Not a Girly Girl

Gahhhh! .... I just knew this was going to happen! 

Yesterday I sent Meredith's blog post on "Leaning In" to Frank, telling him it was an explanation of the leaning in comment I made in my A Spanko or Not a Spanko post. I can't remember my exact words but the gist of my verbal explanation as I sent the link, was that 'leaning in" represented my submission, my leaning into his will. I think I actually heard the light bulb go on in his brain! 

With a teasing smile he picked up my fingers in one hand and gently ran his thumb over my nails and said "hmmm .... do we want pink or do we want red?" .... my response to him was the opening statement in this post ... "Gahhhh! .... I just knew this was going to happen!"

You'll need the back story to this tale of woe .... I grew up in a family of boys in a neighbourhood of boys.  There was not a girl my age to be found until I was 9. I ran with all the boys and could climb a tree, swing on a rope swing, build a tree fort, wrestle, fart, spit and swear. The only thing I couldn't do was win a 'how far can you pee' contest ... which peed me off, pun intended :))

Being in a small town, buying clothes meant you shopped using those old faves, Eaton and Sears catalogues or someone made it for you. I remember having to wear itchy,  scratchy dresses with too much lace, when all I wanted were the jeans and a red and white checkered shirt from the catalogue and no one wore jeans in those days except the cowboys of my dreams. I know I must have worn dresses to school but to be honest, I can't remember a single detail about any of them. 

We moved to the big city when I was in my mid teens. I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of malls, clothing stores and the like. I still knew very little about or ever wore  any makeup and I had never been allowed to pierce my ears. My hair was long, straight and half way down my back, as was the style. Luckily for me, casual dressing in cords and jeans was then the fashion.

This is the me my man fell in love with. He loved and demanded my fresh, no makeup look (he really was an HoH when we met). He had some reservations when I decided to pierce my ears. He was devastated (and not happy) when, not long after we married, I cut my hair short without consulting him. 

I did eventually find my style .... classic .... a lot of long slim lines, business suits, pencil skirts, light makeup and subtle jewellery. That lasted through my working life. In our life now, I almost always wear jeans or yoga pants and tees unless we are going out and then, I rarely wear dresses. Jean skirts and leggings are about as close as I get. I don't do nail polish because with my retired 'work' my hands are constantly in water. I am pretty much back to the attire of the tomboy I was years ago. 

Now I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but somewhere along the line, Frank evolved to expressing a desire to see me in flowing or flouncy dresses, with eye makeup, lipstick, nail polish and such. My response to these requests over the past few years has always been ... "I don't do girly. If you wanted a girly girl, you shouldn't have picked me!" 

I think this might be what he has in mind ....

On the drive to town the other day, he didn't say anything but again with a small smile, he picked up my hand and ran his thumb over my nails ... yeah, yeah ... I'm not going there! 

Now you see my dilemma ... Frank is teasing right now but my fear is, as we get further into the ttwd world, the teasing might turn into a more serious ask. So in anticipation of this, I'm asking ttwd blog land friends .... does your HoH make demands of you that you consider to be outside his ttwd domain and if so, do you submit to those demands? And when you do, how does it affect you?