Straight Dad Proudly Wears Skirts And Heels To Fight Against Gender Stereotypes

When raising your children, you aim to make sure they grow up to be open-minded and accepting of others.

Typically, we try to achieve this by teaching our kids that all kinds of people deserve love and respect.

However, one dad is taking things a step further.

Mark Bryan, a straight father of three, is showing his kids that gender stereotypes are just a social construct by wearing skirts and heels.

Mark Bryan is a straight dad of three. markbryan911/Instagram

Many people have been amazed by Bryan’s daring approach to gendered clothing, and a lot of them have reached out with supportive messages for the father.

One person writes: “Great I’m glad he can wear what he wants to. Shows he is self-confident. We need more people like him.”

Another person 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.”

A third person 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 he’s also building his social media presence. He’s gathered nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram.

Mark Bryan has amassed a huge social media following for his OOTDs. markbryan911/Instagram

He captions each outfit post with: “Clothes and shoes do not dictate a person’s sexual orientation or gender.”

In an interview with PurpleHaze, Bryan shared how his efforts are affecting 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.”

Mark Bryan is helping others feel comfortable wearing ‘non-gender conforming clothing’. markbryan911/Instagram

He added that he wants to ‘de***ualize clothing’ and help everyone ‘feel comfortable’ wearing whatever they want.

Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar Australia, Bryan talked about his new role 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 represent.

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’.