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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1992)
Dressing up . . . - « We're gay, and it's hard enough to come out in this society as a gay person, so we came out as being gay, and then we went past that fact ... to become more than gay, to become ob jects. Zach club kid imitator -ft - Clockwise from top: One of Mi chael's first steps in dressi ng for the club kid image is applying lipstick with a lip brush. Zach, right, practices his club kid look as Michael brushes on blush. “The club kid is the ulti mate Narcissist. No one is more beautiful than him or herself,'' Zach said. It takes club kids six hours of treacherous prepara tion for about two hours of public glamour. Zach, right, peers over his sun glasses to check his outfit, while Chad, middle, and Michael change their outfits. Chad makes a fi nal check before showing off in public. A major portion of the club kid image is dressing like women with the help of “falsies” or fake breasts. Micnael fluffs his plati num wig. Photos by Al Schaben Fashion Continued from Page 11 could help it. “If we have outfits on, we go straight to the bar," he said. "Wc don’t go to Perkinsof wedon’t go to (Xher places, like if I look weirder than Zach, he’ll buy my cigarettes at 7-11 On nights when they go other places, the three will change their clothes in Chad’s car. Many gay people don’t like that he, Zach and Michael dressed up, Chad said. They would prefer that the homosexual community be less noticeable. Chad said he didn’t want to force his idea of fashion on any one. “I just thinkthaiasfarasihc gay commu nity goes, they need a little awakening,” he said. Zach said the public’s reaction to his and his friends’ clothes de pended on where they were. For instance, he said, if he dressed-up on campus, which was not often, he received “stereotypical reac tions (such as) ‘faggot.’" “But then if I’m in a club some where, and I’m with my friends, or if I’m dressed up and ... in a nicer section of town or an artsier sec tion, say if I’m in the Haymarket, there aren’t any negative reac tions,” Zach said. “They might just stare or say, 'You look great.’" Chad said that once he and his friends were dressed outrageously to go to a DeeLitc concert. They stopped at an Omaha grocery store where they stood out from other clients. “There were no comments just because I think they were so scared of us," Chad said. “They really did not know what to think." Because many people, espe cially Midwesterners, have suen a hard lime accepting anything or anyone who isn’t “normal," Mi chael, Chad and Zach said they would continue dressing the way they did. “People have different lives and different ideas about what people are supposed to be like," Zach said “Thai’s why I think it’s great that people like us have come about in the last five years. “Hopefully, in 30 years, it’ll be the norm to expect anything and to not disrespect anybody for the way they look."
