(Image via Conleth Kane)

Conleth Kane is speaking out about retreating into a self-crafted Spice World in order to fend off homophobic bullying when he was a kid.

I never had outrageous bullying (Dennis Donnay was a jerk to me more than once in gym class, and once in typing class) to deal with, but I think I used Madonna, as a teen, to express that I was different, unafraid of social expectations and disagreed with conservatism.

My high school-era room. I still have most of it, though not the Cybill Shepherd Us.

Vintage usher's jacket; celluloid tie; 10 cents a dance (Images via Matthew Rettenmund)

But, yeah, the pics are pretty similar! (I was in college by this point, and having kitschy walls at the University of Chicago was another sort of statement.)

My poster collection here.