Yippee! Well, mostly.
I spent today in San Francisco and was consistently read as male. I was "gentleman" when buying lunch, "lad" when I looked lost, and "man" when talking with strangers in a bar. In San Francisco, where people are pretty used to differentiating between butches and men! I feel pretty damn accomplished about that. (-: Oh, and I wasn't binding, and I didn't make any effort to keep my voice deep (although at least the first two instances of being correctly gendered were before I said anything), and I was wearing what are technically women's shoes (but they're Tevas and look pretty unisex anyway; I just bought them because my old ones are extremely worn out and I couldn't find my size in boys'/men's). Anyway, still feeling like a success here!
In other news, my Frog Bra replacements from Les Love Boat arrived and leave something to be desired. The size S of this is too big, enough that the elastic doesn't hold it in place and it rides up in the front. I'm trying to exchange it for a different item, since getting it in a smaller size isn't an option, but if anyone here has a ribcage that's about 30"-32" around (and an overall chest measurement no more than about 36", I'd say) and has been looking for something like the Frog Bra for "lite" binding, definitely let me know. Meanwhile, the size S of this is too small, though not unworkably so. I was hoping it would be more forgiving like the Frog Bra, but actually it's pretty damn tight, like a real binder. . . not exactly what I was trying to get, but it will still be appreciated. *sigh*
EDIT: Bah, the Extra Comfort Sports Bra is tighter than any other binder I own, including the Wide Coverage Short Binder I outgrew when my lats expanded from rock climbing. If they don't let me exchange the High Performance Sports Bra for a different model, I think I'm going to try to exchange the Extra Comfort Sports Bra for a size M and hope someone will buy the High Performance Sports Bra off of me. )-; This is going to be expensive, and I'm moving so it's also going to get real complicated real fast.
In other news, my Frog Bra replacements from Les Love Boat arrived and leave something to be desired. The size S of this is too big, enough that the elastic doesn't hold it in place and it rides up in the front. I'm trying to exchange it for a different item, since getting it in a smaller size isn't an option, but if anyone here has a ribcage that's about 30"-32" around (and an overall chest measurement no more than about 36", I'd say) and has been looking for something like the Frog Bra for "lite" binding, definitely let me know. Meanwhile, the size S of this is too small, though not unworkably so. I was hoping it would be more forgiving like the Frog Bra, but actually it's pretty damn tight, like a real binder. . . not exactly what I was trying to get, but it will still be appreciated. *sigh*
EDIT: Bah, the Extra Comfort Sports Bra is tighter than any other binder I own, including the Wide Coverage Short Binder I outgrew when my lats expanded from rock climbing. If they don't let me exchange the High Performance Sports Bra for a different model, I think I'm going to try to exchange the Extra Comfort Sports Bra for a size M and hope someone will buy the High Performance Sports Bra off of me. )-; This is going to be expensive, and I'm moving so it's also going to get real complicated real fast.