Roberta Angela Dee, contributing author at TGGuide.com
by

The Magic Dress

The Magic Dress By Roberta Angela Dee

The Magic Dress By Roberta Angela DeeA woman relates to a dress quite differently from the way that a man relates to a suit. And it’s the same for all women – genetic, transgendered or transsexual. It’s also the same for the cross dresser. They too feel the magical experience derived through a dress.

For a man, a suit might encourage a sense of confidence, power or authority. However, for a woman, there is a more complete transformation. We become the dress and the dress becomes us. Whatever attributes we manage to assign to the dress takes shape through our gestures and the way we cavort about while wearing the dress.

A dress might invoke special memories

In some instances, a dress might invoke special memories about a special lover and a very special time in or out of the dress. The dress is a catalogue of experiences, memories and emotions. Few men would crimp and save for a suit the way that we are willing to crimp and save for a particular dress.

And we’re constantly looking for it – that dress that best invokes in ourselves all that we want to feel and all that we want the world to see. Whether we are online or flipping through the pages of Victoria’s Secrets, we’re constantly searching for the garment or undergarment that says who we are as women or ladies.

The sacrifices we are willing to make!

Oh, and the sacrifices we are willing to make! How many women do you know to purchase a dress that is one size too small, who then starves herself in order to be able to wear that dress? As strange as it might seem to a man, a woman’s affinity for dresses is simply a part of being female. Isn’t it?

Now, I can hear some of saying that you also know women who absolutely hate to wear a dress. So true. Yet, if an occasion requires that she wear a dress, does the garment not alter her demeanor? She might strut about complaining the whole time. Still, is it not clear that she is changed by whatever dress she decides to wear.

I also believe that society is more apt to judge a woman by how she looks in a dress than it is apt to judge how a man looks in a suit. A man is said to look distinguished or drab, but a woman is looked at as being motherly, sophisticated, powerful, reserved, prissy or simply loose. We even have a wider variety of words to describe how a woman looks in a dress.

Men’s suits take years to go out of date, and a man can wear a suit several years before significant changes in style are discernible. A woman’s dress, on the other hand, is an accurate measure of how a society changes year after year. A dress speaks not only of time but also speaks of society’s state of mind at any given moment in its history.

It’s more than a matter of being pretty or in style. It’s our way to expose ourselves to the world, as though we were naked, yet at the same time, modest. This is power, magic and charm of a dress.

More by Roberta Angela Dee

Flowers of Every Kind

The Transgender Guide Site Links:

Roberta Angela Dee, Journalist & Trans Activist

Roberta Angela Dee was an early advocate for the African-American transgender community.The Magic Dress was written by Roberta Angela Dee for publication on TGGuide.com. © All rights are reserved.

Roberta Angela Dee (October 31, 1950–March 13, 2003) was an American author, transgender rights activist and frequent contributor to TGGuide.com. Roberta was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in Long Island, and lived in Atlanta before settling in Augusta, Georgia. She had a journalism degree. Her writing was published widely, and she was founder of the Women on the Net (WON) website, an early online resource for women of color.

See Roberta Angela Dee’s bio page.