sistawendy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sistawendy) wrote2019-04-10 01:37 pm
sistawendy) wrote2019-04-10 01:37 pm
boots = sexuality + history + politics
Hey Seattle people who regularly find themselves downtown: nestled among the food court joints there's a shoeshine stand in the atrium of the Columbia Center, on 4th and - wait for it - Columbia. The Fluevog Truth Brittany boots that I'm wearing* were in dire need of TLC; I probably hadn't shined them since before wearing them all over San Francisco in '17. $20 plus tip, and I can see fluorescent lights reflecting off my toes. Happiness.
But am I a terrible person for not going to a bootblack in the (ahem) community? The kind I've found at an Inn Thrall party? I hope not. A shine and eetz in the same place is a powerful draw.
As was traditional, the one in the Columbia Center is Black-operated and, I assume, Black-owned. Ex once professed to be weirded out by the idea of patronizing such a business because of its historical associations. I don't see how the shoeshine business is more oppressive than numerous others. At least the Columbia Center stand had good ergonomics.
And I can't believe it took me this long to add a user pic of just boots. These are my birthday boots, Fluevog Atria, not the ones I just got shined.
*Yes, they're pointy, so I'm disobeying my doctor's orders by wearing them. Hush.
But am I a terrible person for not going to a bootblack in the (ahem) community? The kind I've found at an Inn Thrall party? I hope not. A shine and eetz in the same place is a powerful draw.
As was traditional, the one in the Columbia Center is Black-operated and, I assume, Black-owned. Ex once professed to be weirded out by the idea of patronizing such a business because of its historical associations. I don't see how the shoeshine business is more oppressive than numerous others. At least the Columbia Center stand had good ergonomics.
And I can't believe it took me this long to add a user pic of just boots. These are my birthday boots, Fluevog Atria, not the ones I just got shined.
*Yes, they're pointy, so I'm disobeying my doctor's orders by wearing them. Hush.