Interesting...

While on our recent trip to our son's place, one of the hotels had plenty of interesting natural wonders.  The flowers were outstanding...and as you can see, there were also some monster butterflies.  This could make you want to stay there forever...simply lovely!

For our entire trip, I stayed as gender-neutral as possible.  My wife wanted me to look more like her "husband" than her "wife."   Following is one of several typical shorts outfits - all women's clothes - that I wore.  Feminine, but with more than a little hint of ambiguity.    And though she insisted I take a pair of stirrup leggings along "in case for some reason you need to dress up a bit", they never came out of the suitcase.   My ballet flats were a different story, though.  I wore them everywhere, and only had sandals on for a couple of days.

The first time I wore my flats, I started putting on my pantyhose and heard:   "No, you're not wearing pantyhose...it's too hot.  No girl would wear them unless they were going to some kind of formal event.  And you aren't."   I protested a little, and she said "keep those legs nice and smooth - they look their best bare...even if that means you need to shave them every morning.  You'll eventually get used to wearing your shoes without stockings unless you're going somewhere fancy."  

Since it wasn't worth an argument, I went along with her suggestion.  While it felt a bit strange,  I really didn't mind it.  That evening she asked how I liked wearing my shoes barefooted.  I told her it was OK.  She said she thought I'd eventually learn to love it.   And she''s probably right.

I've dressed as above countless times at home, both with and without makeup.  Back at home, more frequently than not (probably 60 - 70 percent of the time)  I've been addressed as female in those situations where folks don't know me.    However, on our trip, which included a different (and longer) route for some light sightseeing through WV, KY and IN, that definitely wasn't the case.   At motels, restaurants, and local attractions, it was much more common for me to be addressed as "Sir."

Why would that be so?  I don't look or feel any different than any other day.  My suspicion is that the difference could be religious beliefs in the heartland, in which folks adhere much more tightly to the traditional gender "binary" than the folks back east.  And yes, surprisingly even more so than on the Delmarva.  (Perhaps things are evolving for the better in my own backyard?)

In any case, this is just one person's observation, based on experiences at one point in time.   It may or may not be representative in other places or at other times....but it was very interesting.

More later,

Mandy