Petra's Poll - We like we. We really like we.

I waded into last weeks poll with no small amount of trepidation dear sisters and the rest of you kind visitors affectionate for or afflicted by a cross dresser.

The "if there was a pill, would you take it" question was posed aloud by a friend of mine one day years ago, except he was referring to his own sexual orientation. Gay, and open, successful and well adjusted. But, he confided, the gayness had come at a price all of these years that in hindsight he would rather not have paid. Yes, of course, if he could, he would make it go away.

That harpooned me. I could not imagine wanting an integral part of me to not be there. Looking back on the conversation, I think that at the time that my cross dressing habit was at a low ebb. Perhaps because of that, I did not have a close relevant experience, a barometer of empathy readily to hand. The conversation came back to me recently though as the pink tide has surged slowly and unstoppably to high water marks and overtopped my own defensive levees.

Cross dressing brings me happiness. I do absolutely enjoy exploring my more mature, more open and more confident femme self. Thinking back on the furtive and fetishistic femme of earlier years, this Petra is having a better time, a more rewarding time. Looking better too if I say so myself.

These rewards come at a price though. We all pay it day to day in countless ways, trivial, true and sometimes troubling. Distraction from important details. Too much focus on what the pretty GGs all around are wearing. And the truth (in my case at least) that you are not being fully truthful with others in your life. So I wondered if friends and visitors here felt like the price was too high.

I believed in asking the question that I knew my answer. I said no to the pill. I am too drawn to “different” to not want to care for and grow my own differences. I wonder in quiet moments whether I am alone in my thinking though, and so I would like to thank the 78% of you who indicated would pull up a chair, smooth out the skirt, join me for a smart cocktail, ignore the pill, and forsake the chance to make the dressing go away.

And so again I paraphrase Sally Field: We like we. We really, really like we.

And this is the precondition to all other things. If we are accepting of ourselves, then we can start to work on the rest of the world. Sounds like a job made for a woman. Lets have at it.

I would also like to say to the 22% who would (after careful consideration of the side effects ... ) take the pill this:

I get it. I think I understand. Younger Petra may not have, but Petra 2.0 does. There are many other important and perhaps simpler pleasures in life. And seeking them out is sound, and correct, and a sign of self love too.

But if you do find the pill, and you wear an 8 1/2 shoe, would you call please? I am there for the purge.

This weeks poll goes back to the more trivial. Its a repeat of a poll from December when readership of Voyages en Rose was considerably smaller (and less well just flat out fierce glamorous) than it is today. Would love your views on which feminine garment you would fight to the death to defend. One garment only girls, life is so unfair...

Happy dressing and happy everything else.