It took me a long time to learn that personal style can be a mode of gender presentation and performance, but it doesn’t mean you have to allow your clothing to gender you. You can wear a dress and not be a woman, for example, and you  can play with that and create jarring visuals by changing the way you style your hair or which accessories you wear. You can wear combat boots with a tutu or you can show up at a fancy event in full-on high femme drag.

Some people say I don’t do femme right, or that I am not succeeding in going for a feminine look, to which I say “bollocks,” because there is no “right” way to be femme, nor am I cultivating a feminine appearance. Femme is a huge, diverse, complex, fascinating method of self-expression and it covers a huge range of identities.

Femme can be fierce and sharp and taloned and ferocious and ANGRY! It can also be demure and lacy with ruffles and a warm smile.

(via kiriamaya)