The new generation is so open vs the stinky, older generation

[Launa]

I will start off saying that those who know me know that I get out once a week or so....When I go out I don't dress to blend because I'm 6'2" and built like a linebacker. In saying all that I dress to look as pretty as I possibly can. Anyway to the point, I find that the older generation can be a bunch of red neck, bigoted, stubborn old folks and the new generation is so cool. Here is why I think the way I do:

1) When I go out en femme the people who really stare and are very bashfull are anywhere from 60- 65 years +. You can tell that these folks are stubborn and the most ignorant

2) Folks that are 45 - 55, 60 - seem to stare a lot too and I do get into staring contests with these folks my own age.... but they can be "somewhat tolerant" if I strike up a conversation with them...

3) People that are 30 -45 years old don't really seem to look or care, they for the most part are fairly neutral when I encounter them......

4) Then theres the new geny age 18 -30. Since I have come out of the closet it has been amazing how many of these young folks I have met.....Here's some personal stories of mine:

Gay Pride weekend I was out walking the streets in a massive, outrageous costume and no other pride folks were around anywhere... I was walking Stephen Ave all on my own waiting for a big fashion photo shoot at a bar several blocks away. There was a group of big football college boys drinking, yelling and screaming they were jumping up and down chest pounding each other in the street. I was walking toward them and I did not cower and alter my course. When I got close to them one guy yells at me hi-5 and then I had to hi -5 all of them. Then he yells to me hi - 5 it again so I had to hit them all over again and then they started screaming louder and louder....

Then I went to the bar to see the fashion shoot and met so many young folks that it was crazy. I got into a conversation with a bunch of these young folks outside on these picnic tables drinking beer with them and I told them that I'm still afraid of being outed because of work. One young girl said to me do what your doing now and the universe will be good to you in return. All of her friends male and female said the same thing and I thought wow look at this generation. They really don't give a shit.... I could tell more stories that have happened to me in the last few months but it really comes down to the fact that when I cross my paths with the young folk they look at me and say to themselves I've got much bigger fish to fry than worry about someone that wants to dress in women's clothes. I have made so many friends with people that are 30 years younger than me!!! They are also now my facebook friends!!! Its amazing how we can talk back and forth and they don't seem tocare....

Once the older generation starts to die off then things will get better for Trans Folks. Honestly I never thought I would ever be able to relate to a younger generation this way.

Cheers gang

Launa

[Martina]

Launa,
Sorry but I fall into the 65+ at 69 and I am not thinking of dieing off for many years to come, but there again I'm a dresser and there are so many of us that are forum members here and I don't think that we are (stubborn and the most ignorant) we may have our ways and throughts but not ready for the grave yard yet.

Martina

[Eryn]

Sorry, but I don't buy that either. The fact that you characterized those older than 60 as "stinky" simply because you perceive them to be intolerant shows a certain degree of intolerance in itself.

Tolerance, and intolerance come in all age groups. Two seniors whom I met through a mutual friend who weren't "briefed" that I was TG treated me quite well before my status was apparent. When they became aware of it their attitude was "that's nice" and we went on talking about the important stuff like his fishing vacation and her pretty manicure.

Do I get looks when out dressed? Sure! I'm 6'2" and there just aren't very many statuesque mature women around. Anytime I am out and about people will look at me, but it doesn't mean that they are making judgments. Even if they are, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of my day. I put a lot of effort into looking good so I really don't mind if others enjoy the fruits of my labors.

[AllieSF]

Sorry Launa, it's 3 to 0 now. Us older folks are not stinky, ignorant, stubborn, and whatever other derogatory terms you so freely flung around. I do agree that younger folks are much more accepting. I see that all the time. Part of your analysis is correct, but your choice of words really sucks.

[Diane Smith]

At age 57, I find your gross generalizations offensive and, as Eryn says, even more intolerant than you believe the older generation to be.

I do not stink, and neither do most of my friends of a similar age.

- Diane

[Launa]

Launa,
Sorry but I fall into the 65+ at 69 and I am not thinking of dieing off for many years to come, but there again I'm a dresser and there are so many of us that are forum members here and I don't think that we are (stubborn and the most ignorant) we may have our ways and throughts but not ready for the grave yard yet.

Martina

No of course your not going to be stubborn and ignorant! You're one of us!!!! I'm not talking about crossdressers or TG folks, I'm talking about the general folk that are our age and older that have never met one of us. "Not all" but if I were to make some stats of those who "can accept" and those that can't then the spread would be very big and I know you can't deny it.

I see it all the time the older generations talk about the good old days and the way things were.... The young folks just don't care


Sorry, but I don't buy that either. The fact that you characterized those older than 60 as "stinky" simply because you perceive them to be intolerant shows a certain degree of intolerance in itself.

Tolerance, and intolerance come in all age groups. Two seniors whom I met through a mutual friend who weren't "briefed" that I was TG treated me quite well before my status was apparent. When they became aware of it their attitude was "that's nice" and we went on talking about the important stuff like his fishing vacation and her pretty manicure.

Do I get looks when out dressed? Sure! I'm 6'2" and there just aren't very many statuesque mature women around. Anytime I am out and about people will look at me, but it doesn't mean that they are making judgments. Even if they are, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of my day. I put a lot of effort into looking good so I really don't mind if others enjoy the fruits of my labors.

Eryn, I put a lot of effort into the way I look too and you're right there are people that don't care or cheer me on too but hey are usually women. For the most part though and I generally find that women and men in their 60's can be very set in their ways and talk about when the good old days were here.
Just like Archie Bunker, Girls were girls and men were men.......

Here's another example I will give you all. Yesterday I was at Safeway, it was -20 outside and I was in there grabbing something to eat for dinner. Roster chickens were sold out and I was walking away from the heated stand when a gay fellow behind the deli stand yelled hey do you want a hot one? I said sure do and thank you so much with a cheerful voice.
Then I got in line and a young MTF boy was in line at the next cashier with a long trench coat, and womens UGG boots. He was talking in a real girl voice and I started to laugh to myself at the way everyone was reacting with him. The 2 young cashiers that were bagging his small amount of groceriers did not bat an eye and held a conversation with him.

NO WAY would that have happened the same way in the 80's.


Launa,
Sorry but I fall into the 65+ at 69 and I am not thinking of dieing off for many years to come, but there again I'm a dresser and there are so many of us that are forum members here and I don't think that we are (stubborn and the most ignorant) we may have our ways and throughts but not ready for the grave yard yet.

Martina


Sorry, but I don't buy that either. The fact that you characterized those older than 60 as "stinky" simply because you perceive them to be intolerant shows a certain degree of intolerance in itself.

Tolerance, and intolerance come in all age groups. Two seniors whom I met through a mutual friend who weren't "briefed" that I was TG treated me quite well before my status was apparent. When they became aware of it their attitude was "that's nice" and we went on talking about the important stuff like his fishing vacation and her pretty manicure.

Do I get looks when out dressed? Sure! I'm 6'2" and there just aren't very many statuesque mature women around. Anytime I am out and about people will look at me, but it doesn't mean that they are making judgments. Even if they are, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of my day. I put a lot of effort into looking good so I really don't mind if others enjoy the fruits of my labors.


At age 57, I find your gross generalizations offensive and, as Eryn says, even more intolerant than you believe the older generation to be.

I do not stink, and neither do most of my friends of a similar age.

- Diane

No Diane, I keep an open mind when I see someone look at me or talk to me. I do see how many don't want people like me to exist or at least have to tolerate me. and I'm only talking about the numbers of the people that I meet. I'm not calling you in into that group of course as your one of us.


Launa,
Sorry but I fall into the 65+ at 69 and I am not thinking of dieing off for many years to come, but there again I'm a dresser and there are so many of us that are forum members here and I don't think that we are (stubborn and the most ignorant) we may have our ways and throughts but not ready for the grave yard yet.

Martina


Sorry, but I don't buy that either. The fact that you characterized those older than 60 as "stinky" simply because you perceive them to be intolerant shows a certain degree of intolerance in itself.

Tolerance, and intolerance come in all age groups. Two seniors whom I met through a mutual friend who weren't "briefed" that I was TG treated me quite well before my status was apparent. When they became aware of it their attitude was "that's nice" and we went on talking about the important stuff like his fishing vacation and her pretty manicure.

Do I get looks when out dressed? Sure! I'm 6'2" and there just aren't very many statuesque mature women around. Anytime I am out and about people will look at me, but it doesn't mean that they are making judgments. Even if they are, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of my day. I put a lot of effort into looking good so I really don't mind if others enjoy the fruits of my labors.


Sorry Launa, it's 3 to 0 now. Us older folks are not stinky, ignorant, stubborn, and whatever other derogatory terms you so freely flung around. I do agree that younger folks are much more accepting. I see that all the time. Part of your analysis is correct, but your choice of words really sucks.

Yeah sorry Allie about my choice of words if it offends you. I've been going out so much lately and last Saturday I was out at the busiest mall in my city and it was the icing on the cake... I saw so much disgust from people that would look at me that were older. What did I get from all the young folks were smiles and offering to help me in stores while I was shopping as I was just an individual shopping around.

[Tracii G]

I'm 62 and am no where near what you describe.
Oh and I know a few red neck boys that are some of the cutest CD's you will ever lay your eyes on so we can throw that comment out the window.
Side note I was dressed enfemme in the small town of Jackson Ky (eastern Ky btw) and hit a Wendy's to get something to eat.
Sat there eating my dinner and it was full of country boys and guess what happened ...........nothing.

[DebbieL]

Careful about generalizations around age. On the other hand, you have to remember how far each of these age groups have had to move.

When my dad, would have been about 84 if he'd lived, was born in the 1930s, lived through the depression, WW-II, and the Korean war, but he also lived through McCarthyism, when wearing a PINK TIE could end your career. He was told that he wouldn't be getting a promotion for at least 4 years because he wore one.

The older boomers were preparing for nuclear holocaust - duck and cover, and cartoons touting a Hercules missile as the solution to any problem with "the bad guy".
They remember what they were doing the day Kennedy was shot, they remember the feeling of being deceived when Ruby killed Oswald and all investigations stopped.
They remember when women always wore skirts or dresses, no pants allowed at school, and then were allowed to wear pants, while boys who wore shorts or anything other than long pants, were brutally and violently attacked. Most cities had only 4 networks (NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS), and maybe one local station showing syndicated programming. Each station tried to balance advertiser agenda with getting the ratings to compete with the other 3-5 stations. In some smaller town, there were only 3 network affiliates.

They were forced to go to a war where the enemy was women carrying infants strapped to land mines, the deadliest snipers were women, and nobody knew where the "front lines" were. Where 12 year old boys ran out to get the candy thrown by the soldiers and lobbed a hand grenade into the truck to say "thank you". They protested the war, and eventually pressured Lyndon Johnson into not running for reelection.

Kids born in the 1970s and 1980s grew up with Madonna, Billy Idol, dozens of TV channels, channels devoted to science, history, biography, science fiction, food, and entertainment. They had the internet, and could find information in seconds that once took hours to find in a library, if it wasn't banned by the city. Many families had PCs with encyclopedia software, and by the 1990s, they could search Lycos, InfoSeek, and eventually Google to find information from among billions of pages stored on the web.

Kids born in the 1990s, were keyboarding and mousing even before they could read. Media players, smartphones, and tablets have made it possible to have access to the world's information in seconds, and you don't even have to type your search. We can have hundreds of "friends" who offer everything from cute pictures of their pets or their dinner to deep discussions of politics, ethics, and spirituality.

Then we had Amazon, with their Kindle readers. These simple mini tablets have done more for literacy and information than the Web. People can publish books that can be read by dozens or hundreds or thousands of readers, and people can find these books by searching for subjects and keywords. Google would give you a list of pages about your search topic. Amazon gives you a list of books.

[Launa]

I'm 62 and am no where near what you describe.

I know you're not what I described Tracii, you are one of us. I will reclarify that I'm talking about people that are not Cd's.


Careful about generalizations around age. On the other hand, you have to remember how far each of these age groups have had to move.


Yes your point is valid and well taken Debbie!

[Eryn]

I generally find that women and men in their 60's can be very set in their ways and talk about when the good old days were here.
Just like Archie Bunker, Girls were girls and men were men.......

May I remind you that the hippies of the '60s are today's senior citizens. Flower power, anything goes, turn on, tune in, drop out, and all that. Why do you think that gay marriage, pot legalization, etc. are suddenly viable? The Archie Bunkers are dead and the Glorias and Meatheads are now going to the polls!

[Launa]

I'm 62 and am no where near what you describe.
Oh and I know a few red neck boys that are some of the cutest CD's you will ever lay your eyes on so we can throw that comment out the window.
Side note I was dressed enfemme in the small town of Jackson Ky (eastern Ky btw) and hit a Wendy's to get something to eat.
Sat there eating my dinner and it was full of country boys and guess what happened ...........nothing.

Tracii, I didn't see your remarks below on your first post so I will comment again. When I say redneck I'm not referring necessarily about cowboys or country folks I'm talking about someone's stubborn, bigoted frame of mind and that can be city folk just as much as country folk. I'm sure the people you are talking about are CD's super cute as you say and are with "US" because they are CD'ers so the comment is out the window all right and never was in the room. About eating at Wendy's I'm sure you're absolutely right nothing happened even behind your back where you can't see anybody! Can I ask you if the restaurant was full of country boys that were 40 years or younger? See even small town folks that are younger are more accepting than older folks in that same small town.

[Maria Blackwood]

So what you're saying is different generations with different cultural and historical experiences act differently.

Mind blown.

[PaulaQ]

I've gotten dirty looks from older people, and I've had young, but mean girls who laugh at me and my friends and take cellphone camera photos of us that they post to instagram or twitter, or whatever.

You can find very kind and tolerant people of all ages, and viciously intolerant people as well.

[Marcelle]

Hi Launa,

To be honest I have received good and bad reactions across the whole gambit of ages. I had a recent bad reaction from an elderly lady at an airport a few weeks back but also had a lovely discussion with a elderly lady who was curious about what being TG means a few months ago. Likewise I have had good reactions from younger folks and had the typical giggles/guffaws from 20 something guys/gals. All this to say, intolerance and tolerance crosses the generational divide the difference you are probably seeing is a mix of exposure and apathy. Younger folks are more exposed to the whole LGBT things at school, internet, real life experience and that kind of desensitizes a person. So when they see one of us in the wild, they are less likely to bat an eye. In addition, life is busy and age groups of 18 - 45 probably have a lot more on their minds (work, home, family, bills, mortgage) to worry about some guy in a dress. Hence the reason why they don't bat an eye at you . . . too busy with their own problems.

The older generation has had less exposure to our kind and we were something of a dark thing not mentioned much during their young life. Now, it is likely they will see one of us at some juncture. You should never read into a person's reaction (i.e., facial expression) in that what you are seeing may mean nothing it could just be an expression. Let's be honest though, if you have never seen one of us in the wild, the first exposure can be a bit daunting. I'll ask you this though . . . Were these just looks or were they overtly rude (hurtful comments, rude pointing) or was it just looks?

I don't think things are going to magically change for us as the younger generation supplants the older generation in that intolerance for what we do will continue.

BTW being from Ontario . . . aren't all Albertans rednecks? :):battingeyelashes: . . . just kidding.

Hugs

Isha

[Nikkilovesdresses]

Well everyone's given Launa a good roasting.

I'm sure she's learnt her lesson.

I've always loved older people and had close friends vastly older than myself and found it harder to make friends my own age. But everything DebbieL says makes complete sense and explains perfectly the reasons for Launa's experiences.

Hi Launa, I'm really happy for you that you're finding acceptance - anywhere - it must have meant the world to you.

I guess you know many of us are DYING to see a pic of you that day in your 'massive, outrageous costume'.

Any chance??

[Amanda M]

Launa - your emarks about older people is are beneath contempt. Stink, indeed. One day, if you are lucky, you will be older too.

[Beverley Sims]

Geez!
I agree Launa, them old people you gotta watch out for them they are worse than teenagers hanging around the Westfield Mall in Market Street.
I saw some oldies walking along with a walking stick in Boston and I had my "great boots" on.....

I ran and they chased after me....

Guess what!...Nothing happened, they just wanted to compliment my boots.

I think everyone has roasted you and rightly so.

Get out there and see how the other half lives.

Some of those oldies are kind, considerate and would give you the shirt off their back.
Some do have attitude problems, and SO DO SOME YOUNG ONES. :)