Label Queens
In the traditional sense of the word, a label queen is someone who has to wear designer clothing. It is a testament to the fact that I am not a label queen that I'm not even sure I can name more than one or two designer labels. Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch don't count. I don't know any gay man who hasn't drooled over their ads. Brand name recognition in this case has little to do with the clothes. Let's see there's Armani. And the guy with the square shoes. Oh, yeah. Kenneth Cole. Ummmm...Tommy Hilfiger. I'm sure if I sat and thought long enough I could come up with some more.
Label Queens in the traditional sense are, at worst, amusing. There is, however, another kind of label queen that I generally find irritating. It's generally something more human than specifically gay: the need to label people and put them in neat boxes. I get rather tired of people trying to categorize me and make me fit into some predefined box. I have a hairy chest, but I don't like being called a bear. I'm not butch. I'm not nellie. I'm just me. I'm not terribly fussy about my decor. I do like having fresh flowers on the table. I have been a fan of Cher and ABBA for as long as I can remember. I also like Def Leppard, ZZ Top, Bon Jovi and Tomoyasu Hotei. I like staying in a fancy hotel. I spend at least a week every year backpacking or canoeing and sleeping in a tent. I did drag for Halloween once. I don't see myself ever doing it again, but I love a good drag show. I have a couple shirts which can't get much gayer. One is an electric blue flower print that is fitted and is gathered ever so slightly at the shoulders. And let me tell you: it looks fabulous on me. Today, however, I'm wearing flannel. Brian would be horrified, I am sure.
Categorizing people in any one of a million possible ways seems foreign to me. Maybe it's because I was guilty of doing that very thing for so long attempting to hide my sexuality and justify my existence and most of my attitudes from that time in my life seem foreign to me now. Maybe it's just because I find the intricacies that make up a person fascinating. Maybe it's because it's most often used as a tool for dismissing someone without even getting to know them. I'm not even really sure where I'm trying to go with this. Is there a point? I think I'm just ranting so I'll stop now.