Jessica Sutich

Do Lesbians really order most of their clothes from LLBean? I think they look a little TOO sensible sometimes. I understand that you’re not trying to impress men but don’t you want to look sexy and (excuse the term) feminine anyway? I like a high heel. Do Lesbians ever wear high heels?

Okay, I will say right out of the gate here that I own some knee-high black leather boots and I really like them even though I know that at the end of the evening I will be nearly crippled from wearing them. They make me tall. I believe in my mind that I’m tall and these boots make that an actuality.

Some lesbians wear high heels, some would never wear high heels. Some go both ways. It’s like academic women. You might go onto a college campus and wonder where they have acquired all of their large jewelry and shapeless dresses. When you get your Ph. D., do you immediately get a huge discount on earth-tone shapeless dresses? No. Well actually, maybe. I don’t have my Ph. D. Remember though, lesbians might not be trying to impress men, but they are trying to impress each other so what might not be a sexy look to you may be a sexy look to someone else. Academic men might absolutely go crazy for a shapeless earth-tone dress.

L.L. Bean is a funny place. Why do the pants need to unzip to become shorts? Why are there some men out there who own wide-brimmed rain hats with a chin-strings. What nature show do they think they are on? I’m not sure but a certain type of man loves that hat. I think that the Bean demographic is more age-based than “lifestyle choice” based (with a Maine loophole). At this time in my life I don’t think that their jeans are appealing but maybe I’ll hit 40 and my girlfriend and I will get the same haircut and high-waisted jeans and cease to want to be appealing to anyone. At that point I won’t even realize that the younger me would be horrified. I will talk about the convenience of shopping on-line and their lifetime guarantee. Perhaps right now I should send old-me a postcard to remind me to look in the mirror and question my choices.

Straight couples do it too. Men and women will try to look good for each other and then they get married. Then they get complacent and they stop trying. I suspect that some men gladly cease to even pick their own clothing. Suddenly one day they are walking together wearing identical Martha’s Vineyard sweatshirts. Did they even see each other when they left the house? Maybe it is similar to seeing kids on a class trip who are all wearing the same t-shirts. Perhaps couples wear identical sweatshirts in an effort to not lose one another.

As for looking feminine I will say this. Society influences what our idea of femininity is. So in Western culture we say shave this, show this, cover this, etc. It seems like lesbians perhaps are shunning that style but that is only if you keep a very narrow view of femininity. I think that short hair and a fun Annie Hall look can be dreadfully sexy. Then again, I like men with a little eyeliner. I like everyone to slide into the middle of the gender bend. What can I say? Women who look confident in their style, I believe are sexy. I think that we need to allow for all of the different ways that people present themselves. I love a world with variety and the more open-minded that we are the broader we can define what feminine and masculine can be. Hold on, I am going to climb up on this soap box.

Cue some patriotic music. America is built on freedom and…hey where is everyone going. I have some great points to make here…

Well anyway, I have heels and I also have cargo shorts and I also mostly shop at the Gap because I can buy their cheap things from the sale rack.