Lolita Skills

The past couple of weeks have been rough. As a trans person in the thick of U.S. politics, I haven't felt this concerned about domestic policy and its immediate ramifications for my friends and family in a long while. Fashion is a solace in this trying time-- moreover, it has given us all important skills for the future. 

Lolita fashion is firstly about the clothes, but the social aspects form a close second. In a time of emotional and political insecurity, these can both help stabilize people's lives. 

Although caring about clothes is stereotyped as vain, there's not much that's frivolous about the skills built by maintaining a wardrobe. The average lolita can quickly assess garment durability, remove decade-old stains, and perform minor repairs like sewing buttons and replacing elastic. Craftier lolitas can sew their own garments, make jewelry, repair shoes, darn socks, and craft accessories in a variety of media. But the craftiness of lolita isn't the only set of skills it builds. 

Buying, cataloging, and selling lolita-related materials come with their own achievements. Apart from Lolibrary, which is one of the greatest websites ever created, lolitas have archived magazines, compiled resources, created tutorials, and written a variety of works, from blogs to zines to scholarly papers. Outside of these public resources, most lolitas can buy directly from overseas brands without localized websites, perform mental currency conversions, maintain and monitor their own personal inventory, and ship items around the world. Additionally, people have even learned other languages through the fashion. These information skills might seem pretty ordinary within the lolita community, but are impressive outside of the fashion. 

The social aspects of lolita are even more central to easing insecurity. Lolitas in the Americas and Europe often have an in-person community, but even lonelitas engage in digital community. Through community, we share our knowledge and feelings, slivers of lives that we cannot otherwise see. Although I value my digital friends greatly, I think my local comm has had a much greater contribution to my personal growth. 

I've been a mod for my local comm for a while-- my area has around six overlapping comms, of which I moderate two. I never thought I'd coordinate a social event, or be an organizer, or have a place that's this queer-friendly without being a designated Gay Space, but my comm's given me all that and more. 

Although I've framed all these skills and accomplishments as belonging to individuals, any individual lolita can only do so much. I can write and present a dozen panels, but I wouldn't know where to start with website hosting, and I don't want to. The greatest strength of this community, of any community, is that someone, somewhere has the skill to help. Moreover, engaging in community through our hobbies gives us happiness when it's all too easy to fall into despair. 

This post isn't a real resource for political turbulence. It's just a reminder that everyone has value, and the most valuable thing we have is each other.