Anti-Conformity, Evolution of Dakar’s Gor-Jigeen Fashion according to Jeannot
“It’s been twenty years since I’ve been able to call myself young, but even if I’m not anymore, despite the fact that I behave like a 19 year old kid, I’ve never given up my passion for fashion. In my mind I’m still fresh and young, I always think positively; and that gives me strength.” That’s how my interview with Jeannot began in Dakar one evening last March. We were in his bedroom, searching for a quiet place away from the animated conversations coming from his living room, where several other members of the gay community decided to gather to talk about fashion and wedding dresses. Here are some bits of that conversation with Jeannot.
— Today I’m 53, but still behaving like a 19-year-old… well, can’t you see my hairstyle? Isn’t it cute? I was going for something young, a very young look. I went to see my hairdresser and asked him to style it like this and he said “No problem”. He happens to be my number 1 fan, since he rarely sees others my age with a sense of style like me. Generally, people my age would shave their heads and stuff like that, but never have a hairstyle like mine. I’ll take this style with me everywhere; I have no complex about it. Tomorrow I’m spending the day with my mother and my children, and they all will see my hair like this. I’d never put on a hat!
You could say that I’m very avant- garde when it comes to fashion, but also quite retro at the same time since I find what our mothers used to wear back in the day wasincredibly beautiful. Especially my mother, who was a very skilled seamstress with a sharp fashion sense and understanding of color.
Unfortunately she didn’t have a lot of confidence in herself so I became her advisor. I was always around to find her the right accessories in the right colors, and often I would have to say ”No, mom, you’re not going to mix that black with that fuchsia, it’s not going to work.” And “With that black, I would definitely go for a metal grey”- That’s how it worked, you see.
In the Senegalese gay scene we have had an evolution. An evolution, starting back in the time of those I would refer to as my gay “Moms”; back then in the scene, boubous were cut in a feminine style without the collar that masculine fashion standards required and it was trendy to powder the neck to highlight the neckline. Boubous were always worn with a shawl. Another fashion standard was skin lightening; thus in Senegal, a man who lightened his skin was thought to be gay.
Of course, there have been many other popular trends. Gays tend to be pretty avant-garde; not only do we start fashion trends, but we even create new words. Nowadays, everyone uses the word “taxacirip” – I don’t know if you’ve already heard this expression. There’s a story behind this word that most people don’t know. It would literally mean something like “a special coating”. It’s an expression gays invented in their circle: when a gay talks about someone as a “taxacirip”, it means he’s having sex with that guy and fancies him so much that he would cover himself with the person’s sperm. But well, today it’s an everyday word in Senegal; everyone uses it with a banal connotation even though it was originally coined by gays. Another gay expression that is now used by everyone is “tabaax ba mu kawee” which literally means “work it until it goes up”.
Currently, gay fashion trends continue to change and evolve. Today’s queer youth set trends that are then copied by “straights”, and that leads to confusion: everyone’s clothes look the same and we don’t know who’s who, except for the way gay men walk. People used to be more daring with fashion in the past; seeing a man wearing an outstanding boubou with a feminine collar, we thought of it as daring. But now, it’s become more complex – if we come across a guy wearing that, it would be more difficult to accurately guess his sexual orientation. Now we tend to rely more on walks and other behavior to find out whether someone is gay or not. Today’s youth wear the same outfits as gays and dress in flashy colors with no link to the gay scene. For example, a straight guy might wear something cool because he saw a friend of his wearing it and he loved it, without even being aware that the friend is a branché, meaning being gay. So it’s true that since gays are usually at the forefront of fashion, we end up being the inspiration for everyone.
However, increasingly, the local gay fashion is being influenced by what comes from abroad. I’m no longer fond of today’s young people’s fashion trends, their underwear hanging out, with low-rise pants halfway down their ass, I hate it! They are all into sagging their pants and, ok, maybe that’s what they are into for nowadays and it’s me who is old-fashioned- but that doesn’t prevent me from hating it!
“When I get dressed, the younger ones go “Oh, there goes the old queen and her outfits again!”. And it’s just because I wear clothes they would never dare to put on.”
Some queer youth today dress to shock. When we see them, we immediately know they are gay and they wear colors that are traditionally feminine such as fuchsias, greens, bright oranges, and such. I think that they get dressed up in these colors to assert themselves openly, even though this isn’t the society that is going to be open to it. But they still dare to model outrageous outfits and even a little bit of makeup when they go out.
Senegal really has brave ladies, who are tough shopkeepers, who fly to Dubai and Paris to bring back anything that’s hip, and the latest craze, as we say. These are the women bringing in what gays will later be wearing. If they come back with a bunch of bodysuits, the gays aren’t going to go near the black ones, instead, they will reach for the pink or violet. Mostly because quite simply, that is what they have seen on TV and on R&B stars, who have everything one could want, so they are putting on those same colors to imitate a little, and they are going to get mocked by the rest because in Senegal people aren’t going to get why a guy would dress like that.
On the other hand, people from my generation have all “parked themselves in the garage”, as I usually say. That’s to say that you would usually see them wearing djellebas, slacks and these kinds of ordinary clothes. They have become very conservative. It’s unusual to see men around my age wearing a hairstyle like mine, which is a bit on the extravagant side. It’s very unusual. They have shaped up by societal pressure at a point that they are now towing the line by wearing conventional clothes. When I get dressed, young kids go “Ah, there’s the old lady’s still dressing up!”. And it’s just because I wear clothes the others would never put on. First, because I have nothing to prove anymore and second, because I have the money to do it and salary to go shopping where I want. Here at home it happens sometimes that my boyfriend will react strongly against something that I’d put on at home. Shorts or low-cut necklines that almost reach the belly, that he often finds outrageous – but then he will come around, since I am comfortable and confident in them, I wear what pleases me. Voilà! —
