Someone made fun of you lately?

[SherylynJade]

This guy had on dirty overalls with one strap undone, no shirt on underneath, a rebel cap, one of those long, dirty, disgusting goatees like you see on a billy goat, and missing teeth. He was leaning against the hood of his filthy, beat-up, rusted out old pickup filled with junk and trash bags, drinking a beer. And he was yelling "f**kin' faggot" at me at the top of his lungs and ordering me to "get out of here" for no other reason than I happened to be sitting in the shade of a tree in the park minding my own business. People all around us, including little kids, were staring. If you think I give a damn about being politically correct toward that a**hole, you're dead wrong.

Of course, now that you mention it, maybe using the word hillbilly to describe that bucket of puss is doing a disservice to hillbillies, so maybe I should have said "redneck scumbag s.o.b.". And let me assure you I have no reservations about using the word redneck where it applies. I don't know where you live, but around here, redneck is real, and they are to be taken seriously. Some of them will drag you around behind a pickup truck for being different, especially if you're gay or black.

In my book, there's nothing wrong with the word "queer", even though I know rednecks use it as an insult. But calling someone a dago or whatever is dissing someone simply because of his race or creed or whatever. That is not even the same thing as despising the behavior I've just described -- and doing it with extreme prejudice, I might add.

Well, just so you know, there are redneck and hillbilly crossdressers out there. I used to look just like the asshole (which is what they should be called) described, Confederate flag and all (though don't have a goatee anymore, thankfully, and never drink beer, and my truck is new and clean, I sometime still dress that way). Though when they act like that and yell stuff at other's, calling them a redneck or hillbilly is putting them up higher on the hog and insulting to others who do have that label. There asshole scum, plain and simple.
And for the original post, I haven't recieved any negative comments to my face, but was once asked if I was a girl or a guy, which I guess could be a compliment.

[gemsay32]

How many OUT people have been made fun of? Well I was out and about wearing my capri pants and a babydoll black t-shirt with a pink batman symbol and someone asked me why I shave my legs and paint my toe nails. So I said I love the feel and I love the color pink. So the guy says thats kinda gay. Then I tell him before I came out (didnt say whether I was gay or Xdresser) That I would redicule people as well to cover my masculinity then walked away. I thought it was my first good come back.

Comebacks don't work. Just like flame wars in forums. It feels good at the time, but solves nothing.

If anything, this suggests you haven't fully come to terms with who you're both inside and out.

Join the club. I know how you feel. Been made fun of my whole life.

[NV Susan]

[SIZE="2"]I've heard comments when being out en femme. I remember my first time out I was waiting to cross the street in a area of town that has 3-4 gay bars in a small area, as I was standing on the sidewalk a car full of people rode by and someone shouted to me "why don't you get some boy clothes"!!! I thought I was doing a good job passing that night but....... anyway I still had a good time.
Susan
[/SIZE]

[Thalia]

The original question was about being made fun of while out en femme. Diana Rose, in response, felt that the person(s) ridiculing a cross dresser feel 'uncomfortable about themselves'. I disagree. He is 6'3" dressed as a woman in public. I think in reality that is a strange sight in an of itself. The people who make fun of us in public are, in many cases, making fun of a person who may very well look ridiculous.

[sherri]

Well, just so you know, there are redneck and hillbilly crossdressers out there. I used to look just like the asshole (which is what they should be called) described, Confederate flag and all (though don't have a goatee anymore, thankfully, and never drink beer, and my truck is new and clean, I sometime still dress that way). Though when they act like that and yell stuff at other's, calling them a redneck or hillbilly is putting them up higher on the hog and insulting to others who do have that label. There asshole scum, plain and simple.
And for the original post, I haven't recieved any negative comments to my face, but was once asked if I was a girl or a guy, which I guess could be a compliment.

Well, if you refer back to my original post, what I said was this jerk looked like a hillbilly, and I guess what you're saying pretty much validates my impression of him. But I concede the spirit of your point in that not all hillbillies are scum like him. It was wrong to make such an implication. Sorry. As for "redneck" (which I did not use in my original post, btw), see below. And about that confederate flag thing -- I know what it means to "Suthrens" and I know the connotations are not all bad, but you know good and well that it is offensive to some people who don't deserve the insult, so if I can't use the word hillbilly disparagingly, maybe you need to think about ditching that particular symbol, okay? I mean, talk about reinforcing stereotypes ... That's the thing about political correctness -- sooner or later it comes around to bite nearly all of us. Except maybe Persephone, who appears to be pure as the driven snow. :D

And somehow, Sherri, what you're doing is different? You are generalizing from some individual and then using the broad brush of a label to somehow stigmatize something you perceive as a group, apparently by the way they are dressed or the type of vehicle they drive or where they live. Sorry, but what you are doing is no different than any other form of vituperative name calling.

What I did was make a correlation between the way he looks and the way he behaved. I mean, this guy was straight out of Deliverance (which I suppose is also a travesty for depicting hillbillies the way it does), and I was definitely tapping into that association of ignorant, backwards, bigoted, violent evil. Never mind that I have lived among hillbillies in years gone by and found them to be very much this way toward blacks, gays and anyone "different", you are right that there is nothing constructive about reinforcing stereotypes. If you want to take the high road -- way up high where it's hard to breath -- then you are right and I was wrong. I apologize (even though I think you are pretty much full of it for equating my characterization with bigotry toward non-agressives).

As for the term "redneck", I'm not backing down on that one. Grechen Wilson might make it sound yee-haw cool, and Jeff Foxworthy might make it funny, but where I live, redneck ain't funny or cool if you're "different". As someone who has experienced firsthand vitriolic, even violent prejudice because of my long hair (when I was young) or being a sissy, there is nothing cute or acceptable about being redneck. Rednecks are willfully ignorant, highly prejudiced, self-righteous and prone to unwarranted violence. I have rednecks in my family who say unspeakable things about Obama simply because they can't stand a black man being president. Any time racial minorities or gays come up in conversation, the consensus is they should be beaten senseless and deported. That's what redneck means to me, and I don't think any honest redneck would deny that mindset is prevalent among their kind. I tell my kin straight to their faces that they're redneck. By using that word, I'm telling them it is not okay with me and I'm not willing to chuckle, wag my head and say, "Oh those crazy, colorful rednecks, ain't they a caution!".

I also apologize if this thread has been hijacked. That wasn't my intention, and I'll shut up now.

[Persephone]

have you not noticed that that hicks tend to be the biggest threat to a TG person?

Nicole,

Once upon a time I dialed a wrong number. When the phone was answered I asked if the person I was calling was there. The woman on the other end of the phone went into an incredible tirade which included "I can tell from your voice that you is a White man, and you got no buziness calling no Black lady . . ." and on and on and on. Should I have have generalized from this that all Black women are stupid racists? Somehow I don't think so.

Whenever you project the characteristics of an individual onto a group, regardless of the characteristics of the individual or the nature of the group, you are committing the same error.

How is your anger, your elevated blood pressure, your rage, and, yes, your hate any different?

Jesus Christ Persephone

Interesting! I've been mistaken for Jesus before! O.K., that time I had a beard and long hair. I was helping a police office handle a drunk. I stepped out into the headlights in front of the drunk. To him it was as if I suddenly appeared, radiant in the light. The drunk jumped back, his eyes bugged out and he slurred "Are you Jesus Christ?"

But I have to give it to you for a first -- first time I've been mistaken for Jesus en femme!