The Week in Crossdressing #6

 I've written before about Harry Styles and his penchant for crossdressing which is always nice to see from someone in the public eye. This week he appeared on the cover of Vogue's December 2020 edition not only being the first solo male ever to do so in the magazine's long history but the first one to do so wearing a dress. 

There's a full interview with him about it on Vogue's website here: 

https://www.vogue.com/article/harry-styles-cover-december-2020

One choice quote I would definitely pick out from the article is: "I find myself looking at women’s clothes, thinking they’re amazing" which I'm sure is a sentiment many of us (certainly me, hopefully you reading this) will agree with. 

Harry Styles on the cover of Vogue
Photographer: Tyler Mitchell
Credit: Vogue.com

Of course this has sparked debate which is mainly about masculinity and whether it undermines it (depending on whether you think that is for good or bad), whether he looks sexy and whether it makes any difference that a cis het white male is doing it as opposed someone from a different background. There are also articles recreating the shoot and others in which 'brave men' (actual wording) walk down the street wearing dresses. 

I guess this is really a cross section of where male crossdressing is in 2020. On the one hand we have more people like Styles, especially those in the public eye, embracing gender fluidity and yet it's still seen as something a bit weird for men to do and I suppose some will always hold that opinion unless things change a lot and with fashion that's always possible. Personally I'm thrilled that this has happened and hope more men will embrace it and see it as not so much of an odd thing to do after all. 

My Week #10

 As we in the UK enter lockdown for the second time I was able to get one last clothes shop in and bought a new dress from a charity shop partly because I decided I need some more colours in my wardrobe other than black and blue. Ok, so it's still blue but a lighter blue and with some red flowers all over it. Probably a bit too late for such a summery dress but I wore it last weekend and it was rather nice. 

One slightly odd thing I've been thinking this week is about taking a course in fashion. I did do fashion briefly as part of a BTEC course in art I did back in college over 20 years ago and I approached it rather gingerly and I do wonder whether I was repressing something back then. Maybe if I had taken more of an interest it may have helped me but I think I was just too young at the time. The main part I did though was to write a brief history of fashion and I really enjoyed researching it and looking into it all. I'm only thinking about doing a brief online course though, perhaps leaning more towards a history of fashion rather than the design part. Designing would be an interesting thing though but I doubt I would be that good at it or even know what I'm trying to do. Maybe it's just this little fantasy I have of wanting to be a fashionista type girl or to have that kind of persona. Anyway, that's just something that's cropped up this week. 

To round off, it's been quite hard to escape the ongoing US election this week and while I haven't really got any US election themed captions, I did do a UK one back in 2015 and it's always been one of my favourites perhaps because it involves a 'he'll become what he hates' scenario. 

This was created for the April 2015 caption contest on Rachel's Haven with the theme of The Backfire. 

Tory Girl (2015)

The Week in Crossdressing #4

It's not been the best of weeks. Crossdressing was in the news this week due to author J.K Rowling's new detective novel Troubled Blood (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith). I won't go heavily into this as Ms Rowling and her comments on trans people are quite well known and this has stirred everything up again. Also, I've not read the source material myself. The story can be found below.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/jk-rowling-new-book-troubled-blood-transphobic-strike-tweet-b444955.html

I find it a shame that transvestite killers are still a trope in this day and age. Silence of the Lambs has been mentioned however I think it goes back at least to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho although there was at least a reason why Norman Bates dressed up and it wasn't anything to do with a fetish. It's still seen as something very seedy and something to be scared of. Hopefully programmes like Ru Paul's Drag Race and more public figures embracing crossdressing along with ongoing discussions about different gender identities will at least help it become more acceptable and less like a seedy, perverted activity performed by lonely men in run down bedsits.

One more thing I wanted to mention is something I meant to last week and that's a TV programme Hayley Goes...Gender Curious. It's one in a series in which Hayley Pearce, former star of The Call Centre documentary, tries out various things for a month including going sober and going vegan. It was a pleasing grab bag of various gender related talking points including pronouns, crossdressing, male make-up, gender identity and trans issues. Hayley is a bubbly, likeable, down to earth presenter which I think helps with the issues presented. There's also a particularly good explanation of the 'they' pronoun through the use of a jacket on a chair.

One final mention is for a company I've just come across, Bettertights. I can't vouch for the quality of the product though. So why am I mentioning it? Well they're another company who have championed diversity and inclusivity which is always nice to hear because we all need less judgment in our choice of clothing.

Check-Up #4

So how is everyone doing?

Well, I'm a little up and down at the moment but my work at least breaks up my week and I'm getting a bit more free time which means I'm feeling less tired of a night so at least that's something. As I've said previously, I've started leaving my nails painted all week and this week my boss came into the office which was something I was only half expecting. My nails were all painted different colours, by the way. If she did notice something then she didn't say it. The same thing might happen again this week however now I have bright blue nails. I did initially hide them in gloves but now I just don't care. 

These days I do wonder what would happen if I was 'caught' dressed. I'm not sure it would bother me too much as I'm so used to it as being a part of myself. It now feels so natural to be wearing skirts dresses and tights and in fact I think the only thing that would make me ashamed is other people's reaction and getting caught in that emotion. This also led me to wonder what if I was to get caught while on a video Zoom chat with people from work. I know there are quite a few people out there who love the humiliation part of it. Imagine getting caught on camera unexpectedly, dressed up to the nines clad in a wig and coated with make-up? What if you were then blackmailed? What would you do? 

What about if you have to answer the door as well? Delivery drivers and various post people have seen me dressed over the past few years and have never really made comment on this. I expect, especially during this lockdown period, there are much stranger things out there than me. However I imagine that would feed the humiliation though, imagine being caught by many a caller. What would you say to them? Would you have something planned out or would that just make it better?  

I do have a few more captions I may put up shortly. It seems those are often my most read posts on this blog especially the Role Exchanger ones so I may see if I can feature more on here. 

Check Up

I don't really have a lot to write about this week as there's only really one story dominating the world at the moment and that's the Coronavirus pandemic. For avoidance of doubt I'm stll quite well. Over the last week or so everything's shut down and London has become a rather desolate place. I still need to go in for work due to the nature of my job and work in a practically deserted office and feeling guilty that I'm not self-isolating. I think at some point, assuming I survive, and things get back to normal and London is once more hustling and bustling I'll catch myself and remember this time and be glad it's back. Of course one silver lining about working from home, which I will start tomorrow, is that I can dress for it and wear a few of my more work-y outfits.

I hope everyone's been enjoying my little 'Terri is Sick' posts of old captions. If I find any more virus based stuff I'll put them up and there may even be some new ones in the works. 

I'll leave you with a little fact I learnt this week. This is taken from The Book of the Year 2019 by the team behind the No Such Thing As a Fish podcast AKA the QI elves and it's that in 2015 Sweden intruduced the gender neutral pronoun, hen, to go alongside he and she. Over here in the UK  we did trial the use of Mx alongside Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms and Master. I'm not sure if it's still in use, I think it was trialled in Brighton first of all, but I always thought it was quite cool. 

The Week In Crossdressing #3

There's not an awful lot I have to say this week so I'm afraid it's going to be a bit of a hotchpotch of a post today.

Last Saturday I went to a Doctor Who screening and wore a very 60s style sleeveless blue and white dress with some bright purple tights and knee length black boots. Previously I've worn white tights as that is more the 60s style which, as I understand it, was more pale or tan tights or bare legs but I wanted to try a few colours with it so after an initial idea of wearing blue or yellow I settled on the purple. I also went with a pale pink nail polish and found myself wanting something a bit brighter and bolder. Choosing the right tights and the right shoes has become more of a big thing for me recently. In fact though I have been dressing less and less which is mainly due to the cold weather. February has been a cold, wet and miserable month over here so I'll be glad to get into the spring. I didn't buy any new clothes this week but I did try on a lovely black and white striped top with a bow. A little too small for me, I'm afraid.

As with my last blog, here are a few links to things I've seen this week:

Over in the commuter's favourite (or only) free paper The Metro there was this lovely article featuring a non-binary person standing up for their more feminine clothing choices:

The Metro: Non-binary person wearing skirt supermarket gives the best answer to a customer saying it was confusing

A friend of mine also linked me to the below blog which was fascinating reading and probably a better comment on the whole thing than the mad ramblings of a fortysomething crossdresser. I love the term 'gender creative' too. I've still not thought an awful lot about what term properly defines me these days and I might write about it at another time but 'gender creative' is certainly a good one.

Raising My Rainbow: Gender Is Over

My final one is a video from Bernadette Banner, Rachel Maksy and Morgan Donner who love to dress in more historical styles and in it they explore the reactions they get from the general public.

Why Are You Dressed Like That?: Embracing Bygone Styles

It peaked my interest as history bounding is similar in some ways to crossdressing. Both involve dressing in a style outside what is considered socially acceptable and both can invoke suprising results so this spoke to me very much. I love Rachel Maksy's outfit in this too and will be watching more of her videos. There is quite a wealth of stuff on YouTube I could also write about. Normally I just enter the terms 'clothes swap' or 'crossdressing' and see what pops up.

Coming full circle, history bounding is quite interesting to me and as discussed earlier, I really like the 60s style so I would love to do more of that mayble branching out into the 80s or even the 90s (I'm sure there were some outfits teenage me was jealous of). Certainly after watching the latest series of The Marvellous Mrs Maisal recently, the 50s style has rarely looked more gorgeous. There are some outfits I've seen in some old photos of swinging London but one outfit I would love to do though is the below brown leather look sported by Maggie Blye as Lorna in 1969 classic The Italian Job (apologies for picture blurriness) which I was reminded of while rewatching it last year.

Still from The Italian Job (1969)
Screenshot taken by myself

That's everything for this week. Hopefully I'll have something a bit more in the coming weeks.

Stylsing It Out

Not an awful lot to report this week but this Saturday I had brunch with a friend and chose to wear for the first time a grey pinafore dress I have with large (yet useless) buttons down the side, white top, tights and boots. It was one of my smarter looks and I was quite pleased with it. Nothing new this week but there was a nice jumper with a jewelled collar I quite like which I may go back for and there was a nice grey pinstriped dress that looked a but work-y and I may have bought it if I had planned to use it for work. I still do think about approaching my boss about dressing at work but it depends on my mood whether I think it's a good idea or not.

Earlier today I also watched the first episode of the new series of The Windsors. Very enjoyable sitcom based on the Royal family back for a third series and I just have to say I love the style of their versions of princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Always a sucker for the rich, preppy, brat look and this is wonderfully OTT at times.

An article in The Metro also caught my eye earlier this week as it compared singers Harry Styles and Sam Smith who both posted photographs of themselves in dresses on Instagram.

The Metro: Battle Dress

Yes that was basically it but it was nice to see and it wasn't treated as anything sensational however I wonder if it did need to be commented on but it's still good that it was at least noticed. Pop stars can be very influencial in the way people dress. Back in the 1970s stars like David Bowie and Marc Bolan of T-Rex pioneered a more gender-bending look and it was the first time men started wearig make-up. Sam Smith publically came out as non-binary last year and former One Direction singer Harry Styles certainly has been quite public with some of his more extravagent looks. I've never really heard much about Styles but looking up some of his fashion choices while preparing to write this I have to say I admire the man a lot. He's dressed in some bright and colourful suits over the years and that's something that's very much a trend for men and I wonder if this could be some kind of halfway house between more traditional male and female clothing.

In particular Harry wore an all black sheer Gucci outfit with a pearl earring to the Met Gala last year and a dress for a Guardian Weekend article back in December. Here's a link to the article in which he also discusses his sexuality and fashion choices.

The Guardian: Harry Styles

I would also like to pick out this quote of Harry's from the article:

“What women wear. What men wear. For me it’s not a question of that. If I see a nice shirt and get told, ‘But it’s for ladies.’ I think: ‘Okaaaay? Doesn’t make me want to wear it less though.’ I think the moment you feel more comfortable with yourself, it all becomes a lot easier.”

Some wise words there. If you like it, wear it, whichever gender it may be assigned to.  I would also like to leave you with a couple of other articles on him. The first features the many, many different styles of Styles published in Vogue this very day (should I manage to finish this by midnight):

Vogue: Harry Styles Style Evolution

 The second features the joyous Twitter reaction to Styles' cover for The Guardian Weekend as publashed in Cosmopolitan. Worth reading when you think that the world will point, laugh and sneer should a man wear a dress. There is a lot of love out there, believe it or not. 

Cosmopolitan: Harry Styles Best Twitter Reactions

The Week in Crossdressing #2

Well, there's been a couple of interesting stories this week.

Firstly, there was the annual Oscars ceremony this week which is always notable for the fashions the stars wear on the red carpet and this year actor Billy Porter decided to wear a gown coupled with a tuxedo jacket over the top which was designed by Christian Siriano. There's a wonderful interview with Billy here from the Vogue website which is where the below picture was taken from.

https://www.vogue.com/article/billy-porter-oscars-red-carpet-gown-christian-siriano

Photo Credit: Getty Images

I just love the fact that this has happened and at one one of the biggest awards ceremonies in the world. Visibility is so important these days and the more men are seen ripping up the fashion rulebook and embracing more feminine styles the more acceptable it will become. Women fought for the right to wear trousers and sadly not many men are prepared to do the same for skirts and dresses. It's why I'm proud to be more visible these days and if I can influence anyone or just nudge things forward at all in my short time here then I will be proud. Of course a man like Billy will probably do more than I ever could and hopefully he will inspire the young as I know this picture would have done to me in my youth but even today with how comfortable I am it's still nice to see. Meanwhile I was at least able to go to the cinema dressed last week which is another big step for me.

Secondly, and less so in the CD stakes, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have announced that they want to raise their forthcoming baby as gender fluid. The news was swiftly denied but I guess it remains to be seen what will happen and how this idea may present itself. Perhaps by trying to get rid of the usual blues and pinks. I doubt we will go as far as seeing a royal Prince in a dress but you never know.

That's all the news that's fit to print, I'm Lois Lane.

Cor Blimey Mary Poppins!

I saw the below picture in the Metro newspaper today and was very taken with it.

The picture shows actress Emily Blunt in a photoshoot for the January 2019 edition of Harper's Bazaar UK in celebration of her new role as Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins Returns. I just adore her outfit in this picture and it feels like the perfect blend of the masculine and feminine. A very male shirt, jacket and tie (love a woman in a tie) coupled with a long, flowing skirt and boots. The colours all blend so well together especially the red of the umbrella providing a drop of colour.

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/

Photograph by Richard Phibbs for Harper's Bazaar

Summer in the City

Well, It's been a hot couple of days. I'm not really one for the heat to be honest so I'm hoping it will cool down a bit. There was a piece in the paper the other day asking employers to relax the rules on men wearing suits to work in the heat and it even made a point of the fact that women are able to wear shorts, skirts and dresses. School uniforms even made the news as well allowing students to wear either shorts or skirts and girls to be let off wearing tights. I have to wonder if some schools would even accept boys in skirts although if they did, I doubt it would be with any seriousness and any boy doing so would probably just be thought of as mucking about by teachers never mind the jibes of your peers. To do so would take more bravery that I certainly had back in school.

Some many lovely summer dresses around this time of year, it would we wonderful to be allowed to wear one and a darn sight cooler too. Maybe things haven't changed that much, just the arenas.

It's also interesting to note that apparently a 'must have' swimsuit for women this year is one of a man's hairy chest.

Lingerie for Men

Apologies for not posting anything recently (if there's anyone who actually gives a damn about my digital musings). I've had a lot of things to put down but haven't had the impetus to sit and do it...and today is no exception.

Anyway, I spottted this on MSN earlier and it tickled me: http://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/style/sexy-lingerie-for-men-is-now-a-thing-apparently/ar-BBjgen.

An Australian company is now producing sexy lingerie for men. Lovely idea and wow I love the set in that first picture but I have to wonder what use a man has for a bra unless you have moobs that are out of control. Still, looks great though and it's nice that someone somewhere is producing clothes like this for men.

Men In Tights

I came across the below article today:

Men In Tights: The Latest Trend?

It seems that a lot of designers are using tights in their shows however the reality seems that it's this current cold snap rather than a desire to follow fashion that has sent blokes searching through their partners' drawers. I didn't even realise that there was a store that did tights for men and the idea of a fly in them seems a bit odd. The writer is correct though crossdressers will most likely go for women's tights.So much softer and patterned I expect. You can see men's tights as being a very functional rather than a fashionable item for showing off your legs.

It's interesting to read some of the comments below the article ranging from the usual whines of "gay" to the delights of many men in macho professions such as the police and army admitting to wearing them on cold night shifts to keep them warm. Of course these can easily be popped under a pair of trousers rather than being on full display.

The reporter used an odd phrase though 'my female' to describe his partner as if he doesn't quite know what she is to him.

Anyway, it's certainly a good thing and it's interesting to see how the ways the world has been turning recently.