Dressing When No One's Looking

The following article, found in a link from Femulate (see the links listing to the right), wasn't written with cross-dressers in mind, but it certainly applies to us, doesn't it?

I've always looked forward to approaching my closet each morning, ready to imagine the day as a certain version of myself. A strong-shouldered blazer to radiate strength in an important meeting; a swimming-pool-blue silk dress to feel alive in my body on a Summer night spent downtown. But in recent days, I found my enthusiasm for that ritual waning. When there's no one to dress for anymore, how do we dress? Can clothes still bring us joy and self-expression when we're all sitting alone in our homes? Do they lose their power without a witness?

Clothes are a performance, an outward symbol, a message to the world. But clothes are just as often a reminder to ourselves: that we are worth small joys, and that we know just who we are — even when no one else is there to reassure us.