Jason Rice, 44, has taken his activism in another, equally pointed direction. “For me posting is an act of rebellion,” said Mr. Rice, a partner in Changez Hair Salon in Royal Oak, Mich.: one way, he explained of ridding himself of the stigma of wearing women’s clothes.
“I grew up a queer kid,” said Mr. Rice, who appears online variously garbed in ultrawide paisley neckwear, layered jeweled chokers and, in one instance, a filmy blush-tone off-the- shoulder dress. “For me posting is a way of stating, ‘I refuse to let this moment take me down,” he said.
Ms. Slater, of @accidentalicon, posts, she said, in part as a retort to ageism. “Many older women have felt vulnerable this crisis,” she said, adding that implicit in the ubiquitous messaging about at-risk populations is the notion that older people should remove themselves from society.
She is not having it. “For me posting is much more about expressing who I am,” she said, “regardless of my age or what others think or have to say about it.”
Paula Sutton, a lifestyle blogger in Norfolk, England, has taken up the gauntlet. On @hillhousevintage, her Instagram account, she fans out her skirts or cavorts on her lawn in a series of colorful garden-worthy frocks, her poses expressions of unfettered joy.
“I am fifty years of age and I see no shame in enjoying pretty dresses and attempting to live life as beautifully and positively as I can,” Ms. Sutton declares in one of her extended captions.