Today I walked publicly in "womens" shoes for the first time! How cool is that?

Now, last night I was reading ILK's post called "the suit" and there's this whole bit in the middle of all the banter about suits where he goes on a big rant about how the reason some of us fellas are scared about wearing heels publicly is all in our heads and not to do with what society deems to be acceptable - or in other words we create the notion that society disapproves in our heads and that 99% of the population don't really give 2 shits. Jeff B and Pumpcat and all the other guys on here are testament to that fact as you will see from their stories of all the high heel outings they have made over the years. And none of them have ever reported any seriously bad times doing it. Funny looks and the odd comment, perhaps, but nothing really bad. It was a really inspiring piece of writing! (I think I summarised it OK?).

So anyway, I took my Steve Madden flats with me when I went to town with the intention of wearing them at some point - I just didn't know when. I nearly went for it a couple of times whilst walking in more quiet parts but didn't fancy the idea of getting caught changing into them. So after my swim I thought I would just wear them out of the pool which is exactly what happened. It was a good 10-15 minute walk back to the town centre where I went about looking in a few charity shops for some clothes ("womens") but found nothing. Then I walked home and changed back out of them before getting back home cos my dad was in.

Altogether it was a lovely experience. I felt very relaxed about the whole affair and made a point of not looking around to see if anyone was watching me. Nothing happened. No-one said anything or even looked at me in a funny way. That relaxed-ness was even there when I was shopping as I often feel like looking over my shoulder when I'm shopping but not today. But then I often go shopping in my home town and find myself worrying that someone I know might bump into me.. bla bla bla..

I'm not ready to take the plunge into heeling proper yet but this was the first step. I've lived with this for about 25 years now and it's only in the past 5 or so, and especially since finding this site, that I have felt going out publicly in "womens" attire is something that I could actually do. I was so paranoid about the thought before that that there was no way it was ever going to happen. In fact, it wasn't even a consideration! But now....