This morning, on the drive home from dropping the kids off at school, I turned off the kid’s requested station (103.3) because I didn’t feel dressed for the clubs nor was I intoxicated enough to be listening to what was formerly known as dance music and who knows what it is now and turned on NPR.

I was happy to hear the quirky, accented voice of British Comedian Eddie Izzard.

It was then that I realized I was and have always been a transvestite. It’s not that I don’t like to dress up, twirl around in a skirt, or tromp around in heels. I do! It’s just that I’ve always loved a nice pair of well worn jeans, a baggy plaid shirt, and a pair of men’s loafers too. As a kid I wore my overalls like the best of the boys. Heck! I strutted my stuff 9 months pregnant in a pair of denim overalls. This might be TMI but I’ve even been known to sleep in boxers in the privacy of my own home. Sometimes… okay most days… I leave the house without eyeliner, lip gloss, and mascara.

When Eddie Izzard was being interviewed on the radio by David Greene, the comedian, marathoner, actor, was in NY in a studio far from Greene. Greene asked what Eddie Izzard was wearing. His response was, “Clothes. Mostly clothes.”

At that moment I felt so connected. I too wear clothes most of the time, most days. It’s like for a brief moment I thought I could be as funny and cool as Eddie Izzard because we both wear clothes.

The thing is nobody cares that I am trans. I can wear what I want and no one cares. It isn’t the same for Eddie Izzard, or my son who loves a little pizzazz in his wardrobe, but at 7 is also very conscious of being able to fulfill his duties as a (his word not mine) ‘dude’.

We need to make it boring is what, the comedian said. Eddie Izzard, who spends his career, brilliantly I might add, making the everyday anything but boring making a huge theatre full of spectators laugh until their jaws hurt talking about the stuff of every day life. He’s right though. We need to make it boring, usual, not a statement of any sort other than ‘I feel like wearing this today.”. When it comes to clothing we’ve made ripped jeans, punk, goth, women out of skirts, men and women in casual clothes at the office, boring, unnoticeable, ‘barely batting an eyelash’- worthy. So what is our big hang up with men in skirts.

I am happy that I live in a city where a bearded man in a skirt seemingly walks comfortably down the street and my kids don’t bat an eyelash, but it’s still not that common even here. Men in drag is not something the kids see everyday but when they do, I’m asked if it’s a man or woman. No one taught them to care. Then again somehow they’ve been wired to ask. We all do. Why? Stupid habit I would guess. It’s something that will change over time. We can do our own small parts by questioning their questions and answering their answers in unexpected ways. (See The List of a Things I Can’t Do Because I Only Have Daughters, Labels are For Jars, or leave your favorite blog links in the comments to help us all ask more questions and shake up the status quo.)

So now I’m off to find out when Eddie Izzard will be in my city for his comedy tour, and I don’t give a flying frock what he’ll be wearing.

Here is the US tour info. http://eddieizzard.com/gigs.

If you don’t know his name, or his work, Google it and be sure to watch Darth Vader order his Penne Al’Arrabiata.

Here is the link to the interview.