GLAM I Am

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"It's the gift of postmodernism that we can be both deadly serious and self-mocking at the same time," says Peterson, who sports a somber "art-fag" look: rhinestone platform sandals, rubberized denim miniskirt, and "Too Butch to Cry" baby-T—all black. "The manifesto is about opening possibilities, about changing perceptions, about realizing desire. It's also about looking great as a way of communicating resistance."

Steinmetz and Peterson first distributed the Manifesto at a campus art show. They developed three mail-order kits, marketed under the mantra "The Revolution Will Not Be Sold in Stores": the GLAM Primer ($5), "a pocket-sized volume containing everyday performance activities for the beginner"; the GLAM Revolution Beginner's Campaign Kit ($20), "filled with indispensable items for budding GLAM princesses"—like starlet sunglasses, appropriate lipsticks, and toy handcuffs; and the Advanced GLAM Kit ($35), "performance tools for the advanced revolutionary, " including a made-to-order miniskirt, feather boa, and other assorted accessories.

Last summer, fully regaled, the Fabulous Lady Misses crashed Bowling Green State University's Style Conference, where academia's brightest pop-culture scholars gathered to discuss the latest research on 20th century Americana.

"We brought a huge pile of the Manifesto, which we left outside the conference rooms," recalls Peterson, "and when people came out of the sessions, they were picking them up and reading them." Soon Steinmetz and Peterson were hob-nobbing with the academic elite, attending sessions and debating the Manifesto's cultural significance. In the end, the pair say they were informed that their work would likely be included in the official conference anthology. Still, even bigger honors were forthcoming.

"Best of all, at the end of the conference, we were voted best dressed," Steinmetz adds. "Now there's an accomplishment."

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