In most places that I have worked at, they have had a casual dress code. I will probably have on some jeans, a tee, and sneakers – nothing that gender defining (well depending on how I’m wearing my clothes). When you catch me on an ordinary day in the street, I’m pretty unassuming. Despite this organizational diversity, I don’t think they ever foresaw a person like me coming in and subverting some of their most taken-for-granted assumptions about how gender and sexuality should be represented in the workplace. It’s a large corporation with many different people, from all walks of life. Think of GT Inc as your run-of the-mill corporate office. Such was the case when I started working for a company that I will call Gender Trouble, Inc. In my experience, Masculine of Center (MoC) women have their own version of coming out every day, particularly at work. And this is the point at which the woman in question might roll her eyes and say or think, “And what the hell does gay look like?” “ But you don’t look gay” is a common response. I’ve heard it said that lesbian femme women come out every day. This is in reference to them having to constantly inform people that they are in fact lesbians.
Originally published on Media Diversified and republished here with their permission.
