Emily Barton
04-05-2018, 04:08 PM
This morning I woke up to an unexpectedly clear day, and a quick check of the weather forecast showed it would be sunny all day with highs of 8 degrees (that seems high right now after the awful weather we've had the past few months!).
So obviously with such scorching weather I had to dress the part. I've got this new pink maxi skirt that I've been looking forward to wearing and paired it with some yellow wedges. My red toenails are looking a little sorry for themselves but I didn't have time to do anything about them so I decided they'd have to do! Threw on a t-shirt (tucked into the skirt though as it's super high-waisted) and a coat and set off on the walk to work.
I'm about 10 minutes in when I hear someone say "Hello". I look up to find a man has stopped and got out of his car right by me. I say "Hi" and smile, unsure of what to expect, and he continues: "My son is a crossdresser. I just thought I'd say hello". I beamed and thanked him, then continued on my way.
The work day passes by and no one says a word/bats an eyelid - they're all totally used to it by now (although even when they weren't, the only reactions were positive). On the walk back, pretty much at exactly the same point as the morning, I hear someone behind me wolf whistle and start laughing. I don't turn around and just continue walking, at which point they start calling out things like "Hey, gorgeous!" and "Give us your number!". Whatever - nothing I haven't dealt with before.
Once I reached my house I decided to carry on past it and go for a bit of a walk in the sun. I strolled past a group of women who were part of some kind of exercise class, and one of them asked if I could take a picture for them. "Of course", I said, and as I took the phone from her she told me she loved my skirt. As I took the photo one of the other ladies complimented me on it too. Awesome, chalk that up as a 2-1 win to common decency!
Unfortunately, as I headed home there was another equaliser. Walking down a fairly busy road I heard a car horn, and turned to find a car slowing as it passed me so that the guy in the passenger seat could yell something obscene out of the window. I won't repeat it here, but suffice to say it wasn't nice! I'm thankful to have thick enough skin that it bounces right off, but it does anger me how much hurt it could cause someone else. Unfortunately they were gone too fast for me to take a license plate - not that anything would've come of reporting them anyway I'm sure.
So, that was my day, and I guess you can call it a 2-2 draw. I think the thing that's always worth pointing out, though, is the hundreds of opportunities for an interaction that resulted in absolutely nothing. The real winner of the day was, and will always be, the "non-events" - the score should really be more like 2-2-500! I'm not claiming that assholes aren't out there - my day clearly demonstrates that they are. But of the hundreds of people who saw me today, only 2 spoke out negatively in any way whatsoever. Why should fear of them stop any of us from just being ourselves?
In other news, it's looking like highs of 11 tomorrow so if I haven't died of heat exhaustion (:heehee:) I'll be out in my finery again. Something floral, perhaps? :daydreaming:
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So obviously with such scorching weather I had to dress the part. I've got this new pink maxi skirt that I've been looking forward to wearing and paired it with some yellow wedges. My red toenails are looking a little sorry for themselves but I didn't have time to do anything about them so I decided they'd have to do! Threw on a t-shirt (tucked into the skirt though as it's super high-waisted) and a coat and set off on the walk to work.
I'm about 10 minutes in when I hear someone say "Hello". I look up to find a man has stopped and got out of his car right by me. I say "Hi" and smile, unsure of what to expect, and he continues: "My son is a crossdresser. I just thought I'd say hello". I beamed and thanked him, then continued on my way.
The work day passes by and no one says a word/bats an eyelid - they're all totally used to it by now (although even when they weren't, the only reactions were positive). On the walk back, pretty much at exactly the same point as the morning, I hear someone behind me wolf whistle and start laughing. I don't turn around and just continue walking, at which point they start calling out things like "Hey, gorgeous!" and "Give us your number!". Whatever - nothing I haven't dealt with before.
Once I reached my house I decided to carry on past it and go for a bit of a walk in the sun. I strolled past a group of women who were part of some kind of exercise class, and one of them asked if I could take a picture for them. "Of course", I said, and as I took the phone from her she told me she loved my skirt. As I took the photo one of the other ladies complimented me on it too. Awesome, chalk that up as a 2-1 win to common decency!
Unfortunately, as I headed home there was another equaliser. Walking down a fairly busy road I heard a car horn, and turned to find a car slowing as it passed me so that the guy in the passenger seat could yell something obscene out of the window. I won't repeat it here, but suffice to say it wasn't nice! I'm thankful to have thick enough skin that it bounces right off, but it does anger me how much hurt it could cause someone else. Unfortunately they were gone too fast for me to take a license plate - not that anything would've come of reporting them anyway I'm sure.
So, that was my day, and I guess you can call it a 2-2 draw. I think the thing that's always worth pointing out, though, is the hundreds of opportunities for an interaction that resulted in absolutely nothing. The real winner of the day was, and will always be, the "non-events" - the score should really be more like 2-2-500! I'm not claiming that assholes aren't out there - my day clearly demonstrates that they are. But of the hundreds of people who saw me today, only 2 spoke out negatively in any way whatsoever. Why should fear of them stop any of us from just being ourselves?
In other news, it's looking like highs of 11 tomorrow so if I haven't died of heat exhaustion (:heehee:) I'll be out in my finery again. Something floral, perhaps? :daydreaming:
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