Helen_Highwater
03-03-2022, 11:30 AM
Had cause to nip into a small convenience store the other day. Waiting to pay a young male member of staff caught my eye. Couldn't really fail to as he was wearing the most striking of eye makeup. Dagger pointed black eyebrows, vivid blues for eye shadow all carefully, no beautifully crafted, the look was all but that you'd see on a drag queen.
I paid and left thinking how it wasn't that long ago this was something you'd never see in a local, small food store. I considered the first time he's ever done that. To have the courage to be out there, so striking for all to see. I'd loved to have taken a survey of just what the customers thought of encountering such an open display of someone's personality and you'd have to guess at sexuality. I also though, good on the store for employing him and I hope supporting him if some knuckle dragger gives him grief.
His actions do help our community. The more people see of this the less it has the power to shock, to create adverse reactions. It's the same for those of us who go out dressed and while the vast majority who do don't apply such dramatic eye makeup, our presence, our interactions help pave the way for ever more to follow as more people find out we're not to be feared and are like them, just human.
Anyway, I'm hoping that next time I have cause to go into the shop he's on the tills so I can get a really good look at his makeup. Tempting though it'll be I'd refrain from comment as he shouldn't be defined by his look.
I paid and left thinking how it wasn't that long ago this was something you'd never see in a local, small food store. I considered the first time he's ever done that. To have the courage to be out there, so striking for all to see. I'd loved to have taken a survey of just what the customers thought of encountering such an open display of someone's personality and you'd have to guess at sexuality. I also though, good on the store for employing him and I hope supporting him if some knuckle dragger gives him grief.
His actions do help our community. The more people see of this the less it has the power to shock, to create adverse reactions. It's the same for those of us who go out dressed and while the vast majority who do don't apply such dramatic eye makeup, our presence, our interactions help pave the way for ever more to follow as more people find out we're not to be feared and are like them, just human.
Anyway, I'm hoping that next time I have cause to go into the shop he's on the tills so I can get a really good look at his makeup. Tempting though it'll be I'd refrain from comment as he shouldn't be defined by his look.