activism, advice, career, clothes, clothing, community, everyone is gay, kristin russo, lgbt, lgbt advice, work, workplace
"I just got a crazy promotion at work. I’m super excited about it, but now I have to wear FANCY clothes. Everyone I work with is amazing, but we have clients from all over and I’m worried because I’m a lesbian and I prefer mens fancy clothes, I’ll make them uncomfortable… help?"
- Question submitted by Anonymous
Dannielle Says:
Here’s the thing.
If you got promoted and all of a sudden had to start wearing a taco costume, you’d feel uncomfortable and you wouldn’t be able to do your job JUSTICE. This is basically the same thing. You should wear what makes you feel comfortable.
THIS IS THE WAY I FEEL ABOUT LIFE. The way you dress / the way you feel in the clothes you wear is so important. It doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks, if you feel confident and comfortable you will BE CONFIDENT AND COMFORTABLE and people will respond to that.
Clients from all over will be like “That CHEESESTICK was so in the game! WE’LL TAKE IT!” (that was me assuming your name is CheeseStick and assuming you sell vending machines). There is no way they’ll say “Wow, cheesestick was so cool and knew exactly what was up but OH MAN DID YOU SEE THAT BUTTON UP.” …. that doesn’t even make sense. OH AND PS: Everyone you work with is down?!?!?! Come on!!! You got promoted because YOU (and that includes the YOU that wears men’s fancy clothes) YOUUUUU are the best human for the job.
Feel good about the clothes you put on your body and you won’t even have to think about how great you are at your job, it’ll just flow naturally.
Kristin Says:
F*ck to the YES.
I love love love love love the point Dannielle made about the fact that YOUR ASS GOT PROMOTED BY BEING THE HUMAN YOU ALREADY ARE. *fist pump**headbang**sprinkler dance*
You wear what you’ve always worn, which are the items that make you feel comfortable. If you put on clothing that makes you uncomfortable OR a taco suit, you are going to make everyone else uncomfortable as well bc you will not be able to be your badass self.
There’s a quote from olden times that I think will really resonate here:
“YOU DO YOU.”
I am so f*cking happy for you, and anyone out there who doesn’t buy your vending machines because of your button down can SUCK IT, because the rest of the world is going to hoist you up on their shoulders and be like THIS PERSON IS MY FAVORITE VENDING MACHINE SALESPERSON IN ALL THE LAND and your house will be covered in trophies and you’ll get a button down sponsorship from JCrew and the person who didn’t buy the vending machine will be super sad and apologize anyway.
This is awesome.
You are awesome.
Send us a picture of your first meeting as a promoted human so we can share with the universe.
PS: Have you guys heard of Kipper Clothiers? If you are in the market for fancypants/badass clothing, they make custom suits and are pretty awesome.
I totally agree with the whole “you do you, and you’ll be great!” 100000% percent!! However, what about the fact that there are homophobic, judgemental buttmunches out there who may respond negatively to the way someone may dress outside the gender binary norm? My concern stems from being a queer mixed POC in her early 20s who works with predominantly 30-60s year old white guys. :/
Do you think that Hillary Rodham Clinton would have been Secretary of State without her awesome pant suits? Probably not!
I work with a woman (who is also a lesbian) that wears exclusively mens clothing – she’s been promoted several times and works closely with our clients. No one has had a problem with it. She’s comfortable and confident in who she is, and it suits her. We work in a VERY conservative industry, so you would think there would be issues but alas, there is not.
Just do you, be your awesome self and everything will be amazing.
Congratulations on the new job!