"It Gets Better" or "How I Avoided Suicide" Jeans

If you are American and you are queer, you have probably heard of itgetsbetter.org, an anti-bullying organization founded by Dan Savage.  I really like this org.  They do good work and let queer and bullied youth know that they are not alone.  I myself was severely bullied in school by my peers and sometimes my teachers.  The bullying started at a very young age.  I had mild physical disabilities that made me stand out.  When I came out as bisexual in the 10th grade, it just got worse.  I was miserable as a teen and completely self-destructive.  I could see no light at the end of the sewer drain.  Honestly, I am amazed that I survived.
Creativity has always been my savior.  I was big on embroidery, and I funneled all the unfairness, sorrow and anger I was feeling into this pair of retro bell bottom jeans.  Today, at age 36, I am a performer who is is beginning to take her visual art more seriously.

 

Back Pockets

 Back of Jeans

I am calling this piece the "It Gets Better" or "How I Avoided Suicide" jeans.  They are size 3/4 (I could hardly fit into them then.)

These jeans are the result of 5 years of freehand embroidery.  That's 5 years of an alternative to suicide.  Not bad.  Not bad at all!

Bidding begins at $400.  I will donate half of whatever I receive to itgetsbetter.org

Note the pink and black triangles.  Can't crush this identity, folks!

I even signed them in embroidery.  This is before I adopted the last name Rabbit.

Cunt fly and interlocking male female signs

Freedom Rings.  I used to wear the metal ones around my neck

Left Leg, Detailed photos below

 
Look at how totally psychedelic this is!  And yet it's completely not "Hippy Happy."  It's as if there's fire in there. All these carefully stitched words, "Power" with the woman symbol, "Unfair," "Unsafe," "Feel," and masked but not invisible, the word "Dyke."