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epitome of incomprehensibility
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Even when_study_rooms_are_countries, sometimes my perusal of flags will be less than national.
But this is fine! It just makes my shoulders and legs tired.
See, I had an unexpectedly exercise-ful day, with a long dog walk in the morning and then swimming. When I also unexpectedly received, from Berri-UQAM station's lost_and_found, a blue raincoat that I'd left on a bus last week (I'd doubted anyone would bother to take it in), I decided to celebrate by walking towards Concordia and/or the Lucien l'Allier train station.
This took me into the Place des Arts, the place where the jazz festival happens. But this time of year, there were booths and a concert stage set up for Montreal Pride. The parade is next weekend; no June pride for us. Why? Are *our* queer folks so much hotter that they require the heat of August? Well, not me, but then I'm only half gay and I dislike very hot weather.
Speaking of which - not weather, but being bi/pan/whatever - I stepped up to a placard they'd set up there and the first thing I saw was the magenta-purple-blue bisexual flag. I don't know exactly why it feels so friendly and familiar. What it represents isn't even a large facet of my identity - I think more about my writing and about the frustrations of attention deficit hyperactive bored of writing that out in full, for instance. But but but, I like colours. and I love those ones. Pink, purple, and blue, especially in combination, were my childhood favourites. And the bi flag *still* has my favourite colours of any flag, ever, though sometimes I think I'd prefer a different shade of blue.
Many blues. The twelve-tone blues. But anyway.
But anyway, Fierté Montréal and a publication called Fugue had taken on the task of compiling information about a whole bunch of LGBTQ+ pride flags, in various versions, and I stood around for about half an hour, reading. Is that slow? So be it. I was mostly reading the French, only demurely gazing upon the lowly English when I was confused about a word.
"Costaud" apparently means "burly"; "corpulent" was rendered delicately in English as "larger" (larger than what? No wonder some "larger" people go, "Arrgh, just say 'fat' - fat shouldn't be a bad word!")
Context? The bear flag. A surprisingly playful description - fitting for the cuteness of flags with paws in the corner (bear, otter; no twink animal, though). It's historically interesting how gay men have sorted themselves more by body type whereas gay women by fashion...but there's a bit of body type for lesbians or other wlw too, where "butch" is often burlier, but not always...and of course it's not universal, just like any social setting or trend. E.g. I wouldn't say I'm butch or femme. Maybe more fem if I think about it, but then I spell it without "me," and is that very feminine without the French feminine ending...?
But I'm rambling. First walking, now talking (okay, writing). The point is, I saw words about flags and I stood there, curious, lapping up the brightly coloured information. Like my sporadic love of my brother's flag game, how I'd try to memorize all the flags. Occasional special interest, like my coin collection.
(Favourite national flag: eh, a toss-up between Seychelles and South Africa.)
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