sandra-leigh
07-07-2010, 10:36 AM
As I was standing at a bus stop yesterday evening, a group of 2 men and 2 women in their mid-20's came along the sidewalk. They were not at all "rough looking", but my intuition told me that they might be a bit of trouble, so I used the "you are just passing by, there is no reason for me to pay attention to you" stance -- looked down the street for the bus, made sure my bus ticket was handy, that sort of thing. I didn't face them directly, but they could see my face and profile.
Roughly 6 seconds after they had passed by within 2 feet of me, the fellow who had passed closest to me commented to the others, "I couldn't tell whether that was a guy or a girl."
One of the women answered but I could not hear her clearly; the tone pattern sounded more like "girl" (the part after the 'g' sound was not "clipped"), but the indistinct words just before that could have been "It wasn't a...". (On the other hand, most people would tend to phrase their response to such a comment in the affirmative than in the negative, so "It was a girl" is more likely than "It wasn't a girl".)
I was not Dressed at the time: I had just left work and was wearing the clothes I wore to work: jean-appearance leggings (*) and a brown and gold leaves-and-stems top (**), with my usual long hair and flats. I didn't even have a bra on, let alone forms. I was, though, carrying my usual big colorful bag (which is really a purse.)
After the guy's comment, I smiled to myself and thought that I must finally be doing something right if someone who passes within a short distance of me has trouble reading me when I'm in my work clothes :battingeyelashes:
(*) The jean-appearance leggings: Hue, $CDN 40. Check them out, they are pretty good. They even have real back pockets.
(**) The top... yes, I would personally consider it somewhat feminine and beyond the fuzzy boundaries of "might perhaps be worn by a male". The odd thing about it is that I get a fair number of compliments about it no matter how I am presenting: somehow without being androgynous, it transcends gender. I don't question the effect, I just exploit it :heehee:
Roughly 6 seconds after they had passed by within 2 feet of me, the fellow who had passed closest to me commented to the others, "I couldn't tell whether that was a guy or a girl."
One of the women answered but I could not hear her clearly; the tone pattern sounded more like "girl" (the part after the 'g' sound was not "clipped"), but the indistinct words just before that could have been "It wasn't a...". (On the other hand, most people would tend to phrase their response to such a comment in the affirmative than in the negative, so "It was a girl" is more likely than "It wasn't a girl".)
I was not Dressed at the time: I had just left work and was wearing the clothes I wore to work: jean-appearance leggings (*) and a brown and gold leaves-and-stems top (**), with my usual long hair and flats. I didn't even have a bra on, let alone forms. I was, though, carrying my usual big colorful bag (which is really a purse.)
After the guy's comment, I smiled to myself and thought that I must finally be doing something right if someone who passes within a short distance of me has trouble reading me when I'm in my work clothes :battingeyelashes:
(*) The jean-appearance leggings: Hue, $CDN 40. Check them out, they are pretty good. They even have real back pockets.
(**) The top... yes, I would personally consider it somewhat feminine and beyond the fuzzy boundaries of "might perhaps be worn by a male". The odd thing about it is that I get a fair number of compliments about it no matter how I am presenting: somehow without being androgynous, it transcends gender. I don't question the effect, I just exploit it :heehee: