I’ll ask everyone again to stop with the “wear your warpaint, aka your lipstick or fandom pins or cute poodle skirt” crap? 

Having your face painted is a very solemn, significant thing in my culture, and a great honour, and I don’t like it continuously being equated with that kind of trifling crap. I can think of a bunch of different versions that don’t rely on creepy colonial distortions of Indigenous practices to refer to putting on a special outfit or particular item to psyche yourself up or make yourself feel prepared, like “put on your protective spells”, or “put on your eyeblack” or “put on your amulet”. Come on. Didn’t you learn anything from the “spirit animal” debacle? 

Whenever I put on an outfit that makes me feel confident and assertive, I think of it as strapping on my armor.