I'm always pleased when some calls me ma'am. I'm much to old to be called Miss. It's happened a few times in the last several years. I think it's because I've decided to stop suppressing my femme side in order to match what other people think I should be.

About 5 years ago, I decided that "passing" wasn't necessary for my femme expression to be seen in public. I was tired of hiding behind the masculine mask others seemed to demand of me. If they think I'm odd or deranged... oh well. I just started wearing women's clothes albeit masculine cut for the most part, when ever and where ever I felt like it.

I expected some kind of backlash for it and was prepared to stand up under it. To my surprise, people just didn't seem to notice. I began wearing more and more feminine thing until now when I'm out there can be no doubt that I'm wearing women's clothes. I go to the bank, grocery shopping and even my doctors dressed as me, fully expressing my feminine side. Of course at the doctors, they know I'm physically male and at the bank when they call up my account there's my male (legal) name, yet they all just act as if there's nothing unusual. The only thing that attests to anything being noticed is that every time I see my doctor, she asks if I'm taking hormones. I asked her a little over a year ago if she would prescribe a light dose, just enough to push my chemistry a bit toward the femme side. After consulting with my endocrinologist they determined, due to my family history, that there's just too much cancer risk.

There are a couple of entries in my blog that tell how I've me thought to be a woman in public situations. Some of them when I was really presenting my feminine side and some when I was only skating near the edge, but still was addressed as female.