Who Wears the Pants?

A week ago in this space, I linked to Stana's discussion of pants vs. dresses and skirts. Today, I'm going to talk about my own history with feminine trousers.

When I first began cross-dressing in my 20s, the idea of wearing pants seemed silly. "That's what I wear all the time; girls wear skirts and dresses." And when I resumed dressing about 15 years ago, that was my first rhought as well--and then I realized that, in the modern era, there were a lot of differences between men's and women's pants. And when I began to see some female styles that seemed really attractive and girlish, I decided to give them a try.

I realized a few things--for me, with some exceptions, the most femme pants were loose and a little flowing and, for them to really seem feminine, they needed to be worn with visible high heels. Here are some examples:

There were two exceptions to the "loose and flowing" rule: jeans and leather. I was never happy with the fit of the jeans I got, but the leather pants could be quite femme and sexy:

The one thing I wish I could have found was a pair of attractive shorts.