Dressing Up

I love Eurovision.  I know I'm a bit late to the discussion - it was over a week ago that everyone was discussing Conchita Wurst's win for Austria and how proud everyone was of the world for being liberal enough to vote a drag act as number one in the world. However, I'm not sure the commentators had the right to get quite so excited. Eurovision has always been the 'campest show on earth'.  It is watched by people who enjoy 'that sort of thing' and it is only the poor journalist, commissioned to write the piece after who really doesn't get it.  Those of us who watch it regularly give our own extra points for glittery dresses, pyrotechnics, changes of costume, unusual use of instruments and other random categories that have nothing to do with the music but everything to do with the 'show'.

Tom Neuwith

They all seem to be forgetting about Dana International too. The shock seems to have arisen because of the beard. The world was talking:  "Is it a bearded lady?" " A well tucked and taped man?" or a "Transsexual, who hasn't quite got their drugs right?"  The world doesn't like not knowing someone's gender.  I can't help thinking that if we had a truly equal society then it wouldn't matter.

Men just aren't allowed to wear dresses or skirts without somehow declaring themselves as less of a man.  They have to become a woman.  I would have been so much more impressed if the Austrian entry had been beautiful Tom Neuwith, looking like Jesus in a sparkly frock singing a corrupted Bond Theme, instead of the same with made up a 'sausage' name - just in case we didn't get it.

This weekend we took my son to reserve a hire suit for his prom.  I commented to the man with the proper 'suits you sir' hairstyle that this dressing for prom was so much easier for boys.

Fast Show - Is this hairstyle compulsory for suit sellers?

He agreed and commented on the waste of girls only wearing their dresses once.  The Long Suffering Husband laughed and said that we still had our daughter's dress and had offered it to our son to wear for prom.   Although everybody had laughed heartily as the LSH's suggestion I wondered how we would have felt if our son had said, "You know what, Dad?  That's a brilliant idea.  Pink is just my colour and I think it would really suit me.  I've always wanted to dress as a princess."  He would obviously have to be very brave to do it and then everyone would question his sexuality but what if he just liked the dress?  Why can't boys just wear a dress if they want?  Men are really missing out on the whole dress thing, especially the jersey dress.  I know it's only a small step from the floral skirt with the elasticated waistband, comfortable shoes and padded gilet with straw in the pocket but really wearing a jersey dress (especially in summer) is just the most comfortable thing.

In the Times this weekend there was an article about 100 boys in Nantes, France who had worn a skirt to school to battle French Sexism.  I wonder how many thought they'd like to wear a skirt again but wouldn't have to courage to do so on a 'normal' day.

When I was at primary school we had separate boys and girls playgrounds and two boys, who had joined us for skipping were made to wear a skirt for the rest of the day as a punishment.  They were told, "If you want to be girls, you must go the whole way."  I'm surprised they didn't make them change their names and tape their willies beyond view.  (They might have done, as I can't remember what the boys were called anyway) I remember being a bit upset about it at the time, as I had wanted the boys to join us in the skipping game  (they were much better than me at making up rude rhymes) and when I told my parents they were horrified that the boys had been made to wear skirts.  I wondered if skirts were bad and if they were then why did us girls have to wear them, after all they were terribly impractical for someone like me who spent most of my spare time upside down.  My sister hated dresses so much that she covered her pretty dress, chosen for a wedding, in creosote.  Now, however, I realise that there is nothing wrong with dresses or skirts (although my sister still doesn't like them) but there still seems to be something wrong with being female.

Another headline in the Times this weekend said, "Am I man enough to take on an allotment?" *sigh*
It turns out that after 14 years as an allotment holder, sometimes working my plot in a dress then answer is that I am man enough!  Maybe if this author wore a dress then he would be able to grow broad beans and potatoes too.