![]() ![]() But for me, if it’s comfortable I’ll wear it. I enjoy mixing hard and soft, masculine and feminine, finding those gray areas. I think that fashion is moving in that direction already anyways. “A baggy shirt with baggy pants, that sort of erases any individuality, as opposed to enhancing it. “Gender neutral clothing is often, for lack of a better term, bags on bags,” Dillon says. The recent influx of gender neutral clothing is a start, but not without its own set of constrictions. “We still go, ‘Bravo for pushing the boundaries.’ But if we had someone who is assigned male at birth - whether they identify as non-binary or not - if they wear a dress or a skirt or a little bit of makeup, those people are ostracized.” “It’s still groundbreaking when we have someone who was assigned female at birth, whether they identify as a woman or not, wearing a suit on a red carpet,” Dillon says. The separation of gender from clothing is far from achieved. While that’s a start, it still is problematic and limiting. On the show, as in the real world, gender non-binary identity is presented sartorially through mostly masculine clothing when “gender neutral” clothing is the goal, that almost always manifests as loose-fitting, masculine-derived pieces. That’s what I want to be talking about with anyone that I encounter.” “Honestly, these are the conversations that I’ve been having with my friends, family - not just about gender identity, but when it comes to any sort of disenfranchised or marginalized community. “When you see white, cisgendered, heterosexual men having conversations about gender identity where they go, ‘Oh, those are your pronouns? OK great, let’s get back to work,’ it allows other people to say, ‘Maybe if they can do it, I can do it.’”ĭillon admits to spending a lot of time answering questions about gender (and reassuring people as they stumble over pronouns), but “I’m so grateful to be doing it,” they say. “I think the impact is almost unquantifiable - I would say that from what I’ve seen, the impact is international and it’s allowing people who may inherently feel that they don’t have any understanding or ability to engage in conversations when it comes to gender identity,” Dillon says of their sudden ascendance to the spotlight, at the hands of Taylor. On May 7, Dillon was a presenter at the MTV Movie and TV Awards, where for the first time awards were given out in categories not limited to gender. ![]() In early April, when Showtime went to submit Dillon’s name for Emmy consideration, their choice to be listed as an actor, not an actress, drew attention - and overwhelming praise. “Honestly, from a very young age, before I had the language really - anywhere that I encountered binary, whether it was in clothing or in toys or in media, it always made me uncomfortable,” they say. Though the terminology was unfamiliar, the notion was something Dillon had grappled with their whole life. And that light-bulb moment was really extraordinary and very freeing.” Up until that moment I hadn’t understood that I could’ve been assigned female at birth, but that didn’t automatically make me a girl or a woman. And sometimes they conform and sometimes they don’t. “For the first time, I understood that gender identity and assigned sex are two different things. ![]() “When I read the breakdown for Taylor and it said ‘female non-binary,’ and I looked up those words, I had a light-bulb moment,” Dillon says. But while the Netflix show is a cultural behemoth in its own right, it’s the role in “Billions” that changed the game for Dillon - both professionally and, more importantly, personally, giving them the identification they had always sought. The “Billions” role comes following a minor part on “Orange Is the New Black,” as a woman in the prison’s “white pride movement,” which will be revived when the show returns on June 9. It really moved my soul from a very young age.” ![]() “I remember specifically a couple of performances that I saw when I was young - River Phoenix in ‘Stand by Me’ and also Michael Jackson, in particular his ability to command such power and love while maintaining such deep vulnerability. “I don’t ever remember a time when it wasn’t something I knew I was supposed to be doing - when I didn’t understand that performing was the way in which I was going to make my mark,” they say. Dillon, 32, has been acting consistently since a kindergarten play in their native Ithaca, N.Y. ![]()
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