Casual or Dressy?
Lots of girls like to go out feeling and looking sexy. I’m no different, so when I’m in the mood I’ll throw on a little blouse, knee-length skirt, and walkable heels. Of course, it’s silly to do this all the time. This is a mistake that many MtF’s make early on, myself included. It’s actually taken me a while to be secure in my femininity enough to go out dressed casually, but I’ve already found out that I pass a bit better wearing a knit top and jeans versus a more formal look. I look like a thousand other cute girls on the street, I’m not dressed up more than the person I’m going out with, and I don’t get all the extra attention that comes with dressing dressy. That extra attention, particularly male sexual attention, leads to scrutiny, which makes a few more people realize I’m not a biological female. It’s no wonder so many MtF’s dress down so much, or why many lesbian women dress down or dress androgynously.
A friend of mine claimed that skirts draw far more attention than cleavage, lipstick, or any other attention-seeking accessory. While I reminded her that her wearing black miniskirt pretty much announces to the world that she wants to get laid, she stood by her point. So, I decided to do my own little personal sociology experiment. I haven’t been going out as female that long and am still way too self conscious, so I’m always looking at the way people look at me. How would the looks differ between me wearing a skirt and me wearing jeans? Not only did I get far less looks wearing jeans, but by following people’s eyes, they definitely did little more than glance my way as if I was anybody on the street. Same in the pharmacy or supermarket. Wearing a skirt, I get checked out a lot more, even hit on, and it didn’t matter whether my skirt fell below my knees or above. This is probably incredibly obvious to everyone who’s lived a significant amount of time as female, but as someone going through gender transition, the difference was shocking. No matter how feminine I feel, I lose a lot of insight by being raised as a traditional male. I’m just happy my female friends have been so supportive through this.
