Tuesday 12 August 2008

Am I the Antigay?

On Saturday I'm in the mood for shopping. I'm not usually in the mood for clothes shopping so I take advantage of it and head to Oxford Street Paddington with The Frenchman to explore my options. And for this shopping expedition I'm looking and feeling kinda straight. I don't have anything that much coordinates and my hair is kinda unkempt, but I feel comfortable and relaxed and confident. It's a sunny winter day and the street is sparkling. So we enter a shop and there are some okay things, but they're not selling what I'm in the mood for buying, that's okay, and we move along to the second shop where the Frenchman looks for shoes I'm bored and by the third shop I'm desperate to get out. There's dance party music pumping everywhere, I'm not even remotely connecting with any of the not-so-straight-acting guys selling me stuff, and the scents I'm inhaling are über-gay to the point of nausea (are  they pumped through the airconditioning?). How are they über-gay exactly? I don't know but it's an autonomic evoked response so I'm not going to question it. 

I've become the Antigay. 
I'm supposed to feel at home in this gay-friendly strip, but I'm starting to think I need to start buying Bonds clothing or, better still, wearing whatever my husband buys for me. Then I can avoid shopping altogether. 

We leave without buying anything and head out of the GAY ZONE to catch up with a friend. I don't want to go back in there so we eat locally and entertain ourselves outside the Zone. Though it turns out that outside the Zone is becoming more popular with gay men too. But I'm okay with that, in fact I like it. A lot.



Bonds Ad.  45sec

Thing is - I'm still attracted to the guy in the ad. 
I can't truly be the Antigay - maybe it's just a phase.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Worst day of the week to go clothes shopping.

Why don't go on a Tuesday, the streets and shops are less hectic, and the staff are over their hangovers of the weekend.
Maybe you should ask C. to come with you, he has an eye for good design [and not only on women].

You're husband my pick out a gift, not a whole outfit.

T said...

Yes I did not get the gay 'I love shopping' gene either = it bores be totally.

and yes I have been wearing my Bonds long sleeved raglan top on these cold nights !

Darwin said...

It's tragic that you missed the shopping gene - I miss my salary earning days, long saturdays hands laden with shopping bags... Although the older the get the faster these shopping trips become, and the less bovverred I am by fashion... hmm. Perhaps the anti-gayness is spreading.

The trick is to find one place that is slightly out of the ordinary - especially for the gay scene - and stocks a broad enough range that you can buy everything you need in an hour, once or twice every three months.