Did you have to teach yourself feminine or masculine mannerisms?

[Ribbons]

It seems like everything except walking came naturally to me, and that's mainly due to nature. Even then I have a psuedo-masculine walk. My voice has always been feminine, though unless I'm speaking up it sounds neutral nowadays. I hate the way my voice sounds honestly, but there's nothing I can do about that nowadays.

People have never tried to repress my behavior, and when people try to make me more feminine they fail. 

I have little concept of feminine mannerisms honestly, at least consciously. I'm feminine, I know that, but that's personality and interest wise. In terms of manners, I just come off as a reclusive and polite boy. 

The odd part is, if it were up to me I'd rather not appear so masculine. But it's just the way I am, so I don't care much.

[kyril]

No, I was born this way

[Elijah3291]

I learned to emphasize a few things, and once i went full time i took up male mannerisms without even trying, but for the most part i was pretty masculine beforehand

[Rock_chick]

No, i basically had to forget all the male mannerism i'd affected to hide.

[spacial]

I've had to learn male mannerisms. Sadly, I'm pretty bad at it.

[xAndrewx]

Nope. Only thing I changed was my music tastes because stupid me thought that guys can't listen to t.A.T.u. or Evanescence but recently I decided to stop caring and listen to it again.

[cynthialee]

I spent a lifetime repressing my inate femininity. Presenting female is easy. Unlearning some of my bad male paterns of behaivior was a chalenge though.

[Nygeel]

Nope. I'm a kind of feminine man and I'm kinda happy with that. Trying to be more masculine would be acting like a person that I'm not.

[Brent123]

I really didn't. My mannerisms come naturally to me. I've always been more on the masculine side, or at least for as long as I can remember. I do have some feminine mannerisms but who doesn't. I just go with the flow.

[Pinkfluff]

Nope. Only thing I changed was my music tastes because stupid me thought that guys can't listen to t.A.T.u. or Evanescence but recently I decided to stop caring and listen to it again.

I knew guys in college who loved t.A.T.u.

As far as mannerisms, I don't think I really have many. Maybe a few behaviors often considered feminine, like being very away of my "personal bubbble" or parking under streetlights, but that's more for security really. I just follow my instincts.

[SarahM777]

I tried to learn masculine manners but it turned out to be a dismal failure. I even had other people try to teach me or break me of some of the more feminine ones.
Now as i think back of one thing that my ex tried to do was to get me to try talking without using my hands. What she did was she held my hands and had me try to talk and my mind went blank and all that would come out was a bit of gibberish and stammering,she let go of my hands and the words just started following again. The bad part was is that she got a kick out of doing this in front of our friends.
She would say hey you gotta see this and she would do the same thing and the results were always the same. At the time it wasn'tfunny but now i can look back and i can see the humor in it. 

[V M]

I've always been naturally rather fem. and got made fun of allot for it... Folks were always trying to "Make a Man" out me and I actually did try really hard to "Man Up" and "Act like a man"... But you can see how that's worked out 

[LordKAT]

I had to remind myself to walk or talk a certain way and how to sit or dress. I did it so often it became second nature. (Notice second nature) I am now unlearning those things. This unlearning is allowing me to behave as I really am and always was instead of acting out the parts others made me play to fit in their world. Not that I fit in very well anyway.

[Emmanuelle]

As with most here, it's a more a matter of allowing myself behave naturally instead of manly. I was surprised to see how quickly it goes once I made the switch in my head. It felt like all the tension around the male-acting thing just dropped. However, I do feel strong mannerisms when it comes to semantics (choice of words, phrase formation...)

[Sandy]

I too had to unlearn the lessons that were so liberally given when I was growing up.  I had to literally suppress the suppression of my natural mannerisms.

The same with verbal communication.  I used to review every word I said to make sure it was "manly".  It actually gave me a lot of "headspace" when I stopped that verbal review.

It was an odd and interesting part of my transition.

-Sandy

[JennX]

No, I was born this way

This +100. I actually had to try harder to act "like a guy". 

[Shang]

Nope. Only thing I changed was my music tastes because stupid me thought that guys can't listen to t.A.T.u. or Evanescence but recently I decided to stop caring and listen to it again.

My dad's the one who got me hooked to t.A.T.u.

And to the question at hand:  If I was to try and live full-time male, I would have to train myself to use the mannerisms that people think guys should have...it comes naturally to a degree, but after that, I have to train.

I also had to train myself to use mannerisms that people think girls should have.  That also came naturally to a degree. 

I'm a happy mix of masculine and feminine traits.

[tvc15]

I didn't teach myself any mannerisms one way or the other; the way I act is just the way I act. That said, the only thing I find really feminine about myself is the way I sit. I rarely put my feet on the ground. Instead I like to curl up on chairs and couches and whatnot. It's hard to break this habit around other people. :p

[VeronikaFTH]

I've always been naturally rather fem. and got made fun of allot for it... Folks were always trying to "Make a Man" out me and I actually did try really hard to "Man Up" and "Act like a man"... But you can see how that's worked out 

I can sympathize with this. I had to train myself to act manly, was told to "man up", quit walking like a girl, etc. I never really mastered the guy thing, though I tried like hell.

Once I decided to transition, I pretty much immediately dropped the act. I didn't need to unlearn any of the male behaviors, because they never became a part of me.... It was always an act. Actually it kind of feels like I had a multiple personality that became dominant, because I am so much different than that guy was.

It's interesting how the human mind works...

[N.Chaos]

This +100. I actually had to try harder to act "like a guy". 

Same here, honestly. I always had to force my voice higher and act differently before I finally admitted/accepted that I've never been a girl.