Fly Your Freak Flag High (FYFFH)

Fly Your Freak Flag High (FYFFH)

Make an actual "freak flag" that represents your unique and awesome self, and take it home to fly it high! Warning: spontaneous freak flag parades may erupt during the weekend...you'll want to be prepared.

What inspired you to make this project?:
This project and the accompanying website is the brainchild of Julia Dvorin (that's me, talking about myself in third person). I came up with it over lunch with a friend one day, while I was talking about the science fiction and gaming cons I was going to. I started poking fun at myself by saying "yeah, I'm really learning to fly my freak flag high". And then I thought to myself: wouldn't it be cool if I had an actual freak flag to fly? What would it look like? And where would I fly it? That random idea grew into the FYFFH project.

I've always been interested in the theory and practice of identity work, especially around stigmatized identities. For a long time I thought I'd study identity work as an academic (I got my MA in Sociology and wrote a thesis on identity work in women with cancer), but then I suffered through a serious disillusionment with academia and quit grad school. In the years since I have worked hard on surfacing and embracing my own creative, multifaceted freaky self, and felt the stronger and more alive for it. The FYFFH project is my way of paying it forward by enabling this same valuable creative self-exploration and self-appreciation in other people.

FYFFH was also inspired by the fabulous WDYDWYD? (Why Do You Do What You Do?) project, as well as the feminist and queer/gay pride movements.

Project Website