By Alexandra Forbes
Here is another photo from the February 2024 “window of opportunity” session. I know I said the last one was the last one, but I was wrong. Sometimes, a rejected photo reemerges as a good one. Odd, that.
I hope you are all doing well. Everything on my end is moving along swimmingly, though not much to report on the Alex front.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the stages of crossdressing I have experienced; that is, the different, distinct forms of expressing the joys of crossdressing that I have apparently followed. Maybe you have experienced it in a similar way; others perhaps far differently.
The first stage is imagination, or the ability to imagine being crossdressed. A crossdresser can tap this capability anytime, anywhere. It is informed by experience, so the more opportunities one crossdresses, the greater the number of volumes of data one can access. This library of information can be used to stretch the crossdressing experience well beyond the physical and temporal; you can wear anything, anywhere, with anyone. Those very deep into crossdressing (and often you will not know who they are) will only imagine themselves crossdressed.
The second stage is virtual. Here, you leverage limited physical crossdressing experiences (e.g., at home) to extend the duration of pleasure through photography and writing. In my experience, the process takes advantage of the few times during the year when crossdressing is possible and photographs are taken of the results. These images are curated so the best are selected, based on a variety of parameters, and are posted to social media or some other site. Personally, I like to augment these photos with commentary. In this way, one can interact with the world, even if it is not physical. It is still quite meaningful. Mostly, those in the closet will explore virtual crossdressing, finding and building a community of like-minded individuals.
The third stage is physical, which of course can go in a myriad directions. In this form of crossdressing, you tend to go “full up” wearing an outfit, makeup, and a wig and get out into the world; that is, beyond your front door. So, on one extreme, you might drive around crossdressed and that’s it. On the other, you effectively go out as your crossdressed alter ego, well beyond the “safe” community of fellow crossdressers to mainstream interactions. It is perhaps at this point that some discover a deeper truth, that they are, in fact, uncovering a true identity that is female in nature. But most are “just” crossdressers out to have a good time with good friends, all of whom happen to wear frocks and know a thing or two about shoes and makeup.
A version of the physical form of crossdressing is to venture into the world en femme without interacting with fellow crossdressers at all, or, if with a friend who crossdresses, seeking to not draw attention to themselves because of what they’re wearing. In otherwords, the joy is about blending in as a female without actually wanting to be. This blending is considered hard for many people to understand because they may perceive such behavior as a desire to transition but with a denial about that desire. In my case, it is the ultimate result of escalating crossdressing to its ultimate conclusion. Having more or less accomplished this feat, there are no major milestones I feel I need to experience. After venturing into the mainstream world crossdressed several times, the buzz of novelty has waned and the drive has diminished. Put another way, in my case, the journey has come to a conclusion.
Curiously, I find that I am relying more on the earlier stages of crossdressing, imagining, or rather remembering previous experiences of crossdressing. They are pleasant memories. But also the virtual, where I seem to be most comfortable these days. The trouble is finding opportunities to refresh the library with new material. That serves as an incentive, I suppose, lest I let the whole thing simply fade away. I think that would make me sad.
I hope you found this interesting. It’s certainly proof that while I may not be as motivated to actually crossdress as much as I did in the past, I still gain significant pleasure in thinking about it!
Dress: SHEIN
LadyShoes: Bandalino
Hosiery: Pretty Polly
