I really enjoyed this writing, especially the provocations offered. One of my favourite tweets reads:
"normalize --" NO. normalize nothing. everything you do is weird now. you're free.
That's echoed by Maya Angelou when she says: "You only are free when you realize you belong no place -- you belong every place -- no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great."
Operating outside of the norms can be a bit elastic-y when you still want belonging inside the norm. It takes fortitude, confidence and guts to do things differently. There's many different paths to it, but one prominent one that's less spoken about is through adversity, and that's what strikes me about Waters both as a creator and in those he admired.
It's certainly true of many people in naturism. For that reason, I have no need to normalize or legitimize any of it. Perhaps "demystify" is a better term, it invites a clarification without creating a need for acceptance at any level.
Thanks for this wonderful account. My delight in anything John Waters reflects my lifelong square mask, hiding a repressed adventurous homosexual nudist. Can you be a minority within a minority within a minority and a privileged white anglo cis-gender male? I'm finally ready to attend a John Waters screening naked, but I'm much older at much less risk.
I really enjoyed this writing, especially the provocations offered. One of my favourite tweets reads:
"normalize --" NO. normalize nothing. everything you do is weird now. you're free.
That's echoed by Maya Angelou when she says: "You only are free when you realize you belong no place -- you belong every place -- no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great."
Operating outside of the norms can be a bit elastic-y when you still want belonging inside the norm. It takes fortitude, confidence and guts to do things differently. There's many different paths to it, but one prominent one that's less spoken about is through adversity, and that's what strikes me about Waters both as a creator and in those he admired.
It's certainly true of many people in naturism. For that reason, I have no need to normalize or legitimize any of it. Perhaps "demystify" is a better term, it invites a clarification without creating a need for acceptance at any level.
Thanks for this wonderful account. My delight in anything John Waters reflects my lifelong square mask, hiding a repressed adventurous homosexual nudist. Can you be a minority within a minority within a minority and a privileged white anglo cis-gender male? I'm finally ready to attend a John Waters screening naked, but I'm much older at much less risk.