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Queer Eye for the Straight Girl

Why do I love women? It’s never been because of what they’re wearing.

Jeremy Helligar
6 min readFeb 14, 2023
Photo: Rawpixel

Although I like to think of myself as an overachiever, the best I can be, by Queer Eye standards, my gay sensibility is somewhat lacking. Yes, I love soap operas, the Oscars, Lifetime, lists, and rooms with a view, but try as I might, I’ve never really gotten into show tunes, Paris, Judy Garland, or Liza with a Z.

I’ve always sort of known that I don’t have 20/20 queer-eye vision, but it was confirmed one night about 13 years ago while I was out with a friend in Buenos Aires. He was griping about a mutual friend and his alleged crimes against social and fashion etiquette. It was bad enough that our buddy was high-maintenance, but did he have to be so clueless, too? How dare he not know Chanel from Givenchy, or what Louboutins are?!

I nodded in agreement and held my tongue in shame. I didn’t want to admit it — I didn’t know how to admit it — but he wasn’t the only one. Sure I knew “Louboutins” was the name of a recent failed Jennifer Lopez single, the song she was lip-syncing when she fell on her ass while performing at the American Music Awards in 2009, but truth be told, not only did I have no idea how to pronounce it, but I wouldn’t have recognized a pair of them if they had fallen out of the sky and knocked me upside my…

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Jeremy Helligar
Jeremy Helligar

Written by Jeremy Helligar

Brother Son Husband Friend Loner Minimalist World Traveler. Author of “Is It True What They Say About Black Men?” and “Storms in Africa” https://rb.gy/3mthoj

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