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Dandyism is Slimming
Your Favorite Slimmed-Down Dandy

Click here to see the outfit Pride outfit for Flower Factory, Zebbie's Garden, Washington, DC, Sunday, June 11, 2023

At the time I am writing this blog, it is Pride Month, and, yes, Dandies fit perfectly within the cultural spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community in history and fashion. For more information click here and click here. Happy Pride!

Sadly my gay subset of the LGBTQ+ community has been mostly fixated on having that elusive "perfect body" (I wrote about my own personal journey in that as well; click here), and I found how I feel I usually look my best in wearing multiple layers in elegance and extravagance. Benefits include:

-- It's slimming! It flattens my stomach
-- It gives me that clean-cut classic "male" shape that has been prominent to show height (in spite of my being very short)

I honestly have little to no confidence in myself whenever I am shirtless or in a swimsuit, or even naked. I know that I am fat, aka misshapen, something that is frowned upon by those in the gay community that are more accustomed to seeing Instagram thirst-trap shirtless photos of men with -25% body fat and more muscles than Atlas-meets-Hercules. I can't achieve that "body ideal" in spite of my frequently going to the gym to work out and keeping an active lifestyle; this is due to my age, genetics, metabolism, and my medical history making it damned near impossible to achieve such a goal. It doesn't help that I have had people literally tell me everything from "You're too ugly to talk to" to saying "Eww" as I walk by to others eyerolling or making vomiting motions as I walk by (I joke that I don't have to have Body Dysmorphia when others remind you of how misshaped you are).

However.. whenever I dress Dandy, especially when I take the time to prepare, edit, and perfect my craft for a special event, I feel beautiful (yes, men can also use this term for themselves, Beautiful!); I feel sexy; I feel empowered; I feel.. not fat. The irony is that people oftentimes deny that I am fat by looking at my Dandy pics due to the effect the layers, the maximalist accessorizing, and the feeling of being beautiful have on my underneath-misshapen body, and I am beginning to understand that, to them, I literally do not look fat, even though I am. It's quite surreal, to be honest, yet, honestly, I do control the narrative by posing in such a way as to not allow my stomach to stick out (gotta put your best Dandy foot forward, n'est-ce pas?).

All bodies are beautiful, and I am beautiful.. dammit..

So it appears that dandyism is slimming.. and we need more body positivity in our Instagram thirst-trap obsessed world.

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