by HappySqueak, February 2, 2018
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Dramas can be fuel and food for the imagination and heart! With moving stories and inspiring characters. They can be a place where a wave of up and coming styles, trends and memorable characters live and can be admired. Often we see reoccurring and repetitive story themes woven throughout with new twists, although some ideas get old while others remain classic.


First here is a look back at some Gender Bender dramas:

images from Snow Lotus

One of my personal favourite themes is gender-bender dramas and stories. A girl in disguise as a guy for whatever reason or purpose they have, I just can't get enough of this theme.

image from Coffee Prince

Does it really take just a bowl cut (or other short haircut and some loose clothes to pull it off?)

image from To the Beautiful You

Is it too fan-fanatic to follow suit? I am not a koreaboo quite yet. :P

Other Gender Bender Dramas I adore and that you could say inspired the boyish persona of this experiment include: One Well-Raised Daughter | Sungkyunkwan Scandal | Love in the Moonlight 


Timeline of My Gender Bender Makeover Took Place Spring 2017

I am just your average drama-fan

I randomly decided one day I wanted to try a gender-bending haircut and went to a salon to chop off my ponytail in favour of a boyish cut inspired by all the handsome Oppas. I was curious about androgynous fashion, hair and just wanted to try it out after having watched so many dramas on this theme. After the cut, I suddenly became addicted to wearing hats with my short hair. Not to hide the haircut but because I loved how they looked with my bangs.

I adjusted my style from feminine apparel to loose comfy male clothing such as t-shirts, hoodies and looser fit pants. To be honest, it was such low key style and I really enjoyed that aspect of it, without worrying much about makeup trends, and just applying some minimal cover-up for acne and what not.


Response from Those Around Me

My family didn't really mind it too much as I had done crossplay for years (Dressing up as male anime/game characters for conventions) but usually, this was only for a couple days, not a consistent day-to-day thing. My friends thought it was amusing and were supportive of it.

My mom was not super keen on me appearing boyish, and she thought it was wrong of me to dress as a guy.  I laughed so hard when she once accidentally introduced me as her son to her work colleague. She had just been talking about my brother before we went into a workplace of hers. I often joke with her, that it's her fault as she dressed me in drag for my first baby photo shoot. She says at the time all she had on hand was boy clothing. 

It's a fond throwback photo now, where I had my first gender bender moment you could say.

With some people, I felt that depending on what I was wearing, seemed like they couldn't tell for sure if I was a girl or a male youth. Although my voice was a dead giveaway. No amount of low rasp can hide the medium high-pitchy tone that I naturally have! I think I probably came off more androgynous than anything. 

Surprisingly I got some cute messages from Asian girls, on a cultural language exchange site and over Skype, that they loved my new look. Some didn't even want to arrange language exchange lessons; they just wanted to drop me a line. So that kind of fueled my boyish ego for a while and made me blush. These girls were quite adorable themselves!!
Had I become flower-boyish...? I was still me but in a very understated, relaxed and aloof sort of way. Much like the girls in dramas, some have adapted un-girly mannerisms in the way they carry themselves.


The Negative


Once while passing by some shops, drug addicts that were begging for money outside began yelling at me after I said excuse me to get past them along the sidewalk. "Wear a *cuss word* bra and skirt" one began screaming at me, he sounded so angry so it freaked me out at the time. It did make me feel nervous and concerned because it was the first bad reaction I had got while out in public. It also made me feel depressed about what trans people go through daily and how hard it must be for them to just feel accepted for who they are.


Wrap Up


My final wrap up on the gender bender style IRL experiment of sorts was going in drag to my significant other's Xmas staff party. There were hundreds of staff attending the dinner gala which was hosted at a conference center. However, by this time, my hair had been growing out now as I was beginning to miss my ponytail and side wispies!  Because of my current hair length at this time, I sported a shortcut pink wig, a dress shirt, tie and dress pants to the Party event.


Would I do it again? I guess if I felt inspired to want to get in touch with my masculine side I might go in for an Oppa inspired haircut again. But at the moment, I am loving pretty things and want to dive back into girly stuff!

My current Boyish-girl crush is on Jung Hye In's androgynous character in Jugglers...she is adorable and handsome at the same time!

Would you ever consider gender-bending IRL based on dramas or characters that inspire you?
Or do you prefer to just watch these concepts played out on the screen?
Thanks for reading my fan confession! If you like it maybe I will try some more drama-esque social experiments IRL and report on those.

gender bender