If the shoe fits….NUI Galway student on why he graduated in high heels

I’m the boy that graduated in high heels. Yes, him. I’m Ivan Fahy. I’m an androgynous model, a gender and LGBT activist, and a recent graduate of Psychology and Sociology & Politics.

I decided to graduate in high heels simply because I wanted to and my graduation day was exactly that – mine – so I would exercise autonomy and decide by myself, for myself, what I would wear.

I wore what expresses my being; high heels, skinny jeans and a Britney Spears t-shirt because she is my favourite singer. I also wanted to take a stance in support of all the transgender and gender non-conforming students in Galway, Ireland and the world.

Looking around the Bailey Allen Hall on graduation day, what do you see? You see everything ‘typical’ and heteronormative; boys in suits, girls in dresses, Mammy and Daddy in tow.

Where is LGBT visibility? Where is diversity? Everyone dresses normatively, something tradition demands. This tradition forces you to pay for and wear a gown, forces you to wear a graduation cap if you are female (because your education is being traditionally capped), and forces us to abide by gender and social norms.

Such tradition prevents me and others like myself from being ourselves. Such tradition reflects sexism, homophobia and transphobia. Such tradition rejects the diversity within humanity.

Therefore, I wore my high heels to get everyone thinking. My high heels are my tool of activism. They attract attention. They force people to think and to question, but only because I, a human born male, wear them.

They wouldn’t have such an impact on the feet of a woman. They’d be barely noticed. Yet, when I wear high heels, it’s all people see and remember.

I look forward to the day when a male in high heels isn’t so shocking, but right now it is, but only because gender and its expression is so restrictively understood, and we only have ourselves and those before us to blame.

Read Ivan’s full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.