You read so much about the harm of
petticoating, but there are thousands of feminine males like me who welcomed
the opportunity to wear girls' (and now, women's) clothing. I had an elder
and younger sister and my mother raised us, my father leaving us very early
in our lives. There was always going to be a heavy feminine influence on my
life whether in play, emotions, attitudes and yes, even dress. I am not
ashamed to say as a child I preferred having longish hair, wearing a kilt
and wearing knickers (I hated boys pants). All my life (I am now in my 50's,
writing in 2009) I have worn knickers. As a child growing up in Scotland in
the 1950's, many boys wore knickers under their kilts, mainly blue or green,
but sometimes white, and I preferred white. Having an elder sister and money
being tight, I did wear school blouses sometimes and my sister's T-shirts
and shorts to play in the garden.
My introduction to petticoats was not
the traditional girls' garment. I started wearing really long vests under my
shirt and kilt. In some circumstances when glimpsed it looked like an
underskirt, and at church my mother used to take great delight in reaching
under my kilt and smoothing it down for my comfort. It earned me the
reputation of being a bit of a sissy, but I really didn't care. From there I
graduated onto my elder sister's kilts for church on Sundays and readily
agreed to wear a cotton underskirt for comfort. Later in my early teens,
this would often be thick nylon and lace trimmed.
My family knew and encouraged my
preferences, and wearing knickers through my grammar school and university
days continued, as did wearing a ladies' kilt on Sundays for church (no
sporran, too masculine for me). By then I had a number of lacy underskirts
and full slips of my own, many received as birthday and Christmas presents.
My mother was astonished that I came
home one evening with a woman friend who later became my wife. This in no
way implies I was the masculine one in the relationship - my mother had
always thought I would end up as the girl in a relationship with a man, not
the feminine half of a relationship with a woman. When we married in
Amsterdam she wore a trouser suit; I wore an above-the-knee kilt and during
the dancing at the reception onlookers were left in no doubt who was the
feminine partner: the exposure of my "something borrowed" white
layered petticoat, matching satin knickers and blue garter as I was spun
around the floor produced whistles from the men and claps from the women.
A lot has happened since then and since
retiring I spend rather more time in skirts and dresses and, particularly
when my wife's girlfriends are round in the evening for drinks, I often wear
a pretty dress and make-up. Although I will never take the risk of full SRS,
we have discussed the possibility of taking other steps to remove masculine
influences and developing a more feminine shape. I have no doubt at some
point in the near future I will live full time as a woman and it is
something I look forward to with all my heart. I am at my happiest wearing a
full skirted dress and hearing the swish and rustle of petticoats as a
walk. The thought of re-affirming our wedding vows where I finally get to
wear that wedding dress makes me swoon with delight.
[Janet responds to
comments posed by Tessy]
Your belief that nothing is worn under
kilts is confined to real macho men. Young boys would often wear girls'
knickers as instructed by Mum to avoid their thingy popping out. The
popular colour for boys was bottle green or navy blue, but a few of us
wore white. Most boys would stop wearing a kilt around eight or nine, but
it's something I never grew out of (kilts and wearing knickers).
The sporran is a rights of passage
male item, and when I was a boy it was rather like breeching in England.
You got a sporran when your father considered you man enough. A teenage
male wearing a kilt in Scotland would always wear the male garment and
always wear a sporran. Since my father left us early and my mother
never considered it, I really don't think I would ever have qualified! In
families with elder sisters it was quite common for their kilt to be
passed down, yes even to a boy. Girls' kilts fasten on the left (boys' on
right) and were made of lighter material, and usually above knee length,
and sometimes had a wrap round bodice. I wore girls' kilts from the age of
eight and I wore a plain cotton underskirt at my Mum's behest for hygiene
reasons and to make it hang better, but only to church on Sundays and
visits to my aunt. Later, we all dropped the pretence and I wore lace
trimmed nylon, satin and sometimes layered slips and petticoats. I did
argue a bit at first, but in truth I quickly learned that I loved wearing
skirts and kilts. I never grew out of wearing them (and later
women's), wearing female kilts to weddings, funerals and on other special
occasions. I was married in Amsterdam wearing a ladies' kilt and my wife
wore a trouser suit.
It did take a practiced eye to spot
the difference - it's really not a problem in England, but not north of
the border in Scotland. You could get away with wearing a girls' kilt at
junior school, but from around the age of ten it was certainly seen as
slightly effeminate for a boy to wear a girls' kilt and easily spotted by
the female population. This is particularly so for a "man" wearing a
ladies kilt.
Yes I was called various unsavoury
names as a boy as I'm sure you can appreciate, but we are who we are.
