Sappy?

[Rachel Ann]

This may make me sound like the village idiot.

A big part of becoming feminine for me is learning to take joy in little things and small kindnesses. I am finding it a lot easier to speak and act in a positive way, which makes me think and feel more positive.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Rachel xxx

[Karren H]

Nahhhh...I've always been positive!! Ok I did have one day in the last year that I may have been a very little bit non-positivish!!! . But no one really noticed. Then again, I do think the embracing my fem side has been great for my male side especially health wise!!

Love Karren

[LisaRose]

Not at all 'sappy'. One may say that it doesn't take being 'female' to feel and act upon such feelings but being feminine does make it much easier. It's simply means 'getting in touch with your feminine side'. I'm sure you'll agree that 'learning' the role of being 'male' meant putting away or hiding your soft side. Internally the question to me always comes up, "Did my feminine side cause some of my failures as a 'man'? Or, did my failures as a man cause my 'feminine side' to evolve?"

[uknowhoo]

Hiya Rachel Ann, it's lovely to see you, as always.

I do know what you mean about appreciating the little things. I'm not so sure that's necessarily a feminine trait, but I understand. If that's how it's working out for you, more power (of positive thinking) to ya!

xoxo

[bgirl]

I agree that its not necessarily a feminine traight. I think a lot of things come out when we are in femme that we have repressed along with our feminine side. Perhaps when we feel like a woman, it also becomes ok to be softer towards the world around us. Something we denied our male self.

[linnea]

Of course, my comments below are FULL of generalizations. But many of these observations are borne out by the facts. To wit, as boys, many of us learned that we should be tough, aggressive, and bold. We were praised for being strong physically, mentally, and emotionally which often meant suppressing our feelings rather than acknowledging and expressing them. We were conditioned to respond to the subliminity of grand-scale events rather than the beauty of delicate and tender objects or actions. Men and boys are certainly capable of appreciating and expressing themselves regarding the soft, frilly, fragrant, delicate, tender, emotional, beautiful aspects of life, but social mores tend measure such responses from men as effeminate.
I think that when we dress as women, we don a "mask" that disguises our own socialized male selves. Doing so reduces inhabitions we may have about responding to and expressing ourselves in the world at large. If we dress but don't venture out, the process still encourages us to see the world differently so that even when we aren't dressed en femme we remember these differently perspectives as viable ways to think and act and speak.
This is how it has worked for me. By dressing and thus putting myself into a feminine frame of mind, I have become more sensitive to issues and concerns that seem to me to be part of women's experience and the "women's world." On a very basic level, this would include the frustration women feel about something so mundane but necessary as the number of stalls in a restroom. Because I am often asking myself "how would a woman act in this situation," I am fully conscious of what I think are in the so-called feminine side. Of course, because I am a GM, my impressions and knowledge of this may be incorrect and distorted, but still my consciousness is heightened.
I think that this is a very healthy process. I think that I am a better, more understanding, more sensitive, and more accepting person because of it. I don't believe that a person would necessarily have to be a CD to accomplish similar results, but for me it has open different doors of awareness and behavior.

[Shannen]

I read many, many, years ago an article on how to speak like a woman. I pointed out that the vocal range of male vs. female was not really that different. What made the biggest difference was the choice of words, and especially phrases used.

You know, the diffence from "My what a lovely place setting tonight" and "So, what kinda grub we having?" and that kind of thing!

I find that these forums help me practice my phrasiology (sp?) and in the real world nobody takes offense at a more refined speech pattern in a male.

So, yes, it's the little things we care about in life that make the difference.

-Shannen