What's in a word

There's been a couple of posts were folks have talked about the perennial topic of passing. During these posts alternatives descriptions came up, Presentable and Plausible. One of the other perennials is feeling sexy.

The other night I was sat on the edge of the bed taking off my holdups and the thought struck me that wearing them didn't necessarily make me feel sexy. If I had to put a definition to it it would be sensual. I enjoy the sensation hence the description. Okay, it's being a bit pedantic, hair splitting perhaps but even when I'll dressed to the very best I can achieve, I don't see or experience myself as having a sexy aura. I'm not looking to give off signals, indicators of sexuality.

Forms, padding, corsets, bodycon dress, heels, wig, all go to make me feel good about myself and I think give off a different persona but there's never any desire to act sexy. Act like a GG who's confident in her own skin, yep perhaps, but sexy, no.

I guess we all pursue it for varying reasons and perceive it in varying ways. It's like viewing a color. We may agree upon a common name for it. But we will never know if the color I see is the same as the color you see. Julie

A written word is a collection of symbols. A spoken word is a transmission of energy that has both the standard meaning but can also be modified by inflection. In a language shared by others, we view that and the context to build a represnetation of that in our mind, and apply past experience to its meaning at that moment by who said it.
A 2 yr old saying "Sexy" with questioning inflection seeing a pet has very different meaning than your spouse seeing you naked and saying "Sexxxxyyy!!" With the tonal inflections implied by the repetition and exclamations.

So you taking off your hold-ups (thigh high stockings) may not seem sexy to you, but could be found to be visually stimulating aka sexy to another person. Stimulating may just mean that it grabbed the other person's attention or more than that. Sexy is in the eye of the beholder. And that may change over time.
So when you first put on hold ups, that may have made YOU feel sexy, and now it does not.
With the current thread of "sexiest picture", that is hopefully just tasteful pictures of what each person thinks or others may find "sexy". To some it was lingerie, others shapely legs, to some it may be cleavage, some just stylish clothes. No right or wrong.
Some don't want to be seen as sexy, others crave it.
I personally just want to look - what's the word - pretty. Whatever that means :)
Hugs, Ellen

Nope, I don't go after the 'sexy' look either. Smart, presentable, as close to a GG as I can get with what I have to work with, but not sexy. Nothing wrong with it of course it that's your thing.

Looking sexy and feeling sexy are definitely two separate things. Some even think that's just watching one take off an item of clothes say that's sexy. I love sexy clothes and love wearing a sexy outfit. My wife though says sexy is only in the eyes of the beholder. She also has many sexy bras and cute outfits that I think sexy and look very feminine to me, but after she wears them for a time she is ready to get out of those things and get comfortable. She doesn't understand why I would want to walk around the house in tall heels. I guess to each their own.

Beautifully put, Helen. That's the explanation I was trying to give in another thread. It's not sexy that I'm after (most of the time) but just feeling "right".

For me I dress differently depending where I'm going. If it's in full public I am more conservative and trying to blend in with the GG. Passable to me is when you don't stop a room because it's that obvious. If I'm going out at night to a TS/cd club then I'm trying to look and feel as sexy as I can regardless of how passable I look. There's a tell to every cd so the word passable doesn't really apply IMO