Perpetuating Stereotypes

For the past few weekends, Jesse, Scott and I have spent our Fridays and/or Saturday nights making buttons.

This past Saturday, we hit a lull in the business and wanted to get our Halloween costumes made.

Quick sidenote: We're going as "The Wizard of Oz." The idea started out as a joke. You've heard the saying about gays; they are "friends of Dorothy." I don't really know what that comes from, I'm assuming it's because Judy Garland is a big gay icon? If you know, fill me in.

Anyways, I am, of course, Dorothy since my friends are all gay. "It's a cold, cruel world." Now, assigning the other characters turned out to be more of a challenge. But, I think the "characters" match the boys' personalities more than they think.

Jesse, for example, is the scarecrow. What does the scarecrow want from the Wizard? A brain. From the Wizard, he gets a diploma certifying that he is smart. Jesse, sometimes thinks he is not smart enough. He struggled while growing up believing this to be true and tries to prove it to us that he is. But, we all know he is and he doesn't need to prove anything to us.

Scott is the lion. At first, I was hesitant about this, but I watched parts of the movie last night (to figure out how to make Glenda's damn crown for McKenna) and I realized that Scott is more the lion than I thought. The lion wants courage. After every boyfriend Scott has broken up with, he has come out of his shell more. He indeed has become more courageous.

Brian was initially going to be the lion but switched with Scott (something about face painting, I believe). Now, he's the tin man. Unfortunately, he won't be dressing up with us because he has to work. It sucks and McKenna is really sad. But, his heart will be with us (literally and figuratively!). Now, the tin man needs a heart. Out of all of them, Brian is the most caring and compassionate. Sometimes, he comes off quite gruff and tough, but deep down, he's very insightful and always knows what to say about various situations.

So, as you can see, I have put a lot of thought into this.

But, back to my original story. We decided to get stuff for our costumes that evening. I need fabric for mine and my sister told me that the JoAnn's in Taylorsville is the biggest and best craft store around. We went there only needing a few things and hoping to be in and out in a few minutes.

We spent two hours there.

We were searching for all kinds of fun things. I think we covered every inch of the whole store.

While I was waiting in line for my fabric to get cut, Jesse and Scott went to look at the costumes. Scott found a wig for his lion costume and when he tried it on he asked, "How do I look?" A guy next them said, "You look gay." Jesse replied with, "Well, we are."

We were looking for something when Jesse ran across some fabric to make belts from. He found a khaki color and pink. He will just interchange his buckle and have two new belts. While we waited, Jesse teased Scott and embarrassed one of the clerks about his age.

As another clerk was cutting the right length, she said, "So, who are these for?" Jesse explained that they were both for him. She replied, "Well, I can see this one (pointing to the khaki) but I wondered about the pink" as she looked at him funny.

Doesn't she know that pink is the new black?

Finally, we were finished shopping and ready to buy our stuff. We went to a clerk who had helped us earlier. Since Scott's wig was out of the bag, he wanted a discount. The clerk explained that all the Halloween items were 70%. He wanted the extra 5% and she gave it to him. Then, when he realized that another one was also 70% off (and still in the package) he changed his mind and wanted the unused one.

We left the store, got in the car, and Scott looked at his receipt. The clerk had overcharged him. She had him check the price of a costume but she didn't take it off his purchase.

We went back in.

While Scott got his refund, Jesse and I decided to go buy our own wigs. I mean, they were 70% off. And as Jesse said, "You can always use a wig." Um, ok.

We left the store--again--got in the car, and put on our wigs. The one Scott bought (remember, the one in the package that wasn't 'used'?) was the wrong one. It didn't even fit. Oi vey.

So, we went back into the store to get the correct wig for Scott.

We decided since we were near the mall where Brian works, we would go visit him with our wigs. We went in, but Brian was not at his kiosk/island/shopping experience. Jesse called him. Yeah, he hadn't been at his mall all day. We just made fools of ourselves in front of complete strangers.

As we left the mall, we pulled up to an older gentleman in a Porsche. Scott flirted with him and the guy laughed so hard.

What a night!

Crafts, indecision, drag and stereotypes. It really is a gay, gay, gay, gay world.