You yourself said that GGs have a strong societal pressure not to have excessive facial or body hair and you described a woman with facial hair akin to a circus freak show? Unless I misunderstood? I know a woman who had a lot of dark facial hair above her lip. She was mortified about this and shaved frequently, until she got enough money for electrolysis. She did not like being stared at.Originally Posted by Eryn
To Eryn and also Jennifer, yes, of course. I simplified for my point, limiting it to the people who do present as women.
You are addressing only a partial segment of the members in this forum, the members who want to be taken as GGs with no hint of cross-gender expression. But a lot of our members who do present as females in public do not identify as women (even though they may identify as gender fluid), they know they are men (or gender fluid), in fact they know there is no way they could sustain passing as women up close and further their desire to present as stealth women is not strong enough to undergo HRT and major body modifications. And they also do not want to be seen as fetish CDers, effeminate men, or genderqueer (bearded guys in a dress).
Frankly, I don't think that people who are not exposed to this community understand all the subtle differences between everyone. To them, I'm afraid that a man who chooses to present in a feminine manner (any feminine manner), if he is read as a man, is just odd and when you think about it, it is statistically odd. I'm not saying it is wrong, just that people are more understanding of and comfortable with what is familiar. The exception to this might be someone like Conchita Wurst (see below), and also transsexuals who come out in a publicly favorable manner, for example the high school teacher in the Northwest several years ago who transitioned and received support from her school administration, the students, and all those who commented favorably on the online news article. But, this person was not CDing, she was living full time as her target gender and was quite candid about her transition struggles, struggles that she experienced in her own community despite having some people support her.
Back to Conchita Wurst, she has garnered tremendous support in the media, enough to obtain a contract for the endorsement of Zeke headphones. Her (his?) presentation flies in the face of gender conformity, and for this reason a lot of people are championing the breaking down of gender barriers. This makes sense symbolically, just as it makes sense that androgynous wear has become so popular among the young. The gender gap between men and women in terms of education, career and the chores they take on in the home as they both raise their kids are narrowing immensely so the deconstruction of traditional gender appearance that symbolizes the breakdown of traditional gender roles is bound to be popular.
Still, it would be interesting to take a survey of the age brackets of the people who think that Conchita is supercool. I wonder if the balance might be tipped towards those in their 30s or younger, people who are more apt to deconstruct the value systems of the prior generation, although I dare say that part of Conchita's appeal might be that she is a public figure and not their brother, father, girlfriend, or boyfriend. People do tend to put things in boxes.
But to your point the TS community says, and rightfully so, that Conchita does not represent who they are since they obviously see no part of themselves as being male.
There are just so many variables when it comes to garnering general acceptance for gender diversity and it begins by recognizing that it is indeed diverse, and done for different reasons, and that people's understanding of it is still very limited.
