Heretical Thoughts?

[lilacwoman]

[quote author=Stephanie    What I mean by this is would I be prepared to undergo all the hormone therapy and all the surgeries if I had to go about wearing frumpy old lady clothes; long shapeless skirts, ultra-sensible shoes etc.**   Would I be prepared to live with very saggy breasts and an old lady hairstyle? 
** What made me think this was a few days ago I passed a group of elderly women and they all looked as if they had stripped  a scarecrow or bought their clothes at a jumble sale and then got dressed in the dark.   
[/quote]

If you have an interest in being attractively feminine now it is unlikely to change.   
If all the older ladies you see look like scarecrows you need to take a bus over to a different part of town.
You may find hormones give you small breasts that never really sag but I think pretty bras will still be available in another 50 years.

If you don't want to transition and be likeall these women you see then quite simply you aren't TS but are some sort of 'secondary transsexual'  ie crossdresser  or transvestite or autogyne or whatever.

[JohnR]

Where in the manual does it say you have to dress like a tired old lady?

On the boob front you can forget any ideas about sagging breasts, that only happens to natural ones. Your bought and paid for pert boobies will look good for life.

The reason a lot of little old ladies look and dress as though they're ready for the knackers yard whist drive is because they've conceived, carried, given birth to and raised children, it has a habit of wearing out the body. You don't have to worry about that.

They dress comfortably because they've usually gained a bit of weight and elasticated waistbands are more forgiving.

Stop making excuses!

If you want to turn into a little old frump then you really do need to have a word with your ambition genie because she's obviously on strike!

Have you ever heard of Joanna Lumley?

[Ayaname]

It's not petty to want such temporal things. Honestly, what old, frumpy woman wouldn't want to be young and pretty looking too? Personally the idea of growing old as a woman scares the hell out of me, as it does many cis girls as well.

[kyril]

When I've questioned myself, I've come up with different sorts of questions, more along the lines of what rejennerated asked herself:

Would I still be a man in a society where men wore pretty clothes and grew their hair long? (yes)
Would I still be a man in a society where men had lower social status than women, couldn't work, couldn't own property, couldn't vote? (yes)
If, when I was growing up, the softball team had been all boys and the baseball team had been all girls, and baseball was the sport played professionally, would I have played softball or baseball? (softball - in reality I played baseball with the boys)
I asked a lot more questions like that. The only stumbling point for me was imagining transitioning in a society where gay men are executed. I could deal with a homophobic society, but not so sure about one that would want to kill me. But then I thought about whether I'd want to be a woman if I'd been born male in such a society, and the answer was "hell no!" So I gave myself a pass on that.

[kelly_aus]

My grandmother is in her early 80's and still dresses in a stylish, refined and elegant manner - in fact I'd be surprised if she even owns anything with an elastic waist.. My other grandmother, who is no longer with us, never showed any signs of becoming a frump. I think it's a matter of choice - you can choose to "give up" or you can continue to put in the effort to look good, which often makes you feel good too..

[Cindy]

 I realise this may be obtuse.

But if I live to 80 or a 180, I'm still going to be female. How I look is up to me.

Want I want doesn't really count. I would love to look like a drop dead gorgeous woman. I never will. I would have loved to have babies, no way that was possible.

Do I want to 'look' like a 80 yr old guy or an 80yr old woman.  Do I have a choice? If I reach that age I will look like an 80 yr old woman. I'll still be me, female gendered, no matter what I look like or how old I am.  I've never seen the 'reverse to be male' button because you get older.

Cindy

[Colleen Ireland]

You know what I think is the weirdest thing about this classification? It goes stubbornly by sexual orientation and nothing else, bisexuals don't exist in this theory, plus they forgot to look if this theory could also apply to FTMs (probably because they had this old-fashioned idea that FTMs are always only into women). I think that it may indeed be more difficult to figure out what the heck's the matter with you and to come to terms with it if you are a lesbian in a male body than a straight woman, and vice versa for trans guys in a society which is both homophobic and also tends to forget that homosexuals exist at all. This may lead to a statistically later first contact with gender therapists.

SO true!  "Lesbian in a male body" seems to be just about the most difficult thing for anyone to understand.  That's where I see myself.  And that's one of the biggest things that kept me in denial and burying the True Me for most of my life, and kept me confused as hell, because I've always been primarily attracted to women, so how could I be a woman myself?  But... WHY does anyone think sexual orientation is linked to gender ID?  If that were true, then how would gays and lesbians exist?  They would just be sick, right?  But no, they're not thought of as sick, unless they're conflicted, in which case it's the conflict that needs treating.  And gender is not about sexual orientation - it's a separate issue.  So when I read about classifications, and see them trying to classify transsexuals based on sexual orientation, I have to wonder??? 

[ggina]

At the moment I feel that I am more interested in the external signs of womanhood rather than the essence.

Stephanie, don't worry about the essence! As others have said, that'll come by itself later, when you've grown up

But until then, a little beauty will never hurt anyone

g