Does The Public Really Care???

[phili]

I have to admit all of the punishments that are possible do happen, but the frequency and acceptability of it are lower now than ever. I admit that I am free now because I own my house and I am no longer working. Despite that, I am thinking carefully about what I do locally since I am trying to increase my role as a sort of community organizer with our city in facility design. So far, femmy tops are ok. I hope to satisfy my needs more with artistic flair and borderline clothing around here, and really don't think it will be much fun to force people to accommodate to seeing me in a short dress and heels, much as I would like to have it be a love fest! Yes - I am calculating constantly who know who and what could they do to me if offended.

That said, I can go to the big city and be out and have fun. Never a problem after 10 trips. I figure if anyone local sees me there it is just not threatening enough to justify them trying to punish me locally. Individually they might turn me down on something, and if that happens, I'm not economically harmed, and I will step out of their power system, and go find something similar to do in the big city.

I think this is a decent guideline, as someone would have to be pretty low to see you somewhere away and come back home determined to make your life miserable. You have already shown your courtesy by being elsewhere. And on the positive side, SAs get to be broad minded and expand their social skills, we get to feel normal, parents have to think of what they are going to say to their kids, and overall we increase acceptability where acceptability exists.

Communities that are dominated by the feeling that liberals and their minority rights jabber are ruining the country might be physically safe, but crossdressing so contravenes conservative norms it is likely to provoke backlash actions wherever folks feel they have the majority with them. There is a complex unspoken calculation going on all the time about how much of a threat everyone is when they move out of the norms, and a similar calculation about the success of vigilante response.