Still totally awesome!
So here's the thing: I've got a rather unusual approach to all this. I've never actually crossdressed before, but I'd certainly like to…just not in the way that quite possibly anyone here seems to be imagining a guy crossdressing.
I'm about 5'5" and 110 lbs, I'm not some big hulking guy by any means. And except for a disproportionately thick/large neck and head, I'm otherwise somewhat feminine-shaped, especially my torso. My shoulders slope down, they're not broad at all, and my narrowest point is my waist, whereupon I get wider again at the hips. This all owes to the effects of radiation for cancer treatment when I was three, which permanently threw off the growth of my torso relative to everything else.
So I've got the right figure, just switch certain bits around and find a way to obfuscate the neck/head problem and I'd look like a girl. Except not. My hair is all wrong, for one. That and my head/neck chunkiness would make me a not very attractive girl at all, and that would be even if I wasn't very hairy. Which I am. All over, limbs, torso, everything, and I experience pretty fast facial hair growth, though I do shave regularly. The point is, just me in a dress would look absurd and ugly IMO, the only value would be humor but I don't find the idea funny at all. No, I have a better idea. To me, a perfectly valid definition of crossdressing is to wear the clothing of the opposite sex and create at least some impression of being that gender. No one ever says you can't create an aura of mystery and uncertainty.
So here's my idea, which follows that philosophy and also plays to my main strength, my fundamentally un-masculine shape and size. I'd basically just cover as much up as possible. I'm imagining something like those really elaborate Venice carnival outfits, where you've got these women in big flowing dresses and masks and gloves and technically some of them might not even actually be women, but how can you tell? That's what I'd do. I'd cover everything but try not to make the outfit too unwieldy. I would welcome an opportunity to wear some sort of boots, but not with significant heels, that's hardly worth the trouble. Gloves would be useful not only because my hands and fingers are hairy but also because I take terrible care of my nails, but yet my hands in an abstract sense aren't that masculine in form. I wouldn't speak, I wouldn't do much of anything really. Just stand around, or occasionally walk around in a slow and dignified manner so I wouldn't have to learn too much about how to walk like a woman, I would think. I'd probably have a sizable fan with me, I think that would be a cool prop.
I've only told Frances about this. It's not like I have my parents to worry about if I orchestrated this whole thing here at college and then, say, wore it on Halloween. But of the people who I might consider telling about it and enlisting the help of, I'm worried they might somehow be offended by my views, or despite supposed tolerance and open-mindedness simply laugh off the idea of me ever crossdressing. Frances is already cool with the idea, though, and I'd feel comfortable getting into and out of such an outfit around her.
So that's my rather long two cents. I don't see how I could have said it any quicker, and since this thread is so specific, hopefully everyone won't completely ignore it?
Flora Segunda | World Made By Hand | Monster Blood Tattoo ^You should read these series.The little breeze 'round your privates.
edited 14th Nov '11 1:55:48 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.If you google up Wholesome Crossdresser Creepy Crossdresser Villainous Crossdresser Cross Play Recursive Crossdressing Cross Dresser etc... you wind up with some ads for crossdressing sites. [1]
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Edit:Added more due to an actual google search rather than a tv tropes google search!
Note: Links may leave you Nipple and Dimed (fake nipples tho)
edited 14th Nov '11 2:13:39 PM by secretist
TU NE CEDE MALIS CLASS OF 1971Anne sums up much of my reasoning in far fewer words.
I could never make simply me in a dress look good. Hence my idea.
Also...
Thanks! If you manage to do it before I do, make sure to post pictures!
edited 14th Nov '11 2:05:40 PM by frog753
Flora Segunda | World Made By Hand | Monster Blood Tattoo ^You should read these series.I can apparently make Thor look good in a dress, if that helps.
Of course, it's a long-sleeved Viking-Age dress that goes down to his heels and doesn't show a lot of skin, so that's probably why it works.
Secretist: Hey, can you warn before you link to things with nipples in them? I'm kind of at school in the US here.
Whoops, wrogn person. Sorry.
edited 14th Nov '11 2:11:41 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.![]()
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My problem is that I don't either.
Frances is fairly knowledgable with somewhat elaborate outfits but usually dresses simpler than that. I know some girls who do costume design and such and know a lot more, they might be able to help in theory.
Like, I probably know more than any other guy I know about how to properly get gloves on and off, but I don't know the first thing about dresses. It's all very scattershot. I have a very clear vision, but that's about it. Also, this might all get kind of expensive, and would definitely involve lots of used-clothing-hunting, regardless of price...
edited 14th Nov '11 2:11:17 PM by frog753
Flora Segunda | World Made By Hand | Monster Blood Tattoo ^You should read these series.@AB:I thought only biological nipples were problematic rather than prop ones.
Edit:Very strange example. Andrej Pejic is a male model with a very androgynous, feminine appearance. He is often photographed in female clothes, styled as a women. Recently, he appeared on the cover of a magazine, styled as a woman, in which he is shown opening his shirt as though he is bearing his breasts...which, of course, are totally absent◊. Nevertheless, Barnes & Noble actually refused to display the magazine publically, and ordered it to either change its cover or agree to be sold in a paper bag, on the grounds that the picture was too reminiscent of a topless woman. Needless to say, B&N has no trouble displaying topless men that are obviously masculine...
So the issue get complicated by things like that!
edited 14th Nov '11 2:15:04 PM by secretist
TU NE CEDE MALIS CLASS OF 1971Frog: So if your definition of crossdressing is someone who wears the opposite gender clothes and can pass for the opposite gender, what do you think of a crossdresser who is still obviously their actual sex but happens to be sporting what they are wearing very well?
Like David Bowie on The Man Who Sold The World record. He's recognizably male in that picture, but he still looks good in that dress.
secretist: A site with pictures of even prosthetic nipples is still at least awkward to browse in a college library.
edited 14th Nov '11 2:17:35 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.I've never gone to an anime con dressed as a girl yet... Does that count?
My school play had a few girls cast as boys.
‽‽‽‽ ^These are interrobangs. Love them. Learn them. Use them.
