A straight dad is fighting against gender stereotypes by wearing skirts and heels.
When raising your children, you want to ensure they’re open-minded and accepting of others.
Most of us do that by explaining to our kids that all types of different people deserve love and respect.
But one dad has decided to go the extra mile.
Mark Bryan, a straight father of three, shows his kids that gender stereotypes are just a social construct by wearing skirts and heels.
People have been left floored by Bryan’s bold stance on gendered clothing, with many offering messages of support to the father.
One writes: “Great I’m glad he can wear what he wants to. Shows he is self-confident. We need more people like him.”
Another adds: “It looks great! Don’t know how he uses it on his day-to-day though, heels this high for sure hurt after a few hours.”
While a third agrees: “The only thing I’m mad about is how I can’t get my calves to look like his, haha. He looks amazing!!”
Bryan works full-time as an engineer, but is also growing his social media following – he’s amassed nearly 600,000 followers on his Instagram.
He captions every outfit post: “Clothes and shoes do not dictate a person’s sexual orientation or gender.”
In an interview with PurpleHaze, Bryan revealed his impact on others: “It became more and more evident that what I was doing on Instagram was helping so many that wanted to wear non-gender conforming clothing but were afraid to have their sexuality questioned.
“I get over 100 direct messages a day on my Instagram account and a large number of them are followers that have thanked me for the courage to go out wearing something regardless of what others may think. Others still have this fear, however.”
He added that he wants to ‘desexualise clothing’ and help everyone ‘feel comfortable’ wearing what they want.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar Australia, Bryan opened up about his new career as an influencer.
“If I have the opportunity, why not try to make some money doing it?” said Bryan. “But I’m also having a lot of fun.
“If you’d told me I was going to do this 13 months ago, I would have just laughed and said, ‘No freakin’ way’.”
He continued: “Someone sees me walking down the street, they ought to just say, ‘Oh that’s Mark and he’s just wearing a pair of shoes’, instead of, ‘That’s Mark, wearing a pair of women’s shoes’.
“When we get to the point where we don’t attach a gender reference to an article of clothing, then that’s where clothes become genderless.”
Bryan told Bored Panda he’s ‘always admired’ women who wear skirts and heels because of the ‘power’ they present.
He explained: “To me, clothes have no gender. I prefer skirts to dresses. Dresses don’t allow me to mix the genders. I prefer a ‘masculine’ look above the waist and a non-gendered look below the waist. It’s all about clothes having no gender.”
The dad added he loves ‘all the fashion options’.