A couple days ago, I went to a Take Back the Night rally on campus. For those of you who don't know what those are, they're rallies against rape and other forms of sexual violence. They're stereotypically attended by butch lesbians and bra-burning feminists, but I knew that was only a stereotype. I know quite a few feminists (including myself), and none of them are stereotypical. Still, though, I was a little worried that people might think I was female, because that happens to me sometimes in places with a lot of lesbians around.
When I got there, there were a lot more guys than I'd expected. The different speakers kept mentioning how proud they were to see men there, so that made me smile. This guy was walking around, handing out ribbon stickers. He handed me one, looked at me for a second, took it back, and handed me another. I thought it was a little weird, but I didn't think twice about it.
A couple hours later I was at McDonald's with some friends, and this one guy asked why a girl and I had the same color ribbon, but one of our male friends had a different one. He replied that they were giving different ribbons to guys than to girls, and commented on how sexist he thought that was.
So then I realized that the guy gave me a boy ribbon, looked at me for a couple seconds longer, then took the boy ribbon from me and handed me a girl one. I was annoyed at first, but the more I think about it, the funnier it gets. I was literally handed my masculinity, and then had it taken away. It sortof cracks me up.
I guess I'm posting this because a) I'm frustrated by the fact that apparently I don't always pass as well as I think, but b) I don't get as upset about it anymore. I'm able to laugh at it instead.
