Ladies, Is it Gay to Wear a Suit?

I ask y’all again: Ladies, is it gay to be out here wearing a suit? Yes, it does in fact make you gay. That’s why mascs and studs have been wearing suits since the Lavender Scare. Sadly, it seems that The New York Post just discovered ladies wearing suits and masculine styles and decided to blog about it.

As one of Jezebel’s Resident Gays, I have no choice but to respond. Strap in!

The “article” in the Post starts off bad: “Lesbi-honest, queer fashion is totally in!” In a time where discussions of queerness are being banned in classrooms and caregivers of trans youth are being investigated for child abuse, journalists and bloggers have a fucking duty to not treat queer people like they’re a costume to be tried on. (This duty also extends to every goddamn day, but that would be too much to ask of the Post.)

The Post’s article references a piece published by author Jill Gutowitz in Harper’s Bazaar titled “Sapphic Style Is Going Mainstream.” The piece is adapted from her new essay collection, Girls Can Kiss Now, and talks about her experience of gayness in the modern era. Gutowitz’s original piece is insightful—asking people to remember that the Bush years of calling us all dykes for liking Tracy Chapman wasn’t long ago—and discusses how clothing can make you feel like the person you’re always meant to be. Instead of being an invitation to examine how your clothes make you feel (my girlfriend and I have started asking if an item brings us “gender euphoria,” for example), the Post’s aggregation of Gutowitz’s essay grossly flattens LGBTQ people into a trend to be used and discarded, quoting straight girls who have embraced masculine dressing after decades of society punishing studs and mascs for daring to wear menswear in public.

Congrats to all the straights being freed of dresses, if that’s what you want and need. I hope the next step y’all take is being freed of all gender roles society insists on pressing onto you.