Leaderboard

A brief summary .... I've always liked heels. Always. Wore my mothers before puberty. Just liked being in them. Around the time I left school, I got a girlfriend to buy some heels for me, on the pretext of getting some as a pressie for a girlfriend. Around '84 got my first 'proper' heels, as a pressie from a live-in girlfriend. Frustrated at not being able to socialise wearing them, I got into dressing up as a girl. As I've always looked youthful and was back then built like a stick (26" waist and almost 8 stone) it wasn't hard to do. We went to "Balls" and fetish gigs. It fitted our lifestyle. Our close circle of friends were aware, and we even visited one night after a fetish gig to show them what I looked like. Boy George and his friend Marilyn were in the papers often, it wasn't so strange back then... 30 years later, I still have a taste for heels. I still like wearing some of the clothes most consider non-masculine. By that I don't mean bra and thong either. I prefer tight fitting clothing. (Almost everyone I know prefers loose fitting, especially the women of my age.) I like stuff (hose/leggings) on my legs. If I wear mans trousers or jeans I have to wear them over-size because a man's cut is uncomfortable, consequently I prefer the fit of a womans trouser. As I get older, I feel less and less inclined to conform, because it serves me no purpose. If I were independently wealthy, I would have a place 'in town' and create a bubble for me to live in. Ideally, the fashion 'jester' of the cafe set. I'd be getting asked around for coffee or dinner, as the unpaid 'entertainment' for Lord and Lady such and such. Not so much a poor man's Grayson Perry, more like a less funny Eddie Izzard. Epilogue ... While watching some TV earlier today (food break from cleaning/decorating) a lady character who was subject of a health report came on, who while slight, wasn't noticeably feminine. Later in the article we saw her partner, who happens to be another woman. My walking (and today 'dinner') friend, asked a fairly innocuous question: "I wonder why it is, some gay women choose to seem so masculine"? Without delving into the testosterone/oestrogen blend debate, I replied "It's maybe how she/they see themselves? Like me, wearing a heel. Just seems right ... " The worrying aspect of 'how do I see myself' revue, is the lead singer of Dead or Alive; Pete Burns. Someone who transformed themselves from being really quite attractive, into a plastic surgery 'train wreck'. When asked why he had so much plastic surgery, his response is "I want to look how I see myself." This is not what I elude to. P.S. It occurred to me later, The general style to which I DO elude, might be that of a "dandy" in many ways, but without any sense of vanity though - since I'm too self-effacing for that. Particularly pertinent ... "In Japan, dandyism became a fashion subculture during the late 1990s. Presently,[when?] the term is also used to refer to an attractive but older, well-dressed man, usually a man in his late 40s or 50s[citation needed]." Not sure I qualify for the attractive bit, but age and interest are there.