UNTUCKED - Brittlestar’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue #21
I’ve made the decision that it’s okay to wear white crew socks with shorts. Join me.
UNTUCKED
I had been asked to introduce a comedian at a local charity event.
The comedian, Elvira Kurt, is tremendously talented and highly respected, so I felt the need to treat this as an honour. Which meant dressing nice and tucking in my shirt.
I hardly ever tuck in my shirt. I started leaving it untucked in the 90s and I’ve never really looked back since.
I did my introduction and Elvira put on a hilarious show. Though it should be noted that she had a bit about performing in a small town and how this was probably the first time a lot of people in the audience had seen a lesbian in real life.
Little did she realize that if she had fell off the stage she would have landed on about 6 of them in the first two rows alone.
I digress.
After the show Shannon and I popped downtown to a pub we didn’t normally frequent for a pint with some friends.
While standing at the bar chatting I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see a youngish man smiling. He spoke…
“Judging by the way you dress, I’d guess you lean pretty far conservative right?”
Now… I belong to no political party but this was like a knife to the heart.
“Far conservative right” is not the look I was going for. I was aiming for hip, young and cool and realizing I’d likely land on ‘listens to music’, ‘not ancient’ and ‘knows what YOLO means’.
I assured the man that he was mistaken and that I was essentially one good sandwich away from being communist and gay.
*This is a line that only I and a few others in my hometown think is funny as it is based on how a majority of our sandwich shops in town at one point in time were run by lesbians… the same ones who were earlier in danger of being crushed by Elvira in fact. The communist part isn’t based on anything apart from supporting universal healthcare and being a funny thing to say to drunk racists.
We chatted further and one of his friends joined as well. As the conversation progressed it became clear that both of these people were probably hoping I would see eye to eye and tucked shirt to tucked shirt with their extreme racists views, specifically focused on Indigenous communities.
I bid them a good evening (read: screwed up my face and turned away) and continued on with my own evening.
It made me, as a white middle-aged male, suddenly very aware of some of the assumptions people were making about me. People were assuming my position on various things.
I know that happens to all people but it was the first I’d actually been aware of it and concerned about it for myself.
Not that tucking your shirt in makes you a bad person… it’s just that it apparently makes me look like a bad person. Or more specifically, an evil realtor.
My friend’s Dad used to have a sign up at the top of their basement stairs (a high teen traffic route) that said “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
I don’t think you should stand for anything at all, obviously, but I do think it’s important to make sure you wear your beliefs and stance on your sleeve, so to speak.
You need to speak up and walk the walk if you want people to know which side of an issue you’re on. Especially these days where we’ve drifted well past base politics and into just and unjust.
In an age where life is scrolled at top speed, it’s important to let people clearly know where you stand if you want people to know where you don’t stand.
It’s certainly not easy but little things count.
Maybe start by untucking your shirt.
###
Velour shirt probably untucked.