Sexual harassment and unwanted sexual advances from men are annoying experiences shared by lesbians everywhere.
Singer Alicia Keys, who is rumored to be bisexual, says she solved the problem unwanted male attention by dressing like a butch lesbian.
In a new post on her blog, the mother-of-2 wrote that she hid her natural curves and ample assets under baggy clothing.
“I definitely started hiding when I got old enough to walk down my NY streets alone,” she wrote candidly.
“I started to notice a drastic difference in how men would relate to me if I had on jeans, or if I had on a skirt, or if my hair was done pretty. I could tell the difference, I could feel the animal instinct in them and it scared me. I didn’t want to be talked to in that way, looked at in that way, whistled after, followed. And so I started hiding. I chose the baggy jeans and timbs, I chose the ponytail and hat, I chose no makeup, no bright color lipstick or pretty dresses. I chose to hide. Pieces at a time. Less trouble that way.”
Alicia (pictured at age 19 with T-Boz) blamed her tomboy attire for the lesbian rumors that have plagued her her entire career.
“I remember feeling that same way when I first started to get recognized as an artist. I had the baggy/braided/tough NY tomboy thing mastered, that was who I was (or who I chose to be) and I felt good there. Then, because of the way I spoke or carried myself, people started calling me gay and hard and I wasn’t gay, but I was hard and although I felt comfortable there, it made me uncomfortable that people were judging me and so slowly I hid that side of myself. I put on dresses and didn’t braid my whole head up, so people could see more of the “real” me, even though at that point I’m sure I was more confused then ever of what the real me was.”
