She

Shopping at JCPenney, I quickly found a half-dozen dresses to try on, but the one I really liked was missing its belt. I could not swipe a belt from another dress because the belt was attached to the dress with a plastic tie, so I stopped a passing saleswoman for help.

She told me to take a dress that had a belt to the cashier and she would cut the tie for me. So I carried my half dozen dresses plus one to the cashier and waited while she rang up another customer.

The saleswoman came by while I was waiting and said to the cashier, “She just needs you to cut the tie on a belt so she can try on the dress.”

The cashier retorted, “Oh, I thought she was waiting to pay for the dresses.”

The saleswoman replied, “No, she wants to try them on first.”

My day could have ended right there! All the “she’s” (referring to me) flying through the air was wonderful and so affirming.

Wearing Intermix

Karl Davies and Patrick Walshe McBride femulating in a 2018 episode of British television’s Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators.

Pronouns

It hit me like a ton of bricks while I was reading Gabrielle's account about coming out to her parents and reminding them to use female pronouns when she was in female form.

Family members who are closest to me (my wife, daughter and sister) already use female pronouns when they refer to me even when I am in boy mode. This has been going on for years and I always assumed that they had misspoken.

But then came the ton of bricks and I realized that they did not mispeak. This is not an occasional or rare slip of the tongue; they refer to me using female pronouns almost all the time.

My family considers me to be one of the girls and refers to me as such even when I am disguised as a boy!

 

 

 

John Carroll Lynch femulating on television’s The Drew Carey Show in 1997.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.