Dr. Micaela

And I do work in a professional grown-up setting for a hospital.

And there are times when I can't just be me the way I am mostly being me here.

And so I do have to wear heels and sometimes a blazer and other things like that.

um blouses ew uh i do wear those but i refuse to wear slacks right so that might be an example of like look i'm gonna fit in as much as possible but slacks are just like a hard pass for me um also my work bag is a fantastic

SpongeBob SquarePants, brightly colored, visible from a hundred feet away, backpack purse sling thingy.

So yeah, I'm going to fit in as much as possible.

I can talk the talk, I can walk the walk for briefish periods of time, but I'm still gonna walk around with a shiny, brightly colored SpongeBob bag because that helps me really lean into embrace

the me-est me that I can be while still fitting in and being like traditionally professional.

for people who have less flexibility in this, that might be a pin on your bag or a patch or something like that, right?

It might be, I've worked with actually a number of men who feel intense pressure to look very like fancy and the tie and the thing, and who then wear super fun socks or like undergarments.

So that they kind of have this like, I'm not allowed to be loud and like out there or different visibly, but I know I have like my secret me and I have my fun socks or fun underwear.

And so that can be a way.

There is a term for this that's called alternative rebellion.

So if you wanted to kind of like dive into what are some other ways that I might be able to do this to feel more like me.

And so alternative rebellion, the idea is basically I can still kind of rebel against my social norms or against these things that require me to be different than I am, but

I can rebel in a way that's not going to basically fuck me over, right?

Because if I'm supposed to be in a suit and a tie and nice loafers, but I say, forget that, I'm going to wear a purple blazer and jeans, you could get fired, right?

Or you could lose clients or something.

I don't know.

Maybe patients don't want to come back to you.