Have you ever had an "out-of-body experience"?
I have and they mostly occur when I am out among the civilians as a woman. Here is a typical one.
I promised my wife that I would buy some groceries after a meeting I attended as a woman and a Stop & Shop was on my way home.
Instead of driving home, changing into boy mode and driving back to Stop & Shop, I decided to go grocery shopping as a woman. I hesitated momentarily because I was overdressed for grocery shopping, but I decided to throw caution to the wind and went grocery shopping anyway.
During 15 minutes of shopping, I noticed three or four guys checking me out, but no one else paid much attention to me until I queued up to check out. After I emptied my shopping cart onto the conveyor belt, I noticed the woman ahead of me look down at my shoes. Then she looked at me and remarked, “You are a brave woman to wear those heels to go grocery shopping!”
Thus begins the out-of-body experience. I am watching two women interacting, exchanging comments and pleasantries as women normally do and one of the women is me!
Is it really happening? Am I being treated as a cisgender woman? Do I detect any clues that she suspects that I am not a cisgender woman?
This happens when I interact with civilians, especially female civilians. And I wish it would stop!
In truth, it occurs less often today than it did in the past, so I am getting better all the time.
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| Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper) |
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| Alec Guiness femulates in the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets. |