Quote from: Chrissty on April 30, 2010, 05:59:49 AM
...just let's not forget the free facial feminsing effect of "a smile" 
This is actually one of the absolute most important things you can do to pass. Once I moved back home from living life across the country for a half a year, and broke out of my shell, I started practicing smiling and I started passing more often (having lived my teenage years being accidentally clocked as a girl on and off.) Even several months into HRT, living full time as a girl, I've trained myself to default my facial muscles into a partial smile because it SERIOUSLY pumps your cheeks up and out. This is why people say women are beautiful when they smile - the full cheeks are what make girls look female.
Quote from: Megan on April 30, 2010, 02:55:10 PM
1. Voice
2. Face, but almost as equal as the voice
3. Hips larger than shoulders
4. Proportional body shapes for a typical female
5. Long hair, fashion, mannerisms
In that order
I don't believe in auras/behavior that much, since I can pretend I am a woman so much till my heart screams it but the truth is people will read me as a male. Masculine women are still read as women, but read as lesbians, still their mannerisms are male and yet most people read them as a female because they are GG. It's not their aura.
I can't possibly disagree with you more. You're too fixated on feminine perfection.
When I first started, people told me things like "people see through to the real you on the inside." And I was like, "Bull->-bleeped-<-, they're stupid and blind, I don't look anything like a girl." That's certainly what my family and friends told me in the beginning...
The thing is, your 'aura' IS how you present yourself. It's in the words you use. Where and how you stand, how you move your body, or don't move it, your inflection, your physical reactions to the other person, all of that, your clothes, and more come together to be your presence, and that's the package that has to pass.
You do not need breasts, or hips, or curves, to pass as a woman. Believe me, I've done it plenty. I answered the door once without a shirt on and completely freaked the random guy out because he thought I was a topless chick, even though I hadn't started breast growth. And because of a birth defect with my spine, I wouldn't have hips or curves even if I were born with a vagina. And even with how much I hate my body, everyone wants a piece of it or tells me how great I look, because I'm not fat. If you're thin or even average, people are going to find you more attractive and acceptable just because you're more appealing than others.
To me:
Your height is a multiplier on all other factors, which cannot be changed. If you are 5'3, like I am, it's very easy to pass. If you are 6', it's hard. If you are average female height or less for your area, you get an automatic easy ride. There are very tall naturally born women, but you *know* they hear ->-bleeped-<- jokes behind their backs more than once in their life. The plight of being a tall woman in our society is an issue in and of itself.
You need to not have a shadow, because that is a key indicator for people regardless of any other circumstances. Some stubble will not actually make much of a difference, as some women, especially non-whites, will have upper lip hair - but if it's everywhere, you're running a big risk of being outed. A large adam's apple likewise will give you away immediately. Women DO have cartilage growths, and some women do have small adam's apples, so do not obsess over ones that are not prominent, but some are obviously male.
Your mannerisms, walk, what you say, how you say it, and so on. If you are naturally dainty and have an expressive personality - and I mean genuine behavior, not flamboyance, then you will pass easier as a female. The more I accidentally passed, the more confidence I had in expressing myself the way I really wanted to, which in turn made me pass more and so on. Also, when you get to the point of confidently dressing female, your clothing helps, too. I started my transition by wearing womens slacks/jeans with button down blouses and T shirts. I picked up tank tops eventually. A button down shirt throws some ambiguity out there, but it was my safety net in case I didn't pass - whereas if you're wearing an unquestionably female top like a lacy cami, it might help push you into the female range, or it might bomb horribly if you get clocked.*
A clearly male voice is a dealbreaker once you open your mouth, but if you stop to listen, you may be surprised at how deep a lot of womens' voices are. You can always cough a lot and blow your nose and pretend you've got a horrible cold or allergies in a pinch.
*Not to say that all women have a certain personality type, but, it's the whole package that makes transition work or not work. If you have a tomboy personality, and a buzzed head, and wear baggy clothes, then until your face grows female cheeks, you'll look like a guy, and then you'll be clocked as a dyke. But GG (or GM) have the confidence to be different, if they are different.
I'm going to just put out there the idea that if you go into a place, presenting clearly female and wearing the right clothes (not big shoulderpads or ruffles if you have big shoulders, an A line skirt instead of a pencil skirt, using a belt/empire waist properly, wearing the proper shoes for your outfit, and in general dressing age appropriate; ie blending in) and none of your features are particularly special, you're going to pass just fine. Now if you go in and you are timid, or shy, or dressed inappropriately for the place or your age, or other factors that make people scrutinize you and focus on you; you leave them wondering and they start looking at every little clue to find an answer, then you're going to have a worse time.
I'd say Jesse's meth whores pass as women more from the absence of male traits.
