Hi Zenlady,
What you posted raised some interesting questions in my mind about MIADs in general.
Just because you don't wear makeup and a wig and all the other fripperies, I wouldn't personally consider what you've described on this thread to be "partial" crossdressing. At home I do much the same myself. Admittedly, I do normally slip on a wig, earrings and a couple of other items of jewelry. But they hardly take a moment, while makeup, nails, and shaving arms and legs (or bleaching them as I've often done) take time, so I usually skip those chores.
Many years ago in the old Tapestry magazine I recall an article titled "The Lazy Transvestite." It was about many crossdressers, usually older, who got a little tired of all the work involved in transforming themselves. Just like you and me. So they became minimalists.
More important, we're doing just as much as any woman might do on occasions when she was staying home and couldn't be bothered with all those extras. She wouldn't need makeup, shaving or a wig, because her face, skin and hair already look feminine without them. All she'd need is to slip on a bra and panties, a dress, or a skirt and blouse or sweater, pants and top or whatever--maybe tights just as you like, and a pair of shoes--and she's ready to go. Nobody could say she's not "fully dressed"!
Viewed that way, I certainly see what I do to be "full" crossdressing, not partial. The same goes for you. It's nice to think I only need to do what any woman might do: hook up a bra and slide into panties, a slip (I like to wear a slip), a skirt and blouse and so forth, and hey presto! I'm a woman "just like her"; I'm Marianne.
That leads me to the next issue. Although I'm primarily male and comfortable with being so, I've never counted myself a MIAD, because I do like to see myself as a woman when I crossdress, not as a man. I dress because I enjoy wearing female clothes, yes, but that's also part and parcel of the wish to experience and express a feminine gender identity. Female clothes support the expression of that feminine identity; or rather, that feminine part of my total identity that I'm expressing at a given time.
Conversely, when I'm in male mode I just wear male clothing. Unlike some, I prefer not to mix the two together. I don't "underdress" in panties for instance, as many do--some with a bra as well. I see myself as having "dual gender identities," switching between the two, but on the whole I prefer to keep them separate and distinct.
Now I do, in a literal sense, "partially" crossdress at times. That's to say, I'll just toss on a skirt and panties to wear around the house, and that's all. But that's only a "feminine version" of what I would otherwise be wearing in male mode: cargo shorts and Jockeys. (It gets hot here in Phoenix, and some of the time I'm walking around with nothing on at all.)
I also admit, as I'm sure Gretchen would do, that the question of "what gender am I right now?" is not necessarily in my head at all. Often, no matter what I'm wearing, I'm just "being me"--whoever "I" may be! As Sigmund Freud is alleged to have said: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." In the same way, "sometimes clothes are just clothes" and nothing else. They're whatever we happen to feel like wearing at a given time, irrespective of gender considerations.
In spite of that, I must add that sometimes if I'm sitting around in just a skirt and panties, I "feel feminine" and start feeling the need for a bra as well. Naturally a blouse follows, and a couple of other items, and there I am fully crossdressed as a woman.
The reason I'm saying all this is that it wasn't entirely clear to me whether you would identify with the term "MIAD" or not. Do women's clothes have "gender significance" to you, or are they purely a matter of styles, colors and fabrics and nothing else?
The key question is whether, like me, you like to see yourself as a woman when you crossdress, or still as a man? A WIAD or a MIAD?
Despite what you said in your second post on this thread, one reason this wasn't clear to me was the apparent significance of your name.
We choose to call ourselves certain names here that were not our "given" names: literally, names that were "given" to us by our parents--whether we like them or not! For some like yourself, they're just "handles" we use for anonymity on a message board, which are quite different from any name we use in our private lives. In French, unlike English, people ask, not "What is your name?" but Comment vous appelez-vous?"--literally, "How do you call yourself? and the answer is "Je m'appelle Pierre" (or whatever). Literally, "I call myself 'Peter'!" (And I "rock"! Others may call me what they will, but that's what I call myself!) In the same way, what we "call ourselves" is a choice.
Most people here, like myself, have at least some degree of feminine gender identity, and have a "femme name" we've chosen for ourselves. It actually surprised me to discover that not everybody does this automatically--we're all very different here!--but when we do this, it's not usually because anyone "told" us we ought to. Rather, I'm sure the need occurs to most crossdressers quite spontaneously, as it did to me. If my dressing served the purpose of expressing feminine gender identity, it felt as incongruous to "wear" my male name as it would to wear steel-toed workboots along with nylons and a skirt! So of course I needed a female name to match the rest of my outfit.
So your own "handle" was one of two things that aroused my curiosity, because it's ambiguous in my mind. You "call yourself" "Zenlady." Does this imply some degree of feminine identification associated with your crossdressing? I wonder if you have a "secret" female name. If so, would you still call yourself a MIAD?
Not that it matters either way! We're all welcome here, no matter who we are. But it prompted one of two fundamental questions in my mind:
Does a MIAD have a "femme name"--or want one?
I imagine the answer is No! If anyone identifies exclusively as a male, regardless of what clothes he wears, what need would he have for a female name? Though I'd be interested to hear from anyone about this.
I do still think that certain clothes have an "essential" femininity, for reasons I won't explore here--though I could cite "delicate fabrics," "flow," and "display" among other qualities. Yet I can imagine how anyone might appreciate and enjoy these qualities in an abstract, "aesthetic" sense, devoid of any association with gender, sexuality, or fetishism--while remaining unalterably male. After all, any man might look at a woman and think "What a beautiful dress!"--even if it's on someone else and he doesn't want to wear it himself. I admit I myself see women wearing dresses--typically with wonderful, bold colors and patterns--and think "Wouldn't I love to wear that?" without automatically thinking "Would I have to be a woman to do so?"
Still, returning to the topic of names, I'm pretty sure we have at least one MIAD on this board who originally registered with a female-sounding name, seeming "appropriately" feminine for the site, and after feeling comfortable here subsequently changed it to a different name sounding less feminine. What need does a MIAD have for a female name?
My second fundamental question out of curiosity is
Does a MIAD wear a bra?
Again, I suspect the answer is No! I know more than one MIAD on this board has said he doesn't. And to me, as to many others, the bra is more "fundamentally feminine" than any other garment I can think of. A skirt or tights or frills may be symbolic of femininity in our present culture, but they have been worn by males in other times and places. Panties may be erotic and intimately sexual, but they're still only underwear. But the whole purpose of a bra is to accentuate the female figure, and for a crossdresser, to help transform his male body shape into that of a woman. If he wants to, that is. What need would a MIAD have for a bra, if he has no wish to see himself as a woman? Except possibly as an means to "pass" wearing a dress in public. Though again, I'd be interested to hear from anyone about this too.
In your photos, it looks as if you're wearing a bra. Although--I hope you'll forgive me--you might have naturally plump breasts. So again, I can't help wondering whether you really would identify as a MIAD, with no feminine identity--which is fine--or simply as a "lazy crossdresser" as in that old Tapestry magazine: still with a yen to be a woman at times, merely shirking the effort it takes.
It doesn't matter either way. But if my impertinent curiosity helps you or anyone else to "find themselves," I hope it serves a purpose. All the best to you!