Dressed in Resistance
I type dreaming of an opportunity manifesting, a radical exploration of identity, visual storytelling and style. I dream, knowing my visions are gifts that will help me manifest such opportunity through courage and persistence. I can no longer deny myself. I now realize the advantages from my unique vantage points, and no longer lament over the liminal quality of my being. You learn to stand out when your a cuir brown boy from the ghetto, or rather I’ve embraced standing out as I’ve never really had any alternative.
Since earning my Masters and single-subject credential, since my first year of teaching has finished, since being pink slipped, and since being unemployed leaves me with time on my hands, I’ve been confronted with complacency. Each moment has been a meditation challenging me to value my inherent being and reorient my daily doing to center the pursuit of my passion.
I am determined to write my destiny into existence. I am determined to do so with style.
My personal style is ever-evolving and I relish in the transgressive capacity of clothing. I choose to agitate when I dress, wearing shirts with provocative messages, buying from indigenous, black and brown artists, transgressing gender norms or class assumptions.
I remember the furor I felt when my ninth grade English teacher expressed amazement over that year’s valedictorian, dumb-founded by the capacity of a brown woman to be the best in the school while wearing hoops, baggy grey sweats and a crown of curls. I knew my teacher was completely clueless, if not just racist. In that moment I knew clothing could be transgressive, that the person and the clothing they decorate themselves in can provide a paradoxical juxtaposition that confronts common assumptions about either.
Now watching Zoey from Grown-ish pursue a self-determined degree in the sociology of fashion, I’m seeing dreams on screen. She sharply expresses the ways that dress has historically functioned symbolically.
The Brown Berets, the Black Panthers, the symbolic resistance of women wearing pants, the KKK, and the Nazi’s are emblematic of the ways fashion espouses political views, and is used as a tool to create community or to marginalize.
True, symbolic activism has its limits and institutional change will require multifaceted, tactical, collective action. As Dr. David Sanchez, founding member of the Brown Berets, notes, just donning the iconic garb does not inherently signal activism or political momentum. Often marginalized communities fashion is appropriated and distorted so that the original message is lost. Yet through the long history of fashion it’s obvious the various iconic looks of our various people resonate because they reflect history and the fight for justice.
The fashion icon, Jennifer Lopez, reminds us of the power of a single fashionable moment 20 years later, as wearing an unforgettable Versace dress became the catalyst for Google image search.
For better or worse, to intentionally dress is an act of bravery. We present ourselves to the world each day and aim to affect perceptions by what we put on.
One day I will return to Paris, iconic not only for its fashion, but as a haven for black and brown radical artists, despite its painful imperialist history. Seeing an Olivier Rousteing collection, after spending a morning traveling, enjoying coffee and reading Angela Davis or James Baldwin whilst wearing sickening coats, capturing and documenting a unique perspective is something I am absolutely certain I can live.
I am so enamored with fashion because it is so Buddhist. Each outfit is a mandala that conveys a mood and is washed away each day. My style comes from transgressing boxes, borders and marginalizations. Just one dimension of myself is to use the means and mediums of new media, in the hopes of expressing a new ontology, a certain style that departs from racism, sexism, heteronormativism but becomes much more fluid, visionary, expressionist and multidimensional. That is what I aim for when I dress, when I write, when I teach my students and what I aim for in all of my interactions.
Christopher Marmolejo is a queer brown educator and author. He is committed to radical community healing and building. He seeks to liberate through critical pedagogy, story-telling and transgressive truth-telling.
