Your picture on this site

[JessHaust]

Hi everybody,
This is a simple question to ask, but I expect some complex answers!
We all have supplied a picture to represent ourselves. A lot use real photos of ourselves, and most are I think like mine, one that you feel presents yourself in the best possible light.
But there are still lots with a cartoon avatar, graphics symbol, or a stock photo of some beautiful girl.
The question is for those without a real picture of yourselves, why? Is it simple embarassment of the way you feel you look? Or are trying to express some ideal image that you have assigned to yourself? Or another reason that I have just not thought of?

[AllieSF]

My avatar is a picture of my shadow on a green tennis court. I never had a pic of myself and this was the next step from a pic of something other than me. When I started here I had no pics to post and didn't want to post any for fear of being identified by someone who knows me. Over time as my confidence built and my paranoias diminished, I got braver. So, I posted some of my pics in my friend's threads here. Over time I found my shadow pic looked interesting and different and I decided that it was now to be my avatar. I haven't posted a facial pic yet, probably because I am still worried that a casual visitor who knows me in male mode might see me en femme and for whatever reason be able to identify me. So, I will continue to refrain from posting a pic of me for my avatar. Maybe one day. An avatar is not important to me and maybe not for others too for a variety of reasons. I do not define a person by their pics, but by their posts here.

[2B Natasha]

My avatar is a cartoon cha rector. Daphne Blake to more exact. I have that as mine in a bit of a protest to some censoring that I thought was over zealous and uncalled for of another's avatar photo. That's why. the many layers of subliminal meaning you can figure out by yourself.

Cheers!

[docrobbysherry]

R u saying I look like a cartoon character, Jess?

Whew! Thank goodness! Anything's better than looking like the skinny old man-in-a-dress that I am!

[Kate T]

Relatively simple answer. I don't trust people on the internet. Avatars come up on visitor access areas.

[prettieboy]

i dont have a camera or i would put up pic. my avatar on the other hand mabie thats what a girl should look like

[Alice B]

I use a real photo of myself because I think it's only fair to show what I really look like. Of course I use one that I feel is flattering and of course I want to look as female as possible. A difficult task at best.

[JenniferRose]

It was originally a picture I drew of myself that the first of my friends I told my dressing about when I came out took and redid in a lot more detail

[Launa]

I had a pic uploaded for a while but only my friends were able to see it not anybody else. The reason for this is that my wife is not comfortable with me posting a pic. She says that once its out there in cyber space that you can't take it back. I would love to post some here and also have a 2nd facebook account but I can't do it.
I have a pretty darn good relationship with the wife when it comes to dressing up and this might have to be one of those things that I just can't do right now. So for now it has to be that crappy graphic symbol.

[Cally]

I use real pictures of Cally because I am not concerned about someone recognizing me mainly because unless they have some facial recognition software running they most likely will not pick me.

I base this on an incident that happened a while back. I went to dinner in drab with a group of gurls and spent the evening talking to a GG across the table. When Cally rocked up the next week she did not recognize me at all. Her reactions were genuine enough and wasn't just making me feel good. I actually had to describe my drab self to her. I have come to the conclusion that whilst most will see I am not a real girl, they will not see who it really is.

So armed with that confidence, and a belief that the sort of people who I do not want to know about Cally most likely do not frequent sites like this anyway, I am happy to show Cally in as cool a picture as I can manage. And like Alice says, that is an ongoing challenge.

At the end of the day, if someone does join the dots, good luck to them.

[Samantha_Smile]

...The question is for those without a real picture of yourselves, why? Is it simple embarassment of the way you feel you look? Or are trying to express some ideal image that you have assigned to yourself? Or another reason that I have just not thought of?

Ive often wondered this.
I dont accept friend requests from cartoons and stock photo users. Some may say this is unfair, but let me explain.
Ive taken time and patience to get my game up to a level as such that Im confident enough to share an image of myself including my face. If you havent done this, then in my head, were clearly not on the same page.
It's not to say I have to support for these individuals, but I feel theres a lack of honesty that comes through when posters dont include an image of themselves.
Ive also noticed that a lot of these particulare users are the ones who start threads of wild, unbelievable adventures and have dozens of you commending them on their efforts...
This annoys me, not to see people doing well, but theres ZERO photographic evidence to prove they actually did what they claimed.
This is the internet, this is a forum and to quote my forum fore-fathers/mothers...
http://straightrazorplace.com/attach...-images-1-.jpg

Im not calling everyone a liar, but did you know Im actually a billionaire?
Ive got a Veyron too.

If you havent got pictures, in my opinion, youre not even trying.

[noeleena]

Hi,

What you see is what you get & im seen every day so if you saw me down the street some where. youd soon reconise me . so its real & Jos took a number of pics in our back yard, i do have one of Jos & i together taken about 10 years ago in the pics section & you wont see much difference from then to now, not at 64, there is another one on the net just i was wearing a wig then use my name for that,

...noeleena...

[Jonianne]

If you havent got pictures, in my opinion, youre not even trying

"...if someone has an issue, they have every right to tell me how they feel, they do not have the right to tell me how I should be...." Quote from psychologist Dr. Joy Browne, on truly accepting yourself.

I used to have a pic of myself as my avatar, but I chose my current image because it depicts how I feel inside. Others may not understand, but I do. If you want to see a pic of me, look on my profile page.

[gungho]

It's a large part lack of self-confidence and another large part of just not having pictures to share. I'd like to change it but I'm young and I'm poor and I'm barely a part-time lurker at this point. I spend more time reading the text than caring about the picture in the avatar.

[paulaprimo]

hi jess, i do have a pic on my homepage. i just joined the forum a few days ago so i want to get a more representative face pic and then i will happily post it!! i would love to post more than one pic on my homepage also, but i guess that i can't!

[helena.gcd]

i have had a pic of me as an avatar, but some time ago i found this one of ranma featuring both characters together and in some way it represents the way i feel now, some times a boy some times a girl.

i don't have issues showing pics of me. i have a few threads on the Picture and video section. Anyway, avatar is something i change from time to time, so maybe next one is another pic of me.

i can understand that some people doesn't like showing their face on the internet. Specially on the beginning you are afraid that somebody you know recognizes you, but as confidence raises i think that most people is less hesitant of showing pics.

[SallyS]

At 42 I stopped caring too much what people might say about me

If someone sees my female images, and still recognises me, then I guess I need better make-up

It's right for some to hide themselves, for security, family, work reasons etc, but if like me you love to have other 'gals' opinions of what you look like en femme, then picture post away!!!

[erickka]

I supply as little as I can get away wth on the net. There are just too mant whackos out there to risk anything. I don't do ANY personal or financial stuff on the web, even though they say secure......HOGWASH!!! There's a hacker lurking for you.

[Beth Wilde]

Yep, this is me (admittedly the best pic of the 80 or so i took, some of which looked awful). Very few people truly study avatars closely, and I look a lot different in male mode so I'm more than happy that nobody would recognise me!

[Foxglove]

I don't post a picture of myself because I don't have one. I've never owned a camera in my life, don't have a phone camera, never will have one. I don't have any photos of my son growing up or anything like that. Basically, unlike a lot of people in this world, I have no interest whatsoever in photos.

If someone were to suggest that my avatar shows a lack of honesty, I'd say quite the contrary. It's a bit of joke aimed at myself. Is that valid?

[Ineke Vashon]

I hope to use a real picture avatar later, when I've had a chance to have a makeover done. I'm a newcomer at this game.

Ineke

[monalisa]

I think it is because some of us haven't found the perfect look that we are satisfied with and also some of us aren't ready to come out to the world. When I look at some of the pictures posted I am very envious as I will never have a chance at becoming Miss America anymore.

[Misty G]

I use a real photo of my self. It is fairly old one but it is one of my favorite

[jessica renee]

I don't post pictures of myself dressed enfemme online. The main reason is the same as others have stated already, security. While I fully believe anyone who might come across my photo on this site would be accepting of me dressing, there are people out there who just want pictures and other information for their own malicious use. I'm not accusing anyone here of such activites but we all know that those type of people are out there. So for now, Jessica's pictures will remain on my camera's memory card.

[Sara Jessica]

My avatar is a picture of my shadow on a green tennis court...

That is so cool! I never really gave it any thought as to what that was other than assuming it was some kind of stock image or other avatar picked up off the net.

Ive often wondered this.
I dont accept friend requests from cartoons and stock photo users. Some may say this is unfair, but let me explain.
Ive taken time and patience to get my game up to a level as such that Im confident enough to share an image of myself including my face. If you havent done this, then in my head, were clearly not on the same page.
It's not to say I have to support for these individuals, but I feel theres a lack of honesty that comes through when posters dont include an image of themselves.
Ive also noticed that a lot of these particulare users are the ones who start threads of wild, unbelievable adventures and have dozens of you commending them on their efforts...
This annoys me, not to see people doing well, but theres ZERO photographic evidence to prove they actually did what they claimed....If you havent got pictures, in my opinion, youre not even trying.

I see where you're coming from but don't you think it's a bit unfair?

Avatars are visible to anyone who might trip into this site. While it doesn't take much more than a breath test and a pulse to be able to get an account here, at least one would have to go to that effort and if they did so, they'd really have a mission in a desire to "find" someone.

I started out in these pages for quite some time with a cartoon avatar and no pictures. Then eventually I came to enjoy sharing my adventures and pictures in the appropriate members only area. Only recently did I come up with a picture that I now use as my avatar, one which at close inspection someone would have to be unbelievably perceptive to be able to see my other side.

Many people have concerns about inadvertently outing themselves and those are legitimate. I would apply your "rule" to anyone who I was becoming friends with (IRL rather than simply collecting friends on a site such as this). Otherwise, I do look at the number of posts if something comes across as unbelievable and would take it with a grain of salt if an experienced poster were to make some outlandish claims of grandeur without posting something to back it up.