A girly problem?

[Jan W]

Serious question girls.

How is your sense of direction?

I have absolutely none and am wondering if this is common among TG'd M2F people?

I know that it is a cliche to say women can't read maps but I wonder.....!

I could get lost in my own backyard - no kidding.

Please comment on your sense of direction.


Jan wrongway W

[alise]

Hi Jan !

No pb at all with my sense of direction. A quite good one.

Just a question :o , where is Australia ? In North America :confused:

Love, Alise

[Deborah]

Why do GG's always tell men to stop and ask for directions then? I think it goes both ways not gender specific.

[Rikki Elisabeth]

My sense of direction is fine. I can usually tell by what time it is and the placement of sun which direction I am going.

[Holly]

I've got up and down pretty much nailed. :confused:

[Imogen_Mann]

My sense of direction is the best amongst those I know. I very rarely get lost, that said, my mother is a cracking map reader, and almost always knows where she is too. Mum is however a masculine woman, Always in jeans, never in makeup... Strong, indipendant (would Arm wrestle Rosie the Riviter and win) etc, not a femminine woman.
My dad (before he got brain damage) could remember his way about almost the entire country map free... if he'd been somewhere once, he could drive back there without fault ten years later, if he'd never been there, he would look at the map for five minutes, leave it at home and drive straight there, and knew alternative routes too, if there was a traffic holdup.

I think sense of direction, map reading and involved abilities are possibly something we are geneticaly gifted with. I got the map reading gene from my mother and the sense of direction from my dad, my sister and brother got neither, but both have other skills that I certainly do not.

Thats my view.

XX

Jayme

[Helen MC]

I am not physically TG but a man who has been a CD since I was 12 and probably had latent CD tendencies before that but I have often read a map upside down. What I mean by that is not holding it the wrong way up but interpreting it 180 degrees out of phase. I will download a map of a place I don't know from the Internet but when I get there may well head off in exactly the wrong direction. I therefore tend to look for a landmark and orientate on that and navigate point to point, noting waypoints such as pubs, churches, notable buildings etc. I am good at verbal skills but hopeless at spatial ones and have been so since I was a kid at Primary (Grade) School. Ask me to make a model at handicrafts, or draw something etc and I was useless but ask me to write an essay and I was A++.

[BrendaChristine]

I have an excellent sense of direction, can read maps, and am pretty good at seat of my pants navigation when necessary.

[Lotte L]

Hi Jan,

My sense of direction is excellent. Bij the sun and the trees I know what direction I have to go. At night the moon and stars give me a qlue where to go. Last autum I was with Anna in the Ardennes in Belgium. She bought a map of the surroundings with walkingroutes and we got lost. Once following my sense of direction we were in notime at the hotel.

Love,
Lotte L

[Jonien]

Never get lost I can find my way any where in the world just have to type in the post code into the navi thing
Now were did I leave the car.

[renee k]

My occupation is an airline pilot, have no problem with where I'm at while flying. But stick me in a car in England and all bets are off as how to get from A to B, without a road atlas. Never mind driving on the left side of road from the right side of a car.

Huggs, Renee

[Wendy me]

mine is veary good no trouble at all ..

[Dragster]

I've always had a great sense of direction. Give me a map and I'll find anywhere, without stopping to ask directions (that's an admission of defeat)! Maybe that's why I enjoyed navigating on motor rallies when I was younger, with some measure of success.
But then I'm a straight CDer, with no wish to be a woman, I just love to look like one from time to time, love the feel (and the constriction) of the clothes, but love my maleness at all other times. We're all different!

Tony

[Emma Brownings]

Yep, me too.

Very good at map reading, and finding my way around whether on foot or in the car. Often don't need a map as I seem to be able to maintain my sense of direction subconsciously from the sun and wind direction.
My wife is very good at map reading but has an awful sense of direction, but we make a great team in the car. :thumbup:

[Lilith Moon]

I have a good sense of direction. I always know which directions are NESW using various cues, such as sun direction. My map reading is excellent as well.

However, I cannot remember a list of verbal directions. You know the sort of thing "Take the second turning on the left, go past the second church on the right, then do a sharp right......" etc etc.

Here in Wales, UK I have an extra problem with place names. Typically, places will have names such as Llangadfan, Llanfair Cearinion, Llaniminech, Llanerfyl, Llandudno and the locals will pronounce these names in ways that no-one could guess from the way they are written. Heck, I can't even pronounce the name of the house I live in :o

[Lawren]

No, Hon, I don't think it's common among just CDs/TVs/TGs etc. I know some "manly" men who can't find the front door. LOL!!! Yet my grandmother used to "navigate" between Fla. and Maine for my grandfather. I for one have a good sense of direction. Kind of a pre-requisite for those of us inflicted with wanderlust and definitely required if you want to drive long haul trucks. BTW, I do sometimes fail to find places and stop to ask directions. LOL!

[MandyTS]

The ability to drive, read a map, have directional abilities, etc are NOT gender specific. There are people (like my mom) who drive like someone who should have been kicked off the road years ago. I have no since of direction at all but can read a map of follow the map quest directions if I can read them. I can not follow verbal directions in regards to driving at all.

I have no problem stopping and asking for directions or lately my friend 411 direction service on my cell phone.

The real question is why do woman have the nerve to ask dirctions more than guys: macho complex I think!

Mandy

[TGMarla]

I love maps, and I have an uncanny sense of direction. I rarely, if ever, get lost. No problems there!

[Colleen]

I can read a map write down directions know N-S-E-W.But I have a problem with puting it all togeather.I see LEFT I turn right.RIGHT I turn left.If the address is 1234 Maple I goe to 4321 Maple.My wife has come to except this.I think it my be a case for Dexlepsia(spelling) I use both my right and left hands depending on the sport but mostly left hand dominated.It dosnt show all the time.If I go slow and take my time I"m OK with it.But get me sressed out I will turn around a few times.Furniture in a box?Thats a whole new topic.

[KarenNY]

I rarely if ever get lost -- I always know which direction I'm heading, and I always have a road atlas in my car with me, just in case. I have successfully navigated complex highway patterns in fairly large cities, and back country roads to get where I need to go. I work for a newspaper so it requires a certain amount of travel throughout my region.
I remember being very young and being fascinated with maps. When my mother and I would go traveling, I was the one with the map, keeping my mother on track. So it's something that came natural to me, even though I spent a lot of time as a girl when I was younger...

Karen :)

[paulaN]

maps are no problem. I do seem to get turned around very easy. I discoverd as a young hunter that I would always walk in a counterclockwise circle when in the woods. I am always looking for landmarks wherever I go.

[Paige]

I usually have no problem with direction. Like Lilith, however, I usually can't remember verbal directions from the second turn on. I might add that I have been a pilot (private license) and I navigate on the water quite often as I deliver boats to different places.

Hugs, Paige

[Bonnie D]

Like Paige, I am very good with directions but not very good with verbal directions. I'll pay attention to the first few and then figure I'll ask someone else along the way. I'm not afraid to ask for directions. I like talking to people.

If I'm driving, I basically just need to know the final destination and if I get off track I can usually find my way to the end whether or not it was the original plan. If time is an issue I will pull over and ask someone for help.

Bonnie

[MsJanessa]

I'm a Registered Maine Sea Kayaking Guide---had to take a course and a state exmaination(two parts--oral and written) in order to get My:dom: license---My ability to read a map and plot a course is very good---also have a private pilots license and had to learn how to do the same thing in the air. This ability is learned and is not genderspecific---the person who taught me is a GG---the stereotype is that women and therefor T-Girls are helpless and unable to function in this manner, and somepeople see that as more feminine--well I look pretty good in a dress and can be one of the most feminine guys I know---being feminine does not equate with being incompetant in any field of endeavor---just My two cents:dom:

[Tabathasiren]

I was a limo driver and drove between milwaukee and chicago for about 5 years. Had a tough time:)

[joni-alice]

reading maps and sense of direction are two different things aren't they. I can read a map, but most times don't when going anywhere. preferring to let highway signs guide me. When they are not around, my sense of direction is lousy. My daughter;s is great though, so I do not think it is gender-spawn. Like Colleen, I also have trouble distinguishing right from left -- and have to look at my hands to determine which was is which (meaning I know what my right hand looks like).
j-a:cool:

[Aileen]

My sense of direction is lousy, and I still don't automatically know left from right. I need to make an 'L' with my left hand to know where left is.

[kathy gg]

Hmm..sounds more like a manly problem if you are lost and dont' want to ask someone for direction..............:p


Just for the record though, I am great with giving direction to another person if it is a place I have been before. I am also good at following direction (given that they are told to me correctly) .....and for almost ten years I worked in the transportation field where I had to have people give me directions (or send me maps) and then had to repeat (or read) what was told me in a way that was easy....I am certain that I never got anyone lost, unless the man I was telling information to did not write it down properly. so that said....I would like to think my sense of direction and of following direction is pretty darn good.

[carson]

I do a lot of driving for my job and have all my state and county maps. Usually, I can look at a map and commit it to memory. When I can't, I'm pretty good at reading a map while driving - both right side up or upside down. Also, I'm a sailor and can navigate by dead-reckoning, GPS, Loran and even celestial nav.

[DonnaT]

Not as sharp as they use to be, but still ok. Old age I reckon.

I taught map reading while in the army. I use to lead our platoon at night because I just knew where I was going, and could see pretty good in the dark.

[JoAnnDallas]

Get lost??? First I am a pilot, so map reading is natural for me. Also I am a survalist so not a stranger in the woods.

Then too I have a GPS Maping system in my car. Can't get lost with one of
those.

JoAnn

[PennyAnne]

joannplano,
I'm a pilot too, and as you might expect, can navigate thousands of miles using the navaids in my plane. Even am pretty good at pilotage. But put me on the ground, I'm in danger of getting lost if I venture off a main road.
Funny thing is, I used to be better before . Most likely it's a cultural thing.
Perhaps somewhere in my subconscious there is a feeling that it's not feminine.
Anyway, I think I read an article in WSJ a while ago that actually cited a study saying that the whole matter actually is sex linked.
Guess all those hormones sort of rewire one's brain after a while.