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rmPride was awesome. We're tired from too much sun and too much dancing on concrete, but it was awesome. We planned well, we ate good food after, and Patty cracked me up, wearing a sticker she got from the Bears and saying, with great frequency "I'm a bear, grrr." This entertained not just me, but also pretty much everyone we interacted with, including the clerk at Trader Joe's.
I did note that the groups that were massive in the parade maybe a decade ago, barely seemed to exist now. The Bears numbered about twenty, the Leather Men were even fewer; in the parade of various religions, I didn't even see a pagan group (unless you count Radical Faeries) and the poly group was tiny. We didn't stay to the end, so maybe we missed certain groups, but it felt like everyone had dispersed into political causes this year, which isn't a bad thing. But it was the first time since the late-80s and early-90s, when the parade was so about the AIDS crisis, that it felt quite like this.
There were levels on which I was glad for the politics. But I did also miss the level of hot, mostly naked making out I remembered from the last couple of years. Which brings me to another point: way more sexual displays from lesbian floats this year, which I also liked, as I really do have a problem with this idea both from within and without the gay community that men party and are hot and women doing politics and scold.
There were also larger and more vocal transpeople groups this year.
General notes -- if you're representing something really specific with a small group, dress well! Choose clothes that fit you! They don't have to be formal or expensive, but man, the amount of slovenly stuff I saw on people who would have no problem finding affordable off-the-rack clothes that would fit them well and represent their thing (butches, I'm looking at you) MADE ME CRAZY.
At the dance, it rained right before we got there, and there was an actual massive rainbow in the skyline! The music wasn't my thing (not because it was modern, but because it was more hiphop than I can really get into), but it was still good to move, and I danced like a lunatic to a ridiculous mix of Michael Jackson stuff, not because I particularly liked it, but because it was familiar and easy.
Patty, btw, is ridiculously hot on the dance floor.
I did note that the groups that were massive in the parade maybe a decade ago, barely seemed to exist now. The Bears numbered about twenty, the Leather Men were even fewer; in the parade of various religions, I didn't even see a pagan group (unless you count Radical Faeries) and the poly group was tiny. We didn't stay to the end, so maybe we missed certain groups, but it felt like everyone had dispersed into political causes this year, which isn't a bad thing. But it was the first time since the late-80s and early-90s, when the parade was so about the AIDS crisis, that it felt quite like this.
There were levels on which I was glad for the politics. But I did also miss the level of hot, mostly naked making out I remembered from the last couple of years. Which brings me to another point: way more sexual displays from lesbian floats this year, which I also liked, as I really do have a problem with this idea both from within and without the gay community that men party and are hot and women doing politics and scold.
There were also larger and more vocal transpeople groups this year.
General notes -- if you're representing something really specific with a small group, dress well! Choose clothes that fit you! They don't have to be formal or expensive, but man, the amount of slovenly stuff I saw on people who would have no problem finding affordable off-the-rack clothes that would fit them well and represent their thing (butches, I'm looking at you) MADE ME CRAZY.
At the dance, it rained right before we got there, and there was an actual massive rainbow in the skyline! The music wasn't my thing (not because it was modern, but because it was more hiphop than I can really get into), but it was still good to move, and I danced like a lunatic to a ridiculous mix of Michael Jackson stuff, not because I particularly liked it, but because it was familiar and easy.
Patty, btw, is ridiculously hot on the dance floor.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 08:23 pm (UTC)I've managed once to entrust pants to a tailor to have them hemmed up, and it took nearly literal hand-holding from a partner because it was scary for me. Different class background. I have a whole laundry basket of stuff that needs mended/tailored. I don't mend or tailor, so it sits. But the idea of going to some random dry cleaner and asking them to do it either feels wasteful or gives me the class-based heebie jeebies.
So, while I appreciate that they might make for better photo ops if they had Queer Eye smack them around first, seeing people in the parade that aren't well-tailored might be welcoming to people like, well, me.
(I know, this is about your general pet peeve of people not knowing how to deal with clothes. Guilty as charged!)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 08:29 pm (UTC)A lot of this stuff freaks me out too, but largely because I know the rules and the tailors know the rules, and then I come in and ask for things that would make perfect sense -- if I had a man in tow.
I also think a lot of my knowledge of this stuff doesn't come from class backgorund (although that's some of it), but the fact that growing up a dancer, I was a mimic -- "how do I make my body look like that?" and when it wasn't steps, it was clothes, so I studied the details, often compulsively.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 01:55 am (UTC)Also, definitely harder outside New York. When I lived in the Phoenix area I just literally didn't know where to go for anything more complex than hemming. (I live in Taipei now and have just had four shirts and a dress made for me! I'm very excited about this and am considering going back for more.)