Some of the recent posts, particularly about my soon coming FFS, got me to thinking about the huge difference between gender and non-gender languages and being trans. You girls in English speaking countries have no idea how easy you have it moving about in public! Besides a few pronouns like he or she and a few formal titles like sir and mam, English is a non-gendered language. When some tells you to move, sit ,stop, what do you need?, you have no idea if they are misgendering you. There is no reason for them to express how they perceived you, and you can happily go you way with the confidence that you "passed."

Not so in Israel! Hebrew is a TOTALLY gendered language. Just a one word request like move or stop has to be spoken in the male or female, asking for something like "may I see your ticket" has to be male or female, "pass the salt" has to be male or female. everything spoken. So you instantly are always finding out how you are perceived by others. Humans have the uncanny ability to instantly recognize gender based on a one second look at a face. Clothes are secondary. Once they have gendered you, they will be very unlikely to change or correct themselves unless you correct them. I have to do this all the time, otherwise they will continue to speak to me in the male. It also works the other way, if they first address you in the female, even though your voice may be more male, they will continue in the female. You can see that in a gender language country like Israel, being accepted in the gender you are is a daily issue. Having a face perceived as female makes life so much easier!

Also I have to make a big change in my own speaking. All my life I have spoken Hebrew in the male, now I have to speak in the female. Not easy, as you soon learn to automatically without thinking speak in your gender. Now I have to think before I speak! I often have to correct myself, and this gives me patience for family and friends that have known me for years and have to make the gender change in their speaking to me.

So I wonder if there are any others here that are in a gender language country or community, like Spanish or French, how they have dealt with this? I do know that for myself I have gained after a long and painful struggle, the internal confidence that I am a woman, and that the issue of being misgendered in public has not kept me from being out.