I was reading something recently that talked about gender perception by people we meet. I don't know specifically where the theory came from but the author proposed that most people on initially meeting someone subconsciously assign them a gender based on various mostly physical clues that the individual is giving e.g. hair length, breasts, facial hair, clothing style, voice. These clues are then subconsciously categorised into a "gender template" that informs our initial response and determination of someones gender.
All this is fairly obvious to all of you on this forum but what I found interesting was that the author then went on to theorise that once a "gender template" had been filled, and most people only have a binary gender template i.e. male or female, anything incongruous with that gender template e.g. obvious breasts on someone with a beard, dressed in mens clothes with short crew cut hair, then is used to inform the persons assessment of the "authenticity" of the individual. Thus the individual described above is regarded by most people as having some question mark over their trustworthiness, at least until other factors affect our assessment of that trustworthiness.
What I am curious about is how many of you have made specific efforts to adopt stereotypical female associated gender behaviours in order to be perceived as more "authentically" female by the general public? Pursuant to this question I also ask do you find this necessity to adopt what are essentially socially constructed stereotypes to be somewhat grating and do you not worry that you end up reinforcing a stereotype that has been used to discriminate against you your whole life?