Hi All,
Sorry to keep this going, but I've given up most of the last two days reading this thread, and just wanted to stick my oar in...
First off, I'm a bloke (sort of!) I have a blokey streak a foot-and-a-half wide running down my back, but I also have a 'girlie' streak a foot wide in roughly the same place. I can be (boringly) blokey when I am that way inclined, and can be similarly (boringly) girlie.
I don't (or try not to) emulate extremes of either gender - it just wouldn't work. I look good in jeans and a t-shirt (not bad for a 50-something), am still quite slim (30" waist but spreading alarmingly) and am not that tall by male standards (five-and-a-half foot short). However, I've got largish feet (size 8) and biggish (man) hands. My finger and toe nails are usually painted.
Sometimes I wear jeans, sometimes a skirt, occasionally a dress. Only at home, and my two daughters (11 and 13) are fine with it (they just see 'me'). My hair is too long for an old bloke, it is highlighted regularly, and I have a bigger collection of styling products than my dw (including, I'm ashamed to admit, velcro rollers, that my kidz also see me in regularly, and really don't care).
My dw doesn't mind if I wear a skirt or do my hair - she still likes me as a person but doesn't fancy me, and frankly I don't blame her! If she wore a false tash, a man's suit, and stuffed a pair of socks (or two) down the front of her trousers I would (I hope) still like her, but I certainly wouldn't fancy her!
Some women know and like it. Some women know and don't like it. Most really don't care. Same with men, some who know me make the odd comment (good and bad) but most really couldn't give a monkeys. Some of my clients know - as long as it doesn't affect my work they are not bothered.
I spent years (and probaly still do) looking for validation, especially from the female of the species. My singular brain-cell is gradually coming round to the fact that this ain't gonna happen; if I can't accept all of me, then why should I ask anyone (male or female) to do it for me? And I do struggle sometimes. It's a constant battle but I know where the boundaries are, I know when I look 'OK' and when I look a twat, and I know what clothing, make-up etc is appropriate for the occasion even if I have to compromise and then sulk a bit!
If dw wants to sit and chat and share a huge choccy bar then me as a she is OK. If, on the other hand, dw wants to play under the duvet, then it has to be me as he.
I guess what these twatacious ramblings are trying to say there is no easy answer to the OP. Some like it, some get it, some hate it, most don't care (as long as it isn't their partner). My dw married a bloke, and I married a woman. My dw is 100% hetero, and so am I.
I can be a 'female' friend to my dw, but not a 'female' lover. And that, to me, is fantastic. I get to be 'me' (whatever that is) pretty much when I want, but dw keeps her hubby (as a hubby, not as a pretend wife).
OK, I'll get back under my rock now....