What ended up happening was this. While our costumes delighted everyone and brought some (probably) much-needed levity, it was also a huge drag for me. Mainly, rather than getting to participate fully in the protest, we became just props to be taken pictures with. It was hard to move, or sit down, or take the heads off, without people demanding we stand up and let them take a picture. This was fine initially - it’s not like we didn’t expect lots of attention - but it grew old, fast. Then there was the reality that I couldn’t see or hear anything inside that head, which made me massively anxious because I was hyper vigilant for violence or attacks, and not being able to see anyone around you or hear anything but your own breathing was really awful. I had worried about being too hot - I loaded us up with icy water in our camel backs under the costumes - but really that was the least of our problems. I felt completely removed from everything that was going on - I couldn’t connect with anyone, couldn’t see people’s faces or read any clues - and then (possible) right wing podcasters kept sticking microphones in our faces trying to interview us and ask “gotcha” questions (I refused to speak to anyone but the H tried to engage and just got flustered. I wonder what MAGA video he’s now featured on).
I felt much better at the end of the march when I stripped everything off and went to walk around the crowd, grab some quick pictures of signs, and share smiles and thumbs up with like-minded people. A friend came with us who went in an inflatable triceratops costume; she said she liked being able to be distant from people inside a costume. I realized that I really don’t. I need to be able to connect with people. Maybe I’m less of an introvert than I thought.
So as much as it was an unpleasant experience, everything was fine - nothing bad happened, people loved our outfits, and the massive swell of resistance all around the world was really great to see, especially for someone like me who’s been at this for months. It was good to be there with the H finally. He agreed the costumes were worth doing but only once.
I’ve had to tune out a lot of the backlash. I remember this from after the women’s march. When you get loud enough, suddenly everyone has an opinion about what you’re doing. My various desert FB groups have become completely overrun with MAGA idiots mocking and deriding us (that’s really the only online space I still share with Republicans at this point), and that’s to be expected - but of course as always the left has to devour itself, too, mostly on racial lines. Black folks in my feed pointing out how we’re all a bunch of privileged white people not having to worry about the cops coming for us (yes I’m aware of this fact, thank you), my Jewish friend immediately texting me how dismayed she was that I posted some pro-Palestine signs I’d seen, someone bemoaning the fact that most of the protesters are old people (true, but what can you do? It’s not their fault young people feel utterly hopeless), posts again beating the dead corpse of Biden/Harris and if only they hadn’t contributed to genocide, etc etc etc. Just a lot of negativity on a day when we ALL should have come together to fight this travesty of a fake regime, which is going to eventually fuck all of us up one way or another. Yet just like in November, so many preferred to just sit on their asses and tell us what they think about it when nobody asked their stupid opinion. Either be part of the solution or be part of the problem, people.
A friend pointed out that I’ve become Reddit famous, ha ha. Here I am (everyone of course assumed I was a man):