Seen in the wild

[SamphiretheTervosaurReturneth]

OK. Now I am amused, confused, bemused

Went to a student house today, 2 tenants met me.

One was dressed like Holly Hobby. Pink ruffled pinafore dress, long hair tied up with a matching hair bow, ruffled ankle socks, Mary Jane shoes and a little gathered bag, also matching the dress, hanging from her wrist with a bow.

Cute and very retro I thought

Other tenant was pretty much Sporty Spice

Then apropos of nothing, I hadn't even asked their names, Holly Hobby says "I am non binary, you can call me They/Them"

I smiled and got on with the job "Is there anything you would like to report to the landlord?"

Holly Hobby stomped out of the house.

Sporty tells me, with an eye roll, I should have phrased that "Is there anything you/they/them would like to report to the landlord?"

I am afraid I laughed and said "but you were both here, talking directly to me, that's weird" and then got on with the job.

I am still trying to work it out. But maybe there is no sense in it?

When I was that age I had a variety of styles. It would be whole outfits, rather than mix and match IYSWIM.

Luckily no need for anyone except me to need to adjust according to what I was wearing!

Oh dear OP you ruined it. They wanted to shock you and for you to ask about non binary so she could get all afronted and triggered but you just carried on as normal. Poor Holly you didn't play her game.

Was HH into the Lolita subculture do you think?

I never wanted "old" people, shops, corporations or government departments to get into my various subcultures when I was young. The whole point was for it not to belong to them!

They/them needs to learn about the difference between second and third person pronouns.

Fucking numpties.

Oooh! She did have a breathy little voice... I now wonder what her chosen name is! I may find out later when the Agent shares the report with them!

Holly Hobby would be a daft choice to make in that case though! I am not kidding. Pinafore dress with a pinny built in. Layered and frilly, stopped just above the knee. Little white frilled socks and pink Mary Janes. The Hanky bag and ribbon, like an old fashioned pocket/bag topped it off. The only thing she didn't have was the bonnet!

At least the actual Holly Hobby wore boots. (I may or may not have had a poster on my wall...)

Their outfit sounds more like the Grayson Perry look.

Probable 'age player'. Should have probably also asked what age they/you/them identified as. If that is you didn't have a life and things to do rather than be a prop in their.thems game.

It's a Japanese fashion called sweet Lolita.

See now, that is a look I can appreciate. Lots of frippery.

Bloody hell.

You binary-fetishising beast, Samphire. You realise you have literally killed poor Holly?

Oh great. Let’s all celebrate paedophilia.

"I am non binary, you can call me They/Them"

Wait a mo...
If HH objected to the second person, unsexed, singular or plural 'you' being applied to HHself and sporty, shouldn't HH also have refrained from using the conventional first person 'I' and 'me'?

It’s compelled speech and it’s all about power.

I particularly fail to understand the young women who dress in very stereotypically feminine ways, dresses, long we’ll groomed hair and shit loads of make up ( or even cartoonishly feminine like HH) and then announce they are neither male or female and are they/thems. Why present as stereotypically feminine and female in your appearance and then demand everyone pretends not to notice this, through forced pronouns?!

It would be so amusing to see a whole gang of middle aged to ancient women doing the "sweet Lolita" look. Say in a pub somewhere trendy like... I don't know, where is trendy now? Shoreditch, Dalston, Spitalfields, Hackney?

My dd's bf (14) has a really interesting insight on the current identity trends of today's generation, which blew my mind a fair bit!

He's really into his music and it's sociological impact over the years. We got talking about how music for previous generations was key in forming a whole identity and community for youths for each generation (mods, rockers in the 50s and 60s, punks, new romantics in the 70s and 80s, goths and emo in the 90s and 00 etc.)

He blew me away when he said he thinks the reason so many young people are getting hooked up on stuff like gender identity, cos play etc is there aren't any 'music' subcultures in schools/ universities anymore.
Thanks to Spotify etc making pretty much all music universal and available to all, there isn't a common glue to bring people together and give them something to identify with.
He said in school today, its more likely all your friends will like different music, and there definitely isn't a whole culture attached to the music in the same way it used to.
And as young people are still experiencing the coming of age 'identity crisis' and looking for a 'community' to belong to, gender stuff etc is filling that void for many people.

I think he's really onto something there. I know for me personally , music subcultures were absolutely everything for me as a young person.

And their counterparts, the NB beardy blokes.

Maybe she thought you’d mistaken her for Little Bo Peep and was offended at your use of “ewe”.

This is something I’ve long thought to be true.

I also think previous generations of kids have shocked their parents with their fashion choices- I remember my mum getting all pearl clutchy when I went Goth at age 12. Punk fashion and piercings, tattoos, unnatural hair colours were all once considered by older people as ugly and shocking, now they’re passé, so kids have to find a new way to dress to frighten the squares. Hence often hideous trans fashion sense, which seems to borrow in equal measures from a preschool TV show and a BDSM catalogue.

Lolita fashion is not new- it’s been around for over twenty years in Japan and favours a Victorian doll look. It’s become more popular in the West thanks to the internet the easier and cheaper availability of the clothes via Chinese fashion websites. AGPs tend to like it because it fits into their sissy fetishes.

Be prepared for HH to make a complaint about you, to your boss if you have one, OP.

It's how these eejits operate.

If she complains I would say you meet tons of customers in a day and can’t remember the interaction but you were probably just concentrating on your job.

I was on a train recently and there was a young woman dressed how you described, like Alice in wonderland but not fancy dress - very conspicuous even in a big city. She got off the train and I was not far behind her.
Lo and behold! A massive group of young people all dressed like anime. They were in the park for a picnic bless their little polyester socks.
I was a punk, I'd have been one of these now but hopefully without the massive attention seeking pronoun/NB showtime!