Hi folks,
It's fairly easy to find information about being gay in various countries around the world and most of the conservative ones have a common theme: you'll be fine as long as you stay in the closet. There's less information out there for those of us who are gender-nonconforming and wear our difference on our sleeves from day-to-day and are wondering what it would be like to travel or live in Country X.
For example, I've heard that it's considered really offensive if female teachers in South Korea
don't wear make-up.
Like...really? I've worn make-up about twice in my life - both times to play dress-up for someone's wedding - and if you give me make-up I literally wouldn't know what to do with it. If this is true, I for sure wouldn't be happy in Korea.
Example #2: A friend of mine just moved to rural Kenya and is working for a development organization that requires all female international staff to wear long skirts in the field. For her it's an inconvenience, for me that would be a dyphoria-triggering deal-breaker: Absolutely not.
I would like to hear your thoughts and experiences of being gender-nonconforming outside of North America, Australia/NZ and Western Europe. Generalizations, stories, advice - where is it easy to be relatively gender-nonconforming and where is it difficult? What has happened when you violated their norms? How did you win the trust and acceptance of locals who were initially uncomfortable? Were you treated any differently as a non-conforming foreigner than non-conforming locals would be? Where is it dangerous and where is it merely a nuisance to deal with the extra attention? Et cetera.
Thanks!
