Walking Straight

[November Fox]

I was wondering about this.

I´ve always had trouble walking straight (upright) because I´ve tried to hide my body for 28 years prior to transition. And I´m still at the beginning of transition, so I still do that.

It seems logical to me that a lot of transgender people would have trouble with this for similar reasons. Do you walk kind of slouched too or did you learn to walk upright?

[Deborah]

I was in the Army and I regularly get recognized for that because of my posture.  Maybe I need to learn to slouch a little?

[November Fox]

Haha the army would definitely help my posture, but I´m too old to join now...

[Elis]

Yeah I tend to fall into this habit. My binder makes it difficult for me to stabd upright plus I always have this fear that my chest will look bigger if i don't slouch. I've heard this problem goes away after a while after top surgery but I have a long way to go until then.

[CMD042414]

I used to do the same. Once I had surgery and healed I stood shoulders square and broad, upright. I even had people tell me I had a strut suddenly. Your body and posture open up as you become comfortable with it.

[Heita]

Oh, same here! 

The fun fact is that I trained myself at length to walk with still shoulders and almost sliding forward with the feet, because kimonos. So now putting in a bit of a male swagger is a challenge.

Thankfully I take long strides, and I am trying to stand properly because I will look taller and with broader shoulders... I don't want to do the boob show, but heh. Going for a ballet dancer type of walk is good, only I have to focus on moving the legs, they seems to be a little too far away and so far I'm not the king of core muscles. 

[FTMax]

My posture improved dramatically after top surgery. I wasn't particularly large chested, but I did round my shoulders and slouch a lot to make it look smaller pre-op. Now I can comfortably be head up, shoulders back, chest out.

[becky.rw]

Yall may be a little to conscious of breast size; its not the size (unless a D cup), its the shape.  If I could squish my pecs around a bit, they'd fill a B cup no problem, but they have this flat across the top shape unsquished; I think if you do that, and walk boldly, you get a powerful, assertive masculine presentation; as opposed to the submissive or wornout look a slouch yields.

Shoulders have to be back and tall.  Pelvic tilt is also a giveaway but harder work to control.

Just eyeball how shirts ride on body builders; they have boobs, you don't need to be flat in front, you just need to be the right shape boob.   And then boldly go forth and have the beta kneel before you. (lol, couldn't resist the last, sorry, its what I said in my head to present right so I wouldn't get squished.)

[WorkingOnThomas]

Definitely a problem for me. Even binding, i tend to hunch over to try to cover up the moobs.

[BeverlyAnn]

I've had three back operations due to a congenital problem with vertebrae in my lower back so I do tend to walk bent forward some.  I have to remind myself to stand up strait. 

[Kylo]

I slouched a ton in school but started doing the 'strut' sometime during adolescence. As my independence came about I started standing straighter and look more alert around other people to put them off messing with me. (Because they did mess with me). I did wish to hide the chest and strutting doesn't necessarily help establish a sense of threat if people think you look female, but I've never been good at hiding or making myself look small so what the hell I look sure of myself instead. As much as I hated the rack I'd still wander about with a slight swag walk and bolt upright which no doubt looked utterly bizarre to everyone else.

Part of it comes from social anxiety, looking inconspicuous never helped me because I was regularly jumped by hordes of kids all through childhood who'd try to beat me up and wreck my bike etc. at which point I had this - I dunno what you'd call it. When someone just has enough and they snap. Well that was me. After years of it I took a baseball bat and went right into the kids' turf and challenged them to a broken face. After that point, I no longer could just walk around being scared, and radiating terrified body language so I started doing the opposite with the shoulders back, chest out sway thing. People did seem to not want to come near me a lot more than before. Which was good. So there was some positive reinforcement of that behavior in my brain, and the slouching wasn't reinforced.

I do remember wondering what to do about the chest, but found that certain clothes and jackets hid it all well enough.

At the moment I don't slouch except when I'm on my couch, lol. When I'm outside I ALWAYS have this heightened sense of awareness, and I walk straight, probably because of those early years being jumped by kids every time I dared go 100 yards from my house. The more people that are around when I'm alone, the straighter I walk, probably. I did think I might have damaged my posture in school, but due to a current condition as well it's actually the most comfortable to keep my back very straight. (Not sure what the condition is called but if I sleep for too long I wake up with the worst back ache. Once I stand up, I'm fine).

[cheryl reeves]

With my disability I cannot stand straight or walk straight,thats why it's on the police computer that I can't take a roadside DUI test due to this. But I walk good enough and in guy mod I have a image that tends to give people notice to leave me alone.

[November Fox]

I´m not sure I hunch over because of my chest. Maybe. But my self-made binder fits comfortably and nothing can be seen when I wear a shirt.

I´m self conscious about other parts of my body though like my upper arms and tend to have an on-and-off depression. That doesn´t help. I would love to be in the military for a while so I could learn not to hunch over I´ve tried teaching myself but go back to it everytime.

[LizK]

Trying to make myself small...UN-noticed...got pretty darn good at it too. It is a habit I need to break and learn to stand tall, head up,, the girls out proudly out front, big breath and away we go...sounds good on paper. Much harder to do when you are feeling Dysphoric and walk with a stick.

Liz

[0searching0]

November Fox,

I used to slouch a lot more than I do now. I still slouch a bit (to hide my chest better), but I actively trained myself to stand/sit up straighter than I used to. I did it to look taller and more confident. When I'm walking in public I try to walk with my head up instead of looking at the ground. I'm still working on that one, but whenever I catch myself facing the ground I correct it. My friend's brother told me to never walk around like that. To be confident in myself as a man (he has no idea I'm trans btw).

I'm getting top surgery November 30 and after I recover I plan on correcting my posture completely. To walk around like the strong and confident man I am

0searching0

[November Fox]

Yeah it´s definitely tied up to dysphoria too. On days where I feel more "ick" about my body I tend to do the kind of walk that makes me dissappear. Other days I slouch much less.

@0searching0 that´s awesome! Congrats on the surgery date.