Wow thanks everyone for your posts. Thinking a lot more about this. And I'm glad maybe i don't seem too crazy. :/
Quote from: FA on April 09, 2014, 12:57:40 PM
Hmm I think you should try things out as much as you can. Though I know it'll probably be difficult for you to pass as a boy. You're clearly soul searching for your identity. And sexuality is a big part of that. I know it's important to differentiate between sexuality and gender. But I do think sexuality plays a role in gender roles and stuff. Obviously, whether you identify as male or female, you like men. I think you probably feel unsettled and between roles? I think you should just explore whatever you feel like. I know there are probably limitations with passing as male and stuff. But just, relax and explore.
I think though, that unless you have a strong male identity and really just transitioned for your boyfriend or because it's more accepted for your feminine personality - that you're just you. And not really male or female. And it doesn't matter. I feel that way sometimes. You don't have to be a man or a woman. Or even a trans woman. Just you. Because of our binary society, you'll probably be taken for one or the other. You can't help that. Just try to find what you're most comfortable with - for everything. Maybe stop hormones, just to see. Maybe stop dressing like a girl just to see.
There are masculine women who simply identify as 'butch'. Not male or female. "Butch". Maybe yours is simply 'feminine person' or something.
Yeah, I definitely want to experiment more, though I find it hard to actually do and I've been asking myself for a while now... in terms of me, what actually is a male presentation? How do you do that without going intentionally over the top if you aren't masculine and don't want to be +don't have the body to match?
I mean obviously I lived as a boy at one time, i should know right? But i don't really because before I was getting by with the best i could do. Always getting the wrong, bland haircut from hairdressers who couldn't get over a boy with long hair and just wouldn't listen. Rarely able to buy new clothes and never able to take myself to special stores with a better size range or more fashionable options. Slowly I was finding me as I got little bits of independence to allow me to experiment but i was pretty bad off in the independence department and ultimately I never figured it out before transitioning. And as I got closer to figuring it out i was passing as a boy less and less anyway. Now that I have freedom and can actually envision proper boy me, yeah, I'm positive I wouldn't pass, and that probably doesn't matter but then am I just being a rebel for nothing and to no effect? It's not about HRT either since I spent most of the first year of full time with basically normal male hormone levels.
I guess it's hard cuz any men's style clothes could be women's clothes too, at some level you just have to look the part, right?
It feels like I'm always butting up against this weird boundary though, between just being me vs being something presented, and somewhere on the presented side I also become trans, and i don't really like it but I don't know what to change or how, all the sides of my life are pressing at me and screaming, "commit!!!!" and it's just like but when will I know that I'm finally actually committing to me?
But like you said, in my head I'm just femme, it's real life that causes problems.

Maybe the biggest problem is that I'm so uncomfortable with being on the outside exactly what I am on the inside... I just feel this need to conform to something outside of me. Something normal. I feel uncomfortable if I don't have that I guess.
Quote from: Sarah7 on April 09, 2014, 05:14:49 PM
I have to agree with Nero.
I think the explanation for the thing, in the end is not as important as the basic feels. If what you are doing feels bad, than maybe it isn't right for you. And it's okay to not have all the answers all at once. There is a crazy pressure on us to assert "this is what I am exactly forever and ever and I know for sure" because we frequently have to fight against those who think we are wrong or broken or whatever. But it doesn't always work like that. It can take a while to sort through how you really want to live in this world if you are something other than Standard Trans Narrative (TM). Sometimes you need to be free to explore a bit. It's okay to not be sure.
I tried to force myself into being what people expected a trans woman to be. It lasted about two months before I felt like I was going to lose my mind. Now I don't really see myself as a woman of any variety. Just as a female person who frequently gets categorized as one.
Gotta make your own story, nah?
Definitely, but when do you trust how you feel? lol
I really am starting to think that maybe it's just me, it seems like most people have a pretty good idea of how they feel, but I just don't trust myself. I'm so impressionable and prone to fantasizing and wanting things that don't actually feel good when I get them. I mean, I felt like being a girl would make me happy too but it didn't. It just confused me more. I know it's not like I *have* to find an answer right away either but... I wish I didn't have all these nagging questions hanging around unanswered too. :x
Quote from: Miranda Catherine on April 09, 2014, 08:54:11 PM
I haven't read everything here, but if your guy sees you as a woman and you've identified as one, this might be exactly what he doesn't want or who he can identify with if you detransition. I'm with a guy, and if I did what you're doing, he'd be very, very unhappy, so much so that I don't think he'd stay. He didn't become my SO with me as a male, he sees me as 100% female, has never been in a gay relationship and for me personally, it seems strange to want to detransition. But if that's what you want to do, better now than later, at a time when you can't detransition without a mastectomy, your thang has shriveled up and you've already gotten all your facial hair zapped. I'd think long and hard on this, girl, and I'd talk to your endo and psychiatrist too. Hugs, and good luck whichever way you decide. Mira
Well i told him I won't essentially be a different person, and it's really impossible for me to look ultimately that masculine so I think there's a chance, but getting over the hurdle of being perceived as gay or having to tell people he has a boyfriend or something would be really unpleasant for him. I got him to say he'd stay with me but who knows what that means, he might just be saying that bc he knows I can't do much on my own anyway. :/ None of my transition is permanent though beyond the boobs, my body isn't really that different at all, i never had hair removal or anything though I never particularly grew much facial hair anyway, and even after 2 yrs now my genitals didn't change in any way I could tell.
Quote from: Joanna Dark on April 09, 2014, 08:59:36 PM
But, you clearly want to lately, so, IDK, do it. You'll pass eventually and will have to cut your hair and stop plucking. Ouch that will hurt, but you could take T and there you go. Before you do this though, I'd be sure it's the path you ant to take, because finding a man trans is hard enough and you may destroy the relationship and once it's gone...where then?
I still don't get this boys = short hair thing though, I have not had short hair more than briefly since I was like 10 and I never want to. I cried a lot of times when I had to get it short as a child, I just hated it. As a boy I still wanted really long hair and styled it and was always cycling thru a billion products. I definitely am not gonna give that up now. Short hair just is not me, i'm more sure of that than my own gender lol. (Nor is dirty or ratty or damaged hair)
Quote from: learningtolive on April 09, 2014, 09:09:59 PM
There is nothing weird about it. From what I gather, this is just another extension of your desires to be cis and no longer live as a transwoman. You are entitled to feel that way, and that doesn't make you odd. If you feel less genuine living as female, it really doesn't sound too out there to see why you'd enjoy being a guy in a relationship. It's about seeing who you are and how you feel rather than talking about what your role in the relationship is like. Overall, the need for authenticity likely will play a role in all aspects of life which could include how one perceives their love life.
Can't say I relate, though I don't really think about my gender either way when considering romance. Sure, my dream relationship would have me in the "female" role and I see myself as female, but who is to say that there is a universal female or male role in a relationship. Like a guy or girl can easily take the more feminine role without it really saying anything about their gender and/ or sexuality. For me, I just think about what my partner could be like and how'd they would ideally treat me. Like what I want out of relationship regardless of how I look. And honestly, I think I could be happy in a gay relationship with a man if he were to treat me nice and he was a good guy, but I guess the desire for authenticity and being seen for who I am would exist and ultimately create problems, as it does for everything. Again, this is why authenticity and not living a lie is desirable for all of us even if what that is differs person to person.
This definitely is related to my desire to be cis, but it's also something different i think?
In my mind, when i picture myself in a gay relationship, somehow it feels special, like beyond just the fact that I would feel natural and cis and everything. to be fair, a lot of types of relationships feel special, I'm kind of like an emotional vampire in that sense, i love feeling those emotions, but usually they don't actually feel personal. In this case it does feel personally related to me. Like something i could be/want to be.
Ofc yeah... role wise i would always be in the femme role and he would have to be masculine, that is the only way I can picture it, I don't like feminine guys. Well I mean I don't find them attractive.
I think you should try dating now though! I mean why not? c: maybe you'll find a guy that makes you really happy.
Quote from: SammyRose on April 09, 2014, 09:38:44 PM
Something which I'm curious about...
I'm a lesbian... While I can appreciate all women, its only bi or gay women who I go weak at the knees for.
As a guy, able to date all the straight women I wanted, it was okay, but there was always something missing beyond my issues. The deeper connection never formed with girlfriends. It was until I was with a bi partner ( who knew I'm trans ) that this deeper connection formed. It was what was missing in all previous relationships.
I guess in summary, I could always tell the difference between a straight and gay partner. And it went beyond my trans issues i think.
So ok, you like guys. But gay guys? Or straight guys? Orientation seems secondary to gender identity.
I think ideally it would be a straight guy... in a gay relationship with me... lol. I don't have any particular interest in gay guys but I wouldn't write them off either if they were masculine. Ultimately though, yah, it is not about his orientation, just the fact that we are 2 boys in a relationship.
Actually I remember reading this personal story of a femme guy who ended up dating his straight best friend that was really protective of him before that. And it was just freaking adorable. It reminded me of how this guy I knew when I was briefly in college treated to me though he wasn't my type. If i had had the right friend like that before I totally would have wanted a piece of that. Ahahah. But I never had guy friends. ;o;
Come to think of it as a little boy I had a crush on my one male friend though... :/
Quote from: Sybil on April 09, 2014, 10:40:07 PM
I used to think of things like this, a lot. I felt like I was somehow invading where only the genuine belonged, especially when it came to romance. The hetero-normative picture was really important to me. I only felt attracted to straight guys, and I downright hated that being trans could, somehow, ever risk my authenticity in completing the other half of that picture.
And then, I think, two moments happened for me: I became really exhausted of the back-and-forth with age (I'm 28 atm), and I also sat down and asked myself if I would ever think these things of other trans people. If I thought it was fair. For me, that's a definite no. I felt like I was making up special rules for myself that I wasn't applying to other people. How is that even remotely fair? Especially to me? It wasn't. It was totally crazy and I needed to stop localizing transphobia on myself.
I'm not trying to say you're doing the same thing, but I do think it's food for thought. Some of your posts really seem to focus on a fear of how ideal you might be, which is really an awful pit to be trapped in for long. I know I'm still trying to get the stains out, myself.
Well this is an issue that for once is actually not about something I *don't* want to be, like a trans girl, and a question of positively wanting to be something, a femme gay boy. I'm ok with the idea of being a straight girl. but then I will end up fantasizing about what it would be like as a gay boy instead.
Sp I totally get what you are saying and I admit that I struggle with that a lot about being trans, but this issue actually isn't about being trans to me, except that being trans is keeping me from it. But not that I want it because I just don't want to be trans, you know?
Sigh, I'm so afraid to go taking any plunges though... hah.