Leslie Langford
08-22-2009, 12:48 AM
So here I am - I have an appointment with an executive recruiter for a senior management position in their offices in the heart of the financial district. And I'm crossdressing as a male investment banker "wannabe" - dark blue business suit, white shirt, tie, wing-tip shoes, briefcase etc....
And I'm getting more "looks" than I typically do when out en femme. Totally in drab, yet I feel like a fish out of water. Why? Well, it's a hot, humid day and most of the rest of the world is dressed in shorts, capris, camisoles, cut-offs, halter tops, tank tops, golf shirts, muscle shirts, khakis, flip-flops, and sandals, among other things. I'm wearing traditional male attire, "Mad Men" style, and I'm the one perceived as the anomaly - even more so than if I were wearing a skirt, dress, hose, and heels.
Really puts the whole notion of being "passable" as a woman or blending in while at the same time fearing being "outed" into perspective. I'm already being "outed" in this scenario wearing what used to be considered normal, gender-appropriate clothing.
Yet the best thing was - lots of eye contact and smiles from GG's. So I guess many of them also secretly long for the days when men were men and still dressed in a professional and polished way as opposed to the blurring of the genders that we get these days.
Come to think of it - just like us crossdressers, who also wistfully remember the days when women dressed in an elegant, sophisticated, and feminine manner - a way many of us try to emulate in our own dressing styles, and consistent with the mental time warp of the 50's and 60's the "Boomers" among us still inhabit.
As I said, go figure... seems as if we've all lost something along the way to this brave new world of gender equality and overlap :doh::sad:.
And I'm getting more "looks" than I typically do when out en femme. Totally in drab, yet I feel like a fish out of water. Why? Well, it's a hot, humid day and most of the rest of the world is dressed in shorts, capris, camisoles, cut-offs, halter tops, tank tops, golf shirts, muscle shirts, khakis, flip-flops, and sandals, among other things. I'm wearing traditional male attire, "Mad Men" style, and I'm the one perceived as the anomaly - even more so than if I were wearing a skirt, dress, hose, and heels.
Really puts the whole notion of being "passable" as a woman or blending in while at the same time fearing being "outed" into perspective. I'm already being "outed" in this scenario wearing what used to be considered normal, gender-appropriate clothing.
Yet the best thing was - lots of eye contact and smiles from GG's. So I guess many of them also secretly long for the days when men were men and still dressed in a professional and polished way as opposed to the blurring of the genders that we get these days.
Come to think of it - just like us crossdressers, who also wistfully remember the days when women dressed in an elegant, sophisticated, and feminine manner - a way many of us try to emulate in our own dressing styles, and consistent with the mental time warp of the 50's and 60's the "Boomers" among us still inhabit.
As I said, go figure... seems as if we've all lost something along the way to this brave new world of gender equality and overlap :doh::sad:.