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Realistically should you expect not to be migsendered

Started by stephaniec, August 24, 2015, 09:18:01 AM

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paula lesley

Good question, stephaniec. In a word, no ! but it really hurts  :(

I've been Mis-Misgendered !A Girl friend and I were dancing at a local party ; music was really loud. She gets all loved up with an Italian ;) bloke ( guy ) and he asks her to ask me if I'll ask ( Still with me ? ) the band to play some blues. My friend shouts to him, I'll ask him !( Meaning the singer in the band ) and the Italian bloke thought she meant me ! He looks at me in that cute puzzled, disbelieving way. So cute  ;)

Paula, <3 X.
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stephaniec

yea, its weird the longer I'm on estrogen the cuter the guys get.
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TheKaiser

I would expect to be gendered correctly even once I do start HRT and transitioning physically.
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iKate

Quote from: TheKaiser on August 25, 2015, 10:25:21 AM
I would expect to be gendered correctly even once I do start HRT and transitioning physically.

It won't be automatic though. You have to expect that people won't see "woman" unless you present as one, and even so they may see "man in a dress." 

Correcting people is not bad in these instances but set your expectations realistically.
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Swayallday

Quote from: iKate on August 25, 2015, 11:03:04 AM
It won't be automatic though. You have to expect that people won't see "woman" unless you present as one, and even so they may see "man in a dress." 

Correcting people is not bad in these instances but set your expectations realistically.

Thanks :) that moved something in me. It will be tough but if I hear you girls talk, it might get easier someday  :-*
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Dee Marshall

I get properly gendered at work at least 3/4 of the time, unfortunately in half of those the people "correct" themselves and apologize afterward. This is with me in the same "uniform", khakis and a polo shirt, that most of my coworkers, male and female, wear. I'm sure I could up my numbers if I wore at least foundation to work. Even more so when I get my eyebrows professionally shaped.  Back to the point, it hurts to be misgendered. It hurts more to have someone properly gender me then go back on it. I can't blame them, though. It's just my point in transition.
April 22, 2015, the day of my first face to face pass in gender neutral clothes and no makeup. It may be months to the next one, but I'm good with that!

Being transgender is just a phase. It hardly ever starts before conception and always ends promptly at death.

They say the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. I say, climb aboard!
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Isabelle

QuoteI get properly gendered at work at least 3/4 of the time, unfortunately in half of those the people "correct" themselves and apologize afterward.

When do they change their mind? is it your voice perhaps? Why don't you wear foundation? I'm not saying you need to, its just interesting that you mention it.
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Katiepie

Even though I'm pre everything, including of having to maintain my appearance to male as per military regulations (can't wait until May 27th 2016, when the ban lifts!)
I shouldn't get mad or upset when people gender me by male pronouns, but I do. I usually try and brush it off as much as possible, but when you get misgendered at a 99.5% of the time, as well as being in the span of a single minute by five others as well as management and co workers, that's when the straws break.
But as of every day of this week I have had a solid one person per day gender me correctly at work, being face to face. It's a small step forward. I wont get into the details (due to trying to copy and paste my original post to not mess up, but ending up messing everything up and accidentally wiping my whole post for the word "and") but Sunday and today (Tuesday) were huge and eventful as to be gendered properly.

Kate <3
My life motto: Wake Up and BE Awesome!

"Every minute of your life that you allow someone to dictate your emotions, is a minute of your life you are allowing them to control you." - a dear friend of mine.

Stay true to yourself no matter the consequence, for this is your life, your decision, your trust in which will shape your future. Believe in yourself, if you don't then no one will.
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Dee Marshall

Quote from: Isabelle on August 25, 2015, 09:06:13 PM
When do they change their mind? is it your voice perhaps? Why don't you wear foundation? I'm not saying you need to, its just interesting that you mention it.
Before I even speak they see my (faint) beard shadow and most likely my eyebrows. I don't wear foundation for two reasons, I was out of work from October until July and I can't yet afford it, and my work is active enough that I would tend to sweat it off. When I do get some I'll need an expensive one that can stand up to that. Money explains the eyebrows, too. I need to get a professional to do them the first time. I'm not concerned. I'll get there.

My best evidence that I'm right is that I'm more often correctly gendered NY elderly people whose vision might be a bit weak.
April 22, 2015, the day of my first face to face pass in gender neutral clothes and no makeup. It may be months to the next one, but I'm good with that!

Being transgender is just a phase. It hardly ever starts before conception and always ends promptly at death.

They say the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. I say, climb aboard!
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Dee Marshall

Katiepie, I'm sure AFAB soldiers get misgendered more than non-soldiers, too. I've seen pictures that took me a moment to interpret.
April 22, 2015, the day of my first face to face pass in gender neutral clothes and no makeup. It may be months to the next one, but I'm good with that!

Being transgender is just a phase. It hardly ever starts before conception and always ends promptly at death.

They say the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. I say, climb aboard!
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iKate

Work is kind of an issue of familiarity. I've had two coworkers deadname me and misgender me within the past week. It's not that they don't know, they definitely know. It's just that they got so accustomed with me that it's just automatic. It will take some time for them to unlearn. However, I will likely be long gone by then.
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Katiepie

Well military is my kinda second job at the moment, reservist. But my main at being retail and such, its not so bad, just gotta realize that there will be times of good things happening, and times of bad things to happen. I know there will always be the watch guy who sticks with calling me Kate, regardless to what hr says and the official going by my last name in my retail job. It will be a process, and so then that is only time ticking by, before the day when I can full time and it will be glorious!

Kate <3
My life motto: Wake Up and BE Awesome!

"Every minute of your life that you allow someone to dictate your emotions, is a minute of your life you are allowing them to control you." - a dear friend of mine.

Stay true to yourself no matter the consequence, for this is your life, your decision, your trust in which will shape your future. Believe in yourself, if you don't then no one will.
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Missy D

I don't when I'm wearing female clothing. When dressed up in boy's clothes I get called "he", as expected, most of the time. Which is sort of the point - if I wasn't then there'd be no point in wearing them. I do, oddly, get stared at quite openly and have been asked more than once if I was a female to male transgender!!! I can't blame people for that; my body language is all wrong for boy.

I suppose that's working for me at the moment, although misgendering is too easy. I did it myself last night!!!  :embarrassed:

Luckily nobody noticed. I was upstairs at a community centre with a few friends and the door was open on to the staircase. We heard someone come in and one of the group was like: "That will be .... I don't think you've met her yet."

And I said: "No, I'm pretty sure I haven't met her, but I would like to". At which point the person, still downstairs and unseen, spoke. I heard and, shamefully, blurted out my first thought: "Oh that's probably not her; it sounds like a boy has come in."

Bear with me, or try to, it was an open event so entirely possible that the new person coming in was male. But, as you may have worked out, I was the one who was wrong. It's not like my voice is fantastic either; it's only good enough to creep into 'woman who sounds like a man' - but nothing changes the fact that I misgendered.

Having said that, there were reasons for doing so?  :embarrassed: Almost everyone gets misgendered at times. Well everyone toward the middle of the gender poles I suppose, me included. By that I mean assuming me to be female when I'm attempting to dress male.

p.s. I know said person didn't hear me, which may be worse if anything, but I'm still so embarrassed about what I did. Which was nothing more onerous than making an assumption, it's hardly like I'm going to be prejudiced. I don't have any of those!! They didn't hear me, and I saw no need to tell them as that would just reinforce something potentially negative. What's a girl to do?  ??? Blerrrgh - I wanted to crawl into a hole at that point.
"Melissa makes sense!" - my friend
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Emileeeee

I've been finding that women that are around my age get my gender right. Women that are my grandparents' age card me, presumably to get it right and then they get it wrong because my ID isn't changed. I've only had one guy gender me correctly.

It really doesn't bother me too much though except for when I'm in public and need to pee. Because it's so back and forth, I've been sticking to the men's room so far, but the last time I did that in a restaurant, I got a really creepy look from someone in there. It was the first time I ever felt threatened by being in there. I dress androgynous, so it's not like I'm walking in there in a dress.
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RavenMoon

It depends on how much you look like a female. I get addressed "sir" most of the time. But I'm not presenting as female. Just kind of androgynous. A few times I've gotten called "miss" which amused me, since I wasn't wearing makeup or anything. I'm guessing it's the long hair, and that I'm small for a guy.

But really, we can't expect people are going to gender us the way we want if that's not what they see. They aren't being rude, they just can't tell. Every now and then I see someone and think "is that a girl or a guy?" I'm not sure! I'd avoid pronouns!

As an example I was with my 10 year old daughter (who only sees me as daddy) at a supermarket. The cashier was a cis woman who clearly had a hormone imbalance, as she had facial hair that she had shaved. It was quite a lot actually.

So my daughter asks me, "is that a lady or a man?" I said it's a lady and she said "but she has hair on her face." So I had to explain why.

So the point here is that people use visual cues to determine the sex of another person. These cues include the size, facial shape and features, hair length, the presence of breasts, voice, clothing, and so on.


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