Intersections

I like to think of myself (and other people) not as the embodiment of a particular personality-type or way of thinking, but as a site of struggle between different ideas, cultural norms and beliefs, and as such I believe that identity is not something pure but something constantly in flux, being constructed and reconstructed and negociated by your peers, your culture, your upbringing, the media, religion, politics and countless other things that can make us rethink ourselves in ways that can be big or small. The world is just too damn complex to have a rigid identity or belief system, and I think it is normal and healthy for individuals to have several, possibly conflicting opinions about any given thing rather than thinking they have it all worked out.

My thoughts on fashion are at the intersection between my flamboyant personality (which urges me to play dress-up), my feminism (which reminds me that I might be playing into the beauty myth), my awareness of class struggle (which reminds me not to ignore my privilege), my liberal Christianity (which tells me not to oppress others and warns against materialism), the media and fashion industry (which seduce me with images, textures, colours and beautiful clothes).

I also have different peer-groups which simultaneously conflict with and compliment the different intersections of my different thoughts on fashion, glamour and beauty. For a start, I'm dating a girl who, while she is naturally very attractive, has no interest in clothes or make-up, is very un-materialistic, rarely buys new clothes and is probably, in this respect, a pretty good influence on me. Her friends are all pretty much the same. They fulfill the feminist side of me that hates seeing women confined to limited, mainstream, impossible ideas of beauty and told that their looks are the most important thing about them. On the flip-side of the coin, I work for a cosmetics company where I'm surrounded by people who share my interest in clothes and make-up and who fulfil my flamboyant, fashionable side. If I hung out with my queer friends all the time I'd have the ideological side of me nourished but would be itching for some glamour. If I hung out with my work friends all the time I'd probably over time become more concerned with looks and start judging bad dressers and such.

Back in Northern Ireland I have friends who are more of a happy medium - just as interested in clothes as I am, but more likely to get them from Oxfam or a vintage clothes shop than from Zara or BCBG (probably cos they're all students, I might add). I've followed a similar arc to Courtney Love recently as far as style goes - I used to get a lot of really interesting clothes from thrift shops and was punk as all fuck, now I get equally interesting yet classier (and more expensive) stuff from Mango and French Connection, but am a bit of a sell-out. Hopefully this year I'll be able to restore myself to 'Live Through This' Courtney happy-mediumness.

I'll keep posting about and developing the various intersections in my thoughts on the subject, even if that means just linking to posts by others who have analysed it better than I could...