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Genderqueer model Rain Dove doesn’t care if you think she’s a man or a woman

Androgyny has long been a part of runways and retail ads, but only in the last few years have we begun to see a trend of female-identified models walking in and wearing menswear. Casey Legler, Erika Linder and Elliot Sailors are known for their androgyny which, combined with handsome faces and cool swagger, has given them an edge on the male market. One of the new players is Rain Dove, a firefighter turned fashion model who has leant her image to designers like Malan Breton, Vivienne Hu, Chromat and Rochambeau at the recent Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week. Standing 6’2″ with dark features, a piercing stare and a masculine pout, Rain seems like she was built to be a model, though she says she only attended a casting call because she lost a bet during a football game.

“When I showed up they told me I showed up on the wrong day,” Rain said. “Turns out the next day it was the men’s casting call and that they assumed I was male. I decided to do it and it blew up my career pretty quickly.”

Rain (yes, that’s her real name) said she never thought of herself as androgynous growing up. Instead, she saw herself as “an ugly woman.”

“I never had bad feelings about it, I just felt that maybe I was that one girl,” Rain said. “It wasn’t until I was wilderness firefighter for a while and that’s when I felt more empowered in my ambiguity and sexuality as far as gender presentation goes.”

People frequently assume Rain is male, and she doesn’t correct them. “When I was a firefighter they thought I was a male and I went with it because I really need a job and I was out in the middle of nowhere in Colorado,” she said. “So I utilized my gender bending profile as something that had gotten me a bunch of odd jobs from nannying to landscape.”

Rain grew up on a farm which she said gave her “big muscles,” and the fact she was “a foot taller than everyone else” made her stand out.

“My parents called me Danny thru elementary school because they thought my friends would tease me for my name. They thought it would make me stick out more than I stuck out,” Rain said. “In high I learned the truth. But having a different name didn’t really help much, they still teased me and called me ‘Tranny Danny.’ I was too young to even know what tranny meant.”

The very same attributes that might have gotten her picked on in her youth are why she’s a sought after model in both menswear and womenswear. In her every day life, she says she hates heels and prefers sneakers. She wears boxers but she’s not opposed to putting on a skirt.

“Depending on if I’m having a commercial male day or female day,” Rain said. “I’ll wear a vest that shows off that I have breasts, or I will wear a baggy men’s shirt so I can blend in with the male crowd.”

Rain seems to prefer more menswear styles off the runway, but is often called to do womenswear, too.

“Womenswear is harder for me emotionally,” Rain said. “It’s very difficult to contribute to a particular genre of our culture like fashion that says women have to be a particular way. When I do women’s clothing I can’t see myself, when I walk in a suit, I can pop a squat on the floor and they say its brilliant. But with women, your butt is out, your chest is out, your lips are puffed…. There’s a small things that infuriate me about the women’s industry that makes it difficult to model in that. So I prefer to do women’s wear because there’s activism in it but I am a lot more comfortable doing men.”

Rain sees herself as an activist, in a way, because she’s hoping to change the perception of models, just by being one herself.

“I think it’s a different kind of activism. Like, women shouldn’t have to step into men’s roles to be empowered. They should be able to step into themselves,” she said. “So that’s what I try to bring, that we shouldn’t be thinking of it as menswear or womenswear it should be clothing for people. And that is geared towards anatomical values but isn’t exclusive.”

In an industry that appears to be increasingly queer friendly, Rain said that the most recent androgyny trend doesn’t mean there are necessarily more accepting attitudes for genderbending in every day style. Not all of the women who model that kind of aesthetic dress that way in real life, nor are they all queer-identified. Rain said that because she does, and is, it could work to her advantage, even when she’s up against the men.

“In certain ways for menswear I can probably pose stronger than some men who are more effeminate in nature,” Rain said. “Because men in the modeling world are flamboyant. I’m kind of the opposite: I’m a butchy lesbian. I’m not super butch but definitely compared to some of these guys, so the study of the ultra male has leant itself for me to be successful in the fashion world. During yahoo fashion week they had top five men trends and they had floral patterned jackets and I was the number one look for the mens. They didn’t know I wasn’t a man and I didn’t announce it, and that’s OK-it’s better that way. It’s much better that way. Because men who look at that photo and think I would look great in that will see that the gender has nothing to do with it, just the clothing.”

This January, Rain is part of a new Oxygen TV series that will follow the lives of women who live “alternative lifestyles.” In her episode, Rain said she’s followed around from her different jobs-including catering and construction companies where they think she’s a guy, to nannying and cocktail waitressing-but has a slight breakdown when they are on set with her on a lingerie shoot.

“They filmed one scene with a lingerie photo shoot and I did have a meltdown with the guy who wanted to make this whole body expression like someone was about to jizz in my face,” Rain said. “I was so mad at him. Why can’t I just be comfortable in lingerie? Why can’t I just sit on the couch and cheer for my favorite football team with a cigar and a cup of brandy? We don’t live in a world where we have to do that anymore. We can buy it because we like it, and it feels good. He disagreed with me. There were tears, half a weave was on the floor. You’ll see a whole scene there.”

Rain is also pursuing acting, as she has a role in the web series Dyke Central and is living between New York and California for the time being. She hopes that her being more visible in any capacity can help those who might not feel as confident in their gender-bending, like she was teased for as a kid.

“You know, I think you just have to realize it’s about your personal needs from society,” she said. “If you really feel that boxing yourself as a gender type is so important for you, and that is the thing that will make you happy in every day life-I understand that’s difficult, but jut because someone else said you’re one thing, doesn’t make that your definition. So your personal definition is the only definition that matters in your life.”

Follow Rain Dove on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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