The Only Look You Can Rock, Sometimes
Over at Flesh’s place, they’re talking about the Emo look. Someone said Emo boys look cool but Emo girls look like Where’s Waldo. I said I thought the Emo girls’ traditional garb was retro dresses. But I could be wrong.
I love the hipster (Emo?) girls who wear retro dresses and chunky shoes, who dye their hair black and have eyeglass frames to match. I wish *I* could dress like that. But I can’t, because it’s really hard to find enough retro clothes that fit to last me through the weeks. Having tried, I know.
Better than the hipster girl look, I love the anime girl look. If I thought I could get away with it, I’d wear short skirts with long socks and put my hair up in long pigtails with chrysanthemum or maribou ornamentation. Or I’d just wear schoolgirl plaid, day in and out, with big, mean platform boots and geometrically painted eyes, so that perverts would be scared to harass me on the subway.
But I can’t do that. I’m too big. I’m big and round, like grapes.
The only look I can efficiently rock is “ghetto fabulous”, it seems. If I want my pants to get mamacita tight, all I need to do is have a bagel for breakfast. My natural nails are already long – all I need to do is glue on the rhinestones I happen to have in my vanity drawer.
Something compels me to rim my eyes with catty darkness. Because I work for a corporation, I restrict the Cleopatra liner to dark brown or gray instead of the black ink I wore in high school.
All my earrings are hoops. I force myself to keep them small. The big ones are hidden in the bottom of the box. And I want them to grow even bigger.
You can’t fight your roots, maybe. My hair is walking the line between “dramatic highlights” and “tacky-ass peroxide job.” And I love it, roots and all.
In another life, I will be a Sailor Moon. In the life after that, I’ll be Lisa Loeb. After that, I’ll switch to Lesbian retro-cowgirl, then the reincarnation of Jackie O.
Until then, I’ll work with what I’ve got. Happily. Unless, of course, they start making school uniforms in my size…
