The Spangled Leotard

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Jude's mom stands her ground to enter Jude in
the Linville Christmas parade as a girl!

The
Spangled
Leotard

by Torey

Copyright © 2013 Torey
All Rights Reserved.

 
Image Credit: Title Picture purchased and licensed for publishing from

from 123rf.com (Photo 536206). The model in this image is in no way connected with this story nor supports nor conveys the issues and situations brought up within the story. The model's use is solely used for the representation of looks of the main character of this particular story. ~Sephrena

Divider licensed for use in publishing from Photoshopgraphics.com ~Sephrena.


 
 

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"My son doesn't need any special treatment!"

Those were the words we heard at practice as we practiced for our numbers for the Linville Christmas parade.

"Oh God, Mom, what are you up to now?" I thought as we finished our routine.

Barbara Jean Miller was the ultimate little league mom, scout leader, homeroom mom, dance mom and baton twirling mom in hillbilly heaven, also known as east Tennessee. Whatever her boys were involved in, she threw herself in with gusto, much to our embarrassment.

She didn't mind what people thought of her, which was a good thing since she had been married four times. My brothers and I had different fathers, and I was the one born out of wedlock, although technically by Tennessee law my parents' relationship could have been called a common-law marriage.

She could be loud, crude, but she loved us just the same.

My two older brothers, they were of the typical redneck-hillbilly variety. Think Daryl and Merle from "The Walking Dead," if you watch that show. They hunt, they fish. They like Nascar and play little league.

Me, oh that's another story.

I'm "the little girl my momma never had."

That's my mother's latest boyfriend's opinion. Oh yeah, Lloyd. He's a piece of work.

My mother never hid the fact that I was a "sissy."

No, scratch that, "Janegirl."

She read that in a magazine once and she wanted to be up on the trends. Yeah, try being the kindergartner with the fluorescent pink shirt that read "Mommy's little Janegirl."

She was proud to be a "tomboy" growing up, and she was proud to be raising a "Janegirl."

I admit it. I loved watching Hannah Montana growing up. Miley Cyrus was my idol, another Tennessee girl. I had the biggest Barbie collection a boy in the Smokeys ever had. I wore pastel colored clothes, bright purples, greens, pinks, yellows.

I take tap classes at Miss Katie's School of Dance. Yeah, I was the bumblebee in the recital last May.

My mother always insisted if I wanted to start wearing dresses, it was okay with her.

No thanks Mom, at least not yet.

Grandma's made me a nice country girl dress, but I'm waiting to surprise Mom with it after Santa comes.

But now back to our story.

I happen to be the only boy twirler in the Mountain Darlin's, also known as the training ground for future Linville High majorettes.

Our director, the lovely Heather Moultrie, tried to emphasize I was a "twirler," not a majorette. Our choreography tried to bring out the "manliness" of the only boy twirler in the Tennessee hills, who happened also to be one of the top three twirlers on the whole squad.

Miss Heather was proud of her 10-year-old wonder.

My uniform was always a pair of slacks and a colored tie that matched the spangled leotards of my fellow twirlers.

That was until the argument.

A couple of the moms were complaining that their daughters were going to freeze to death marching in their spangled leotards, while as the only boy, I was marching in a long sleeve shirt and long pants.

Miss Heather walked away from our practice to settle the argument.

"I didn't ask for Jude to get special treatment!" my mom shouted. "I think it's the other way around. The girls get the special uniform. I'd much rather Jude WEAR a leotard just like the rest of the girls!"

All of the girls looked at me. I wanted to crawl under a rock. Nice going there, Mom.

To make a long story short, here I stood shivering in a spangled red sequined leotard on Main Street two weeks before Christmas with about 20 other girls, waiting to begin to march.

Miss Heather explained to me I would no longer be getting "special treatment."

"Not entirely what I want," she said, "but I'm not going against your mother's wishes."

I heard a couple of smart remarks about the queer boy dressed as a girl. I heard the laughter.

But I also heard a few words in my defense. One from a father.

"Actually, he looks better in that get up than a lot of the girls in the squad, you know, the fat ones," I heard him say. "Who would do that to their daughters?"

Of course, there was Mom, in her shining glory. I was decked out in pigtails, makeup, lipstick and ribbons that matched my leotard. And that wonderful thing between my legs that set me apart from my fellow twirlers. Evidently, it's so small, you can't really tell I have one.

"Give 'em hell, Jude, show 'em how to strut your stuff!" she shouted from the street.

"Gee, thanks Mom," I thought as I looked her way and gave her a look that I thought my hint at a little lovely sarcasm.

"Actually, I think your Mom is kinda cool," said Becky Jo, one of my fellow twirlers.

I was never so glad for the marching to begin. We marched to Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Silent Night and other Christmas tunes played by the Linville High School Band, which marched behind us.

Then came our moment to shine. We did a routine to "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus right in front of the courthouse.

As one of the three featured twirlers, we did a few tricks apart from the group. I was in the middle between Kaylie and Amber.

"Hey, that girl in the middle is really good," I heard a man say halfway during our routine.

Miss Heather didn't bother to correct him.

And I'm cool with that.
 

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The End

 

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Comments

Sigh...

Andrea Lena's picture

..would that we all had 'cool' moms. Thank you!

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

Great story. My mother was

Great story. My mother was sort of in the middle. Accepted some of my girlishness, as she wanted me to be born a girl. But then on the other hand would try to encourage male behavior along with some female behavior. Mixed signals I guess. lol.

Looks like Jude

will become Judy in the future, ans the mom will be very happy.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Probably not Judy ...

If that is the course Jude takes. I don't know of anyone who has named a child Judy in at least the last couple of decades. Judith on the other hand ...

Let children be.

Who and what they are, and the human race will be so much better for it. The over the top manhood stuff needs to be dialed back before we exterminate our selves. We have many women who can and do express there inner male freely. We must support all of the Jane-girls in just being them selves.

Huggles
Michele

With those with open eyes the world reads like a book

celtgirl_0.gif

Cute, fun story

Well written and something lots readers wished happened to them. Keep writing

Hiker_JPG_1.jpg

My parents were pretty cool...

Ole Ulfson's picture

I was never punished, berated, chastised, much less tormented or beaten for my girlish interests. If I would prefer to sing, draw, or paint rather than play ball or fight they were fine with it. My father, 5'6", threatened to beat my uncle, 6'2", to a pulp for calling me a sissy and telling me what I should and shouldn't play with when I was 4. I heard him mumbling around the house for a week, "No pompous ass is going to tell my kid how to act".

Of course he also told me, "You're my kid and you can play with anything you want to", which wasn't quite true because around this time my folks had taken my beloved 'Cut out dolls' away from me. But I never doubted that I was loved!

When I was older, I was send to a "Child Psychologist" for evaluation for SRS. My father was willing to close his business and move to another state to give me a fresh start if I was approved. However I saw a total dork whom I could never open up to and was turned down because I was clearly attracted to girls, so I couldn't possibly become one... Now, I ast Ya! Did this fool never hear of lesbians?

But darn it, no spangled leotard!

Ole

We are each exactly as God made us. God does not make mistakes!

Gender rights are the new civil rights!

I wish I had

had parents like Ole's during my child hood years!

Vivien

Given that I was born in

Sabre Sarah's picture

Given that I was born in Blount County, there is no way I could not like this. Thanks, Torey. Wish I'd had Jude's courage when I was a kid.

Hi Torey!

Cute story! I think Jude's mom is being a little over the top though. Loving Hugs Talia

Yay for janegirls!

I recently learned the term janegirl, and liked so much, I was inspired to start writing a story. So, imagine my surprise and delight at finding one of my favorite authors writing about a janegirl! I can hardly wait to read more about Jude. :)