Gone.

That's a loss for young people imo.

And it all seems to be based in consumerism.

No. Ooh I'd look awesome in a people Cape. Ha! I'm trawling the charity shops/ making one.

Nope.

Rebel by getting a really standard boring as fuck jumper from a mainstream shop.

So fucking edgy!

That coat from tu at the end of the article was nice.

Although I don't think it's a non binary coat. It's a women's coat.

She isn't a teenager. She is the same person as in the links I posted to the basketball player. Her date of birth is on a basketball site- she was born in September 1992.

Other information on the basketball site might also explain the public comments/ laughing. She is well above average height for a woman and slightly above average height for a man. I can imagine people being stupid and cruel enough to make fun of that.

Ah. Ok. She's chosen the wrong locus for the shit she gets.

Understandable.

So sad she wants to go under the radar than fucking OWN IT.

up to her obviously.

But saying woah non binary etc rather than saying. I'm unusually tall for a woman and I get loads of shit for it. Is still a cop out.

Reminds me of the 90s when style mags were pushing beige as the hot new thing.

@NiceGerbil

Eyes opening yes but unlike in the previous decades

The idea is you're opting out of being female

And accepting that all the other girls/women are 2D stereotypes.

In short. Regressive.

Also it misses a whole load of stuff around. Changing through your life.

I enjoy getting 'dressed up' for work. Make up. Fancy clothes. Used to have some really quirky gorgeous heels.

But I hated being dressed up like a dolly by my mum. And in teens - 90s- it was fine to wear jeans etc on the alternative scene I loved.

Where is the play? The fun? Loads of people enjoy experimenting with colour/ clothes/ makeup/ hair/ jewellery. Men and women.

Where is the flexibility and discovery?

Gone.

That's a loss for young people imo.

Yeah, I don’t buy the whole (not just for her) non-binary thing, I’m just wondering if they think that if they aren’t like the heavily made up and revealing clothing girls, then they can’t be girls, but they think we’ll I’m not a boy either so and then latch on to non-binary. Not every girl is into experimenting with clothes and make-up, she seems more into sport. I don’t know too much about non-binary, do they tend to do things like breast binding/surgery too?

It’s just all so humourless. Wear clothes, have some fun, it doesn’t all have to be absolutely LADEN WITH IMPORT.

I laugh at you because you’re all the same, coupled with the glaring “not like the other girls” might go quite a long way towards explaining why they feels like an outsider.

Being tall is neither here nor there, really. I am very tall, but shopping in the men’s department or nicking my husbands jumpers doesn’t make me non binary. Or does it....😱

The worrying part of this is that she feels that perfectly ordinary clothes are some kind of statement. What weird pressure was she under previously? Expected to wear heels, a dress and makeup all the time?

Hmm. In some ways, being a tall girl can mess with you a bit. I'm only 5.10", but I spent my youth "being a boy" in dance classes, being asked if I played basketball (nooooo, hate it actually), getting passed over for drama parts because the male lead was smaller than me and there were so many more girls than boys in drama, watching my smaller classmates get crushed on and asked out, etc. At 13/14/15/16, this all felt quite significant to me.

But by 17, I'd flown the nest and gone to uni. I met more tall girls and we used to all go out in heels together, loudly and happily letting everyone know we were out looking for men well over 6". I actually started attracting people who liked that I'm tall.

I hope this particular enby gets comfortable with her height and (perfectly normal) clothing and doesn't have to keep feeling like they make her not female. And if she just means that enby = not super "tiny pink & fluffy feminine," well join the damned club, sister.

Why was they ( I’m sorry, the GC grammar actually hurts) not wearing clothes from the men’s section?

I’m more non-binary than they are as I buy and wear, depending on whose wardrobe I race, men’s clothes and clothes for teenage girls and teenage boys. M&S boys shoes go up to a size 7 and no tax.

Isn’t women’s basketball full of tall sporty women ? I’m wondering why they felt like such an outsider.

Yes 5’10” is taller that average but it’s not that unusual in sport.

I’ve been at many youth national and international level sporting events and all the players and coaches wear tracksuits off court. No one is in dresses and heels. ( This is a different sport but I can’t imagine it’s any basketball ).

It’s seems that the people and world they are rebelling against are all in their head.

Why would you take up sport to get away from “ having to have boyfriends “ when you are 9 years old?

And why someone shouted at them in the Street because of what they were wearing ? As everyone else has said, their clothes are boringly average.

She sees to have created this imaginary world where everyone is against her So she hates them and she is special and unique.

It’s quite sad really.

Sorry I realise I’ve used “ she “ by mistake in the last para.

Also YY is she ready to be tackled for cultural appropriation for her hair?

When I saw this yesterday, the one and only comment on the Facebook post amusingly made the same point.

Finally located this article. It's so dull. I love that coat though!

5ft 10 is tall for a woman but not ridiculously so. I had several friends who were that and taller and never got negative comments.

Was she stumbling round in heels and floral dresses before? They look great but that’s just how I (a woman) dress!

That’s the only way I can fathom that they could have transitioned from the 1950s, when jeans and a jumper might have been a bit of a racy choice for a well brought up young lady, to this years high street.

1910s more like.

Here’s Marilyn in her jeans...

OK, I get it, I get it, jeans were common in the fifties

I’ve been gravely misled in childhood by my mum, who was brought up in the fifties in a small town and has never owned a pair in her life. I am corrected now

I’m taller than our brave hero/ine and while it is true that it seems to make you an easier target for street harassment, as you’re just more visible, I wouldn’t say I’ve had a massively greater volume of it than shorter friends.