I can't be sure but it seems after GRS is when I began to notice a return to more how I used to dress, think, be and act before transition ever began. I'm guessing people who knew me back then would say, outside of some physical changes, I'm still pretty much the same. The focus to present very female just isn't important to me. That's not who I am.
I used to spend my summers dressed in golf shirts, shorts and deck shoes. Now it's golf shirts, shorts and sandals, although the shorts are shorter and the golf shirts prettier. ;D While my parents were usually very nicely dressed, I gravitated towards more casual attire. As I went through the stages, crossdressing, transitioning, living full time, I went from dressing very nicely (skirt, heels, nicer jewelry) to golf casual. And in that time I went from working very hard to present female to settling back into just being me. Which probably means a more masculine presentation. I'm a lot closer to butch lesbian with a country club flair than I am to girly girl (a description I had for myself at the beginning of transition).
Full time girly takes a lot of work and it's just not that important to me anymore. There are other things I'd rather be doing. I like to look nice but putting that extra effort to really look nice is something I do only occasionally now, as opposed to every time I went out before.
Has anyone else seen themselves go through this kind of pendulum swing?
Julie
Yeah, I am a bit that way as well. But I get all my casual stuff from the ladies side of the store now.
I still have to dress corporate for work, but it is decidedly a feminine corporate casual now.
-Sandy
You sound and look like the typical woman, Julie!
About the only time I notice women who aren't at work, in skirts/heels/hose is at a wedding! Occasionally I'll see the sundresses on nice warm days, but that's the extent of it. They know, like you, that they are women and are comfortable in their own skin.
BTW, I think you look wonderful, dear!
I lean to the contrary, as usual. Aside from yard-work-grubbies, I dress WAY better than I ever did before transition. There are comfortable casuals that still have a bit of flare!
I did alot of the same. I think when you first start, you go for "flair" In the crossdressing stages you want to look ultra feminine and at times probably over do it.
As I began my transition I was definately that way. Once RLT started and I realzied it was impossible, if not impraticle to also be glammed up, my outlook on how I looked changed. I still enjoy putting on make up, and looking girly, but I realized I can look girly in a cute skirt or shorts, just as much as I can in dress. I perfer to be casual and comfortable.
What I was trying to say is my self perception has kind of reverted back a bit. I'm in no way masculine like I used to be but I'm certainly not forcing that girly presentation out there like I did through most of my transition. Maybe it's because I accept myself more now than I did before. Sure, some of the male markers get to me at times, but overall I'm pretty comfortable with who I am. And part of who I am was developed long before the first serious thoughts of transitioning ever entered my mind.
Julie
The swing of the pendulum is the perfect analogy for my RLT.
When I first lept from behind the uber-masculine facade that I had
painstakingly constructed of denim and barbed-wire, over the course of a few
decades, I felt exposed and insecure. I did the only thing that I knew to do and
that was to build another facade. This time the building materials were satins and lace.
Internally, the pendulum took more the form of a wrecking ball. As I progressed further
down my path of self discovery, each swing of the ball would knock loose a piece
from the opposing facade, until now I am able to stand unshielded before the
world comfortable with who I am. I still "clean up" quite well in satin and
barbed wire but usually it is casual in denim and lace. I wish I had been
able to find this happy medium, in presentation and minset, earlier on,
perhaps my assertions that, "I am still the same person only packaged
a little differently." would have rang a little truer for those I
had knocked for a loop, when my closet door exploded.
I\even though I'm not as far in my transition as you, I never was a "girly-girl." Jeans and a tank top, maybe on a warm day, a skirt, but I don't think it's the clothing that makes the woman, it think it's the woman who feels comfortable in her clothing! :)
Quote from: Northern Jane on September 14, 2009, 12:37:13 PM
I lean to the contrary, as usual. Aside from yard-work-grubbies, I dress WAY better than I ever did before transition. There are comfortable casuals that still have a bit of flare!
I would expect nothing less from you Jane ! :D
:icon_hug:
Chrissty