I have been tagged. Bah!

[trixtah]

(sorry, sheep on the brain again)

From stormkpr: Explain Your Live Journal Name and its Meaning meme. When you're done, tag as many people as there are letters in your name.

I'm not going to tag seven people - that feels a wee bit like chain letters. Although if you really think you'll have good luck for the next seven days and you will get an unexpected surprise (what other kind is there?), please, feel free. :-)

Anyway, this is a very long and tedious story. A certain friend (and ex-lover) of mine looooves to tease me on my less-than-girlie presentation. I think her mission in life is to get me into a skirt. But her mission is doomed! DOOMED, I tell you! Muahahaha! Unless a lavalava (sarong) counts, which it doesn't.

So, she and some other friends decided, during a night of semi-drunken ribaldry, that I needed to develop my non-existant girlie persona. They suggested that a fringed pink satin rhinestone-studded cowgirl outfit with high-heeled white boots would be the thing, accompanied by bracing renditions of Stand By Your Man from Tammy Wynette (I suggested D.I.V.O.R.C.E. might be better, but that was shouted down). And to go with this lovely vision of womanhood, the appropriate name for me would be Fifi Trixibelle. If I did drag, I mean, dressed up as a real woman, that would be my drag name.

This lovely ex of mine still calls me that in not-too-public situations, so I decided to borrow "Trix" as my internet handle. Since there are now about 6 quintillion Trixes on the internet, I needed another name that was reasonably unique. Thus the Trixtah was born.

Additionally, and more tangentially, I have Mercury in Gemini, my favourite Tarot card is The Magician, and I really enjoy the trickster trope in mythology. Maui, of course, being the first one that I was aware of, but I also read Andre Norton's Fur Magic at the age of about 7/8, which has the Native American Coyote as a major figure. Thus, an Interest was born. And why The Trickster as an archetype I particularly enjoy? Something about catalysers perhaps. My life changes have never been gradual and evolving ones. Some individual has always catalysed things in one sense or another for me; I have fulfilled that role for a number of other people.

So there you go - practicality and wankitude, all in one package. :-)

Comments

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Hee, I think putting me in a skirt would be a fairly good way to torture me psychologically, actually. And it's been that way since at least age 8 (at least, that's the first big fight about wearing a dress that I remember).

God knows why I have such a thing about them; I like them on other people. :-)

[filkferengi]

I know the source of my aversion. See, I'm an only child & was for 8 years the only grandchild. Throw in being a girl, & I was spoiled cubed. The downside was, I was spoiled cubed. I remember being 10 years old, being made to stand on top of the kitchen table at Grandma's, forced to try on school clothes, being poked, pulled, pried, and prodded. Being forced to shop for & try on clothes in general was an ordeal anyway, but the tabletop was a bit extreme; 30+ years on, & I'm still a bit resentful. After all, however short, by 10, one is almost grown, not a dress-up doll. Even [or perhaps especially] young persons have their dignity. Not that dignity's ever been my thing per se, but still--.

Ironically enough, after my mission, I'd gotten so used to wearing skirts all the time, it took quite a few months to get used to not wearing them. I used to quite enjoy dressing up, but have always resented the coercive aspect [in-law birthdays at posh restaurants I would rather not go to, etc.].

Does any of that compare to your experience[s]?

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

It's interesting; my experience there was almost the reverse. Being illegitimate, I certainly wan't the pampered/spoiled child, not in the slightest. I never went shopping for clothes until I was an adult and went by myself. My mother is one of the most unfeminine women you could hope to meet, so the aim was not to dress me up as a dollie.

I don't know where it came from. I think when I hit puberty, mum felt that some conforming had to go on (not that she said that explicitly). Also, my ultra-feminine aunt was in the picture quite a bit, and I think she worked on my mother as well in that area. It didn't succeed in the slightest.

The only thing I find I miss in that regard is being able to dress up like I'm "making an effort" without looking like I'm going to work in my business suit. Throwing on a nice skirt and blouse and a bit of lippy achieves that effect nicely. I haven't quite found the right ground for myself there yet.

[filkferengi]

Preach it, sister! Of all the phrases involved in being dragged off to uncomfortable restaurants with the inlaws [The mother-in-law has, quite reasonably, quit cooking since getting over a mild case of breast cancer a few years ago. I applaud her declaration of independence, but wish her offspring would lay off the expensive, dress-up restaurants], the phrase I abominate the most is "business casual." What is that supposed to be? One is either dressed up, or one is not. Suffice it to say, fashion is one language in whose subtle nuances I am not overly proficient.

:)