#MenAreTrash as performance

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[Transvestite - Someone who likes to dress up in clothes of the opposite gender. The intention is to 'pass', to remain inconspicuous. Trans - Someone who has been born into a body that doesn't reflect their inside gender. The intention is to disrupt binary ideas of gender and/or to change to the other gender and 'pass'. Passing is not a bad thing, necessarily. Some people don't want to draw attention to themselves, don't want conflict, don't want to be an activist every day. Drag Queens - Someone who performs the opposite gender. It's fun, it's sassy, it's political, it's ironic, it's challenging. It's a fun way to do politics. Of course, within any of these groups, individuals may vary.]

 So Drag Queens are a protest-solidarity-defiant-awakening performance of the thing straight men fear the most about homosexuality - a woman that comes onto them who is not even trying to pass, not even trying to conform to the femininity laws straight men have laid down. The quintessential Uppity woman. 

So is the fat, hairy, man-hating lesbian. So is the lesbian. So is the Woman who has Sex with Women (WSW). So is the pants-wearing woman. So is the miniskirt-wearing woman. All degrees of #Resistance.  

And #MenAreTrash is a performance in which women test the boundaries of when-will-we-be-taken-seriously? #MenAreTrash is one of the first hashtags that has been heard. Men and women hate it. Old women and young women hate it. #1BillionRising is not heard. #Feminism is not heard. #EverydaySexism is not heard. #RapeCulture is not heard. #WhyIStayed is not heard. #AllMenCan is not heard. But #MenAreTrash is universally talked about. 

Women have done many variations of the performance of how far they, in their mind-bindedness, are prepared to test the waters of #Resistance. A miniskirt? A pair of jeans? A night with another woman? Eschewing men sexually? Politically? Totally?

Like the Weinstein saga, how many hashtags do you need before you say, There's a problem. How many women does he have to prey upon before you say, There's a problem. How many men have to be revealed publicly as predators before you say, There's a problem. 

How many hashtags are necessary before you say, There's a problem.

#Resistance, like Dragging, is a self-empowering performance aspect of #MenAreTrash. And every degree of it should be encouraged, not shamed. It starts with refusing one thing. Lipstick? A razor? A salon bill? A high-heeled shoe? It's a delish-iously slippery slope. 

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