I took the time to read the New Yorker article referenced by the Washington Post in my last post.

It is well worth reading.

With all due respect to the esteemed Washington Post, Pejic doesn’t really seem to identify as male any more than he does female.  His focus is, much like was discussed in my missive on Psychology Today, that there is no benefit to identify as one or the other.

He says he never did “drag”; he just dressed pretty, in the same way girls do.  Semantics, perhaps, but evidence of a certain mindset.

He does not divide the world into girls and boys, and roles for each, orientations and attractions.  He just takes it as it comes, with no labels.

Its an alluring ideal, compromised only by his repeated concessions to the realities of life.  A man approached him and then left disappointed.  Andrej’s take: “He thought I was a girl.”

He’s not considering a sex change, but says things like, “Obviously, as a kid, you think about it: what would life be like if I was born a girl?”

Another quote: “I want to look like me. It just so happens that some of the things I like are feminine.”  Clearly, he sees things as much in male-female terms as anyone else, even if he is fighting it.

And, he knows to move differently depending on whether he is modeling men’s or women’s clothes. Just acting, maybe, but conforming to gender roles, still.

I like his idea of moving past gender, at least in theoretical terms.  But, you can’t say something is feminine, as he does, if you don’t want to be classified as male or female.

If you’re saying that a man looking as feminine as the most beautiful woman makes the statement that ideas about gender are obsolete, then the whole vocabulary of femininity and masculinity has to be dropped.

Like the wearer, the clothes, the behaviors just are what they are.

Easier said than done.