Helping the "cause"

[Eryn]

Women ARE judged just as severely when they show cues that are commonly associated with males and facial hair is an excellent example of this...

They are judged, but I disagree on the "as severely" part. A woman showing masculine cues is considered "edgy", as evidenced by the various "man-tailored" fashions that crop up periodically. You seldom see "woman-tailored" looks for men. Levi's tried marketing close-fitting "ex-girlfriend jeans" but they were unsuccessful. Here's a clip of the Ellen Degeneris show where she not only ridicules a man wearing the jeans ("take those off so you can have more kids"), but afterwards takes stabs at males wearing panties and dresses. Ms. Degeneris should know better, but being a accepted "masculine L" does not seem to give her very much empathy for those who are "feminine Ts."

OK … back to the topic at hand. There do seem to be two major camps here, those who know they don't pass so they are satisfied with presenting the best they can as males presenting as females (what else can they do?), and those who wish to and feel they pass as women....

There's a third camp (though the camps don't have distinct boundaries). There are those who wish to dress in feminine fashion but who don't present as female, stereotyped as the "bearded guy in a dress." Philosophically, I feel empathy for them and think that if they were accepted it would be better for everyone. Despite this, I still get a sense that, by so drastically flaunting societal norms, they are not really helping overall acceptance because they are too far from the norm to be accepted and, by association, it causes the rest of us to be misunderstood.