"androgyny is trendy"??!

That's what Fang Fang keeps insisting: "androgyny is trendy lately." Then she applies it too much, cuz when I point out to her really obvious dykes that we pass by on the street, she says, "no, she doesn't look like it to me. It's just that androgyny has been really popular and there're lots of girls dressed like boys lately." That annoys me. She even insists on denying that 李宇春 is NOT one (Li YuChun is the winner of the American-Idol equivalent here; she's unbelievably popular and still topping the charts, and has millions of young teenage girls as her fan base).

She is partly right, though, in that androgyny is not viewed negatively at all. This is a beautiful cultural phenomenon. Last night I watched a singing-competition on TV with this girl that I totally thought was a boy for the longest time. She talked and rapped with a voice that's lower and rougher than a lot of Chinese men. But then she switches from rap to a melody with a really sweet, girly voice, then switches back again. I was really impressed. I can change a lot of things about myself, over time, but never so instantly. If I sing a song in a high pitch, then my speaking voice is going to remain higher than usual for a while; and vice versa. Well, the host of the show asked her about her "androgynous" look, but of course nobody makes any links to sexuality. That's both an up-side and a down-side: you get this safe and convenient invisibility, but then you're also invisible.

I have to say, I really appreciate how a lot of men care about style and fashion here. So there's a lot of cloths available to me that are not so drab and overly baggy, but colorful and hip. And it makes it really convenient that men's cloths actually fit me. Sometimes I even have to buy a Medium size in men's shirts!