~"I love you too"~

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I absolutely loved the update, and I love Lucio sooooooooo much! 😭💛

this is it, folks. this is the moment we've fought to hard for. lucio's all grown up.

also:

HE LOVES US

HE LOVES US

It seems like there’s this urge to “apologize” for Lucio being tacky, or scale him back, or explain why his fashion choices/style are actually very good- 

Here’s the thing, in the nicest possible way: “tacky = bad” is a very heteronormative take.

Like Viv said, tacky is camp. Camp is, by definition, ostentatious, over-the-top, theatrical, effeminate, excessive, frivolous, and so on - it’s a mockery of the “sophistication” of high fashion, the “artistic” pretentiousness of the upper class. Camp is also, by definition, very very queer. Camp was born in drag queens’ basements on home sewing machines, at punk lesbian house shows, in gender-non-conforming folks fighting the post-50s crackdown of gender roles cobbling together outfits from estate sales and thrift stores. Camp has historically been upsetting to the mainstream art and fashion worlds because it “breaks the rules” in the loudest possible way - it doesn’t care about gender, it doesn’t care about body type, it doesn’t care about skin color, and most of all, it won’t let itself be shoved under the rug. 

And it’s still a huge part of being LGBT+ today. Non-binary mullet culture? floral shirts? spiked butch haircuts? shaving notches into your eyebrows? Trans guys and our terrible, terrible facial hair? it’s all camp. We don’t do what a cis-hetero-normative society wants us to do, so why would we dress the way it wants us to dress? Tacky and loud is tacky and proud. 

I couldn't put it better myself about the profound relationship between camp and queerness. Besides that very important resonance, it is fascinating to me how much Lucio must inadvertently (or deliberately) piss off old money. Now, English isnt my first (or second) language, but where I come from, the word tacky carries the connotation of shaming those who attempt to or attain or express or celebrate upward social mobility by mocking them and reminding them that they will never be adequate or on par with their moneyed elite/old-money peers. Sophistication is a measuring stick and an instrument of gatekeeping who gets to build and announce themselves and who gets to sit and speak at what tables. And Lucio refuses to be shamed. Or excluded.

With his blatant rule-bending with what's considered "proper" and "aesthetically pleasing," announcing his tackiness, making a legacy of it- drowning a whole Masquerade in gold and big and grand, Lucio's refusal to be sophisticated and his refusal to apologize for anything for it, his refusal to emulate old-money aristocracy, is just. I love that. I love that.

It really drives home both his unabashed enjoyment in what he loves, his particular brand of tenacity, along with his gender expression. And I'm here for it. Seeing him so loud and proud in his tackiness inspires me, reminds me when I feel like shrinking away or hiding in certain straight eurocentric classed settings that tacky isn't a bad word, it's my badge to wear, it's a little bit of rebellion, and I carry my history there.

New Lucio update and he finally gets to do some magic of his own!

Finally, Dad Lucio post ! Hope you will like it ~

Happy birthday, Nadia!