Friday, October 21, 2022

My Story and I’m Sticking With It

I was employed three years at my last (and final) employer before I gave away any hints that I was trans. The hint (and it was a big one) was dressing as a businesswoman for the company-sponsored Halloween celebration. I did not dress for laughs (a man in a dress); rather, I dressed as authentically as I could and in the process, convinced some of my co-workers that I was a new female employee.

Three years later, my company did it again and so did I wearing a pinstriped skirt suit, high heels and all the trappings of a businesswoman. I am sure that some of my co-workers who were familiar with my previous Halloween appearance en femme, were starting to wonder about my wardrobe choices. Some made amusing or pointed comments about my costume, but no one ever questioned me about it.

My company did not celebrate Halloween again. Occasionally, a co-worker would show up in costume on October 31, but without the company imprimatur, most people did not costume up.

After waiting nine years for the company to do something again, I took matters into my own hands and showed up at work en femme on Halloween 2013. Since the company was not celebrating Halloween, my co-workers had no reason to suspect I was in costume. Instead, I successfully played the new female hire again. And I became a Halloween tradition by appearing en femme for the next four Halloweens – that’s five consecutive Halloweens in a skirt and heels. 

I assumed by then that some of my co-workers thought that something was up regarding my wardrobe. Little did I know that by the time I retired, nearly all my co-workers assumed I was trans-something or other. This was a revelation to me when after retirement, I attended the company Christmas luncheon en femme.

At that luncheon, I apologized to a number of my friends for giving them the wrong impression that my Halloween appearances were nothing more than a very authentic costume. In each case, my friends admitted that they saw through my ruse and figured that I was trans-something! (That framed photo on my desk of me en femme probably did not help keep my secret identity a secret!)

Thing is that by the time of my five consecutive appearances in businesswoman drag, I did not care what people thought. But I did find it amazing that no one ever asked me about it. If they had, I would have told them the truth, but it never happened. 

Another thing is that if I knew that everyone knew, I would have found more opportunities to show-up at work as a businesswoman, for example, on other holidays, my birthday, days of the month ending in the letter Y, etc.

And so it goes.



Source: Rue La La
Wearing Reiss

  
Pat Henry
Pat Henry femulating in the 1968 film Lady in Cement.

7 comments:

  1. VERY AMAZING..LADY..MARK.X

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  2. So people were beginning to think, "Trans" after Stana showed up at work for sanctioned Hallowe'en days and then "just Hallowe'en" for a total of over five years. Hmmmmmm. It seems osmosis actually works! But don't forget months ending with "r". Ha!

    If we all operated on a, "What will people think?" approach to drive our actions I'm guessing there might well be more of us, but always in the privacy of our own homes! When my heart problems became so difficult that I had to move to being an "inside salesperson", I started wearing Hawai'ian shirts to work and when I became "shaggy" I just let my hair continue to grow. Someone outside of work asked me, "Well, what do people think"? I responded , "Maybe they all want to wear Hawai'ian shirts, what do I care"? A number of the shirts, by the way, had buttons on "the distaff side", but if anyone noticed I never heard abut it. As you might have guessed, I was the only person who ever wore Aloha shirts -- except for one Hallowe'en,, when a couple of my co-workers came dressed as "Mike". Ha, again!.

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  3. Was the 'scene' part of the movie? Or a still from behind the scenes?
    Velma

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    1. Not sure. I never saw the film. But there are other photos on the Internet showing Pat Henry in various stages of getting dressed/undressed, so it might be part of the plot.

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  4. Nobody dares to say anything these days, even if it’s complimentary, for fear of being perceived as ‘inappropriate’ and being dragged before the boss, HR or - worst of all - social media. On a slightly different tack, the number of times I’ve checked the mirror and thought my skirt length was perfect only to remember that sitting turned it into a mini skirt was brought to mind by your photo!

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  5. You are having too much fun sister.

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