Self-Image vs TG vs TS ?

[sandra-leigh]

I realized a couple of days ago that I lack the talent to picture myself in a particular set of clothes or in a particular presentation. "Picture" as in to bring to mind a visual model of myself as if I were looking at a different person, to imagine what other people would see, to mentally have me "twirl around".

I realized that one way of phrasing this is that I do not have much of a "self-image".

I pick out clothes that I like to look at, and then I try them on to confirm the fit; I do not "imagine" what the clothes look like on me. Avoiding certain styles has become a matter of experience rather than a matter of imagination.

Makeup: I am unpracticed with makeup application but not inherently poor in matters like spreading it evenly. But I am awful at figuring out what will look good, having little mental projection of my image to go by.

I end up not doing much to make myself "presentable". But I go out anyhow.

Part of me tells myself that I am "just being myself" (after all, I do have decades of not caring much about my presentation), but another part of me says that one of the big reasons I am not doing anything more obviously transsexual is that I do not have any self-image projection of me in that state.

This leads me to wonder about how it is for other people. Did/do you have a mental "picture" of how you would look, and if so (or if not), does that correlate to your certainty of transition?

I did a lot of things that I had to do, but I did so without a lot of internal clarity about where I was headed and with no mental picture of the likely result.

My image of myself is not a "picture" sort of image. My imagination runs more along the line of a flash of projected feeling, perhaps with a glimpse of a visual. The feeling is mostly one of not feeling chronically unhappy anymore, and the blip of visual that I do get, shows me a connection to being more transitioned than I am now. But I think it would be a lot easier for me if I could "see" myself in a more literal sense.

[kimdl93]

Wow, hats a tough one. I will leave it to our TS members to address how they feel.. I have a self image. It has evolved and now is pretty much in sync with how I imagine myself. Whether that tells something about me or not, I don't know. Whether that self image conforms even approximately to what others see, I don't know.

[Traci Elizabeth]

I too have a self-image. I know what looks good on me and I know how to present the mood I am in or wanting others to see me with my make-up combinations.

I get complemented frequently about my clothes and my make-up. In my mind, it is how confident you are about yourself and your image of your womanhood. Having a low self-image or a negative self-image is not in my rheum of reality. I am extremely confident and when you are, it shows to every one you meet or pass by. It shows in how you carry yourself, how you walk, how you use facial expressions, and body language, how sensual you are, your facial expressions, the aura you project.

Self-imaging comes in time. Then, not only can you visualize yourself in your mind but also in your dreams.

[noeleena]

Hi,

This depends on how you accept your self. have you confidence in who you are .selfassured in knowing who you are. & being who you are. what im saying is this isabout you as a person is this only about being a male or woman or a mix of both.

self image what is that, does that mean just in how you dress makeup shoes hair how you walk & manisisms , have surgerys & what ever else you think is nessasary

Or can it be you just plain well accept the way you are get on with life , yes dress as you wont or need to no surgerys & just live life, to the full or do you think it cant be done & have acceptance for who you are,

I did not change from male to female or the other way so thats long gone out of the pic.

I accepted what i was / am age 10 i knew later i would grow to be a woman so i had no worrys about that takeing place, as you know it has .

I wont say i liked how i looked of cause body wise i was quite happy over all & i looked after myself pretty well. because i knew what was ahead, & that the timeing would be right,

Today do i have the same dislike of how i look facial wise, yes pretty much so. more like my down fall as to looks other wise im happy with the rest of things,

Im a female with a mix of male you know the rest im happy as a woman content in my self live life as most other normal women accepted by in large well that would not be the case if i was not female .

I would not have been able to join as a member ofwomen only groups or would be accepted.i have so thats not a issue,

Another way to put it is women i know & from older pics is we dont all look like women even those some i know are women yet they dont look like they are or thier voice's , so to compare our selfs with others because what we think we see is all women look like women we are then setting our selfs up for very hard time of accepting we cant be women because of how we look or my saying of ....dont....

what is better to be accepted because your dressed as a woman looks like...pass... or be accepted being a woman because she is,or you are,

Im accepted not on looks & thats well known . its because i am a woman = female at birth. & dont for get that maleness its still a part of my makeup.

Mental image or presentation. i bypass that i let others & more so Jos say if i am doing it well other wise Jos soon tells me not good though most times its good,

That does not say i dont dress nicely its the overall look . & yes sometimes i know i should have stayed at home , you know what thats when you should go out your still who you are ,
look around you we dont have a dress code that says you have to dress or look a certain way. thank goodness for that.

Unless your a Scottish like i am you know Scottish soc or group detail thats different . kilts & all.

...noeleena...

[Inna]

TG probably meaning more of a CD versus TS or TransWoman? If that is what you are after then here it goes!

non of this is to promote differences and separate two out of putting one down, but this is the reality of perception, it goes deeper into psyche and hinges on the self image of who you are, A Crossdressing Male versus a Woman who happens to have TS as a condition and must wear clothing when out (I suppose that one is really optional :) )!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When one arrives at or is near womanhood while on the path of discovery, clothing is simply clothing. I cant say clothing becomes null at all but the charge associated with the image is more on the fashion sense or what works rather then on the charge of "THE ACT OF WEARING CLOTHES".
However, slew of other more important image concerns surface vividly, like face, making face more towards absolute of femi9nine character includes make up, styling, surgery.
Body shaping, trimming and sculpting diets, skin treatments, hair treatments, and so on. '

For TS portion of community Self image becomes more centered on "SELF" instead of CD's version of: "ACT OF PLAYING female-SELF" , a very important distinction!!!! Both are image congruent however one is more of a whole expression of self when the other is an expression of feminine part of self.

[Kathryn Martin]

Your post is in my view a very important one.

I would like to start with your last paragraph if I may because it contains such a true insight. When you talk about "picture" images of oneself, it is something that women generally don't do. When you need a mirror to confirm what you look like, be it a glass one or the eye of another person then it means that it is not what you image for yourself but how you feel in what you wear.

What I look like has always been important to me. Pre-transition I would look at myself through the mirror, again both glass and people and suffered from what I saw because it made me feel inadequate. It underlined my body's incapacity to lend expression to my self. Over time I had become trained on relying on visualization like any other man and in this conflict of the in-congruency of self experience and visualization I first became aware of the wrongness of it all. Eventually I abandoned that learned talent and simply began to listen to the ebb and flow of my emotional response to my appearance. It became the guiding light not only for my transition decision, the actual transition but eventually my congruent appearance right down to the selection of clothes.

During transition I first started dressing in women's clothes. I knew from vicariously living through others what worked for body shapes and styles, colors and textures, I coached and advised women friends and relatives long before I transitioned. Those are acquirable skills. But when I started to buy clothes for my self, I found that looking at clothes in themselves did not help at all. I have to try things on. I have to look at myself, turn, look at everything and listen, really listen to my inner emotional response to what I see. And the question is, whether it is an expression of me, my self. And that has little to do with fit (which can be changed by a tailor) but rather with me. It makes you look natural, not "dressed" but yet every way as sharp and stylish.

Makeup is another thing. I wear no foundation just translucent powder, I have a palette of colors for eye shadow that express how I feel and underline what I wear, I use it sparingly, but I will not leave the house without it. Most of the time it is so subtle that you would have to get really close to see I am wearing it, yet it enhances my face and my entire appearance. Less is more. Now it has become something that happens every morning in less than ten minutes and has a huge effect.

Go feel yourself more


I realized a couple of days ago that I lack the talent to picture myself in a particular set of clothes or in a particular presentation. "Picture" as in to bring to mind a visual model of myself as if I were looking at a different person, to imagine what other people would see, to mentally have me "twirl around".

I realized that one way of phrasing this is that I do not have much of a "self-image".

I pick out clothes that I like to look at, and then I try them on to confirm the fit; I do not "imagine" what the clothes look like on me. Avoiding certain styles has become a matter of experience rather than a matter of imagination.

Makeup: I am unpracticed with makeup application but not inherently poor in matters like spreading it evenly. But I am awful at figuring out what will look good, having little mental projection of my image to go by.

I end up not doing much to make myself "presentable". But I go out anyhow.

Part of me tells myself that I am "just being myself" (after all, I do have decades of not caring much about my presentation), but another part of me says that one of the big reasons I am not doing anything more obviously transsexual is that I do not have any self-image projection of me in that state.

This leads me to wonder about how it is for other people. Did/do you have a mental "picture" of how you would look, and if so (or if not), does that correlate to your certainty of transition?

I did a lot of things that I had to do, but I did so without a lot of internal clarity about where I was headed and with no mental picture of the likely result.

My image of myself is not a "picture" sort of image. My imagination runs more along the line of a flash of projected feeling, perhaps with a glimpse of a visual. The feeling is mostly one of not feeling chronically unhappy anymore, and the blip of visual that I do get, shows me a connection to being more transitioned than I am now. But I think it would be a lot easier for me if I could "see" myself in a more literal sense.