As you transition, how do you navigate gender issues at the gym especially when choosing a locker room and appearing androgynous?
Yeah, I skip the locker room too and change/shower at home. I'm not sure if I'm just chicken or what, but until I manage to get post op I have to much else to deal with. Outside of changing, I'm a girl and expect to be treated as one, and am.
Julie
Depends on how you're generally perceived. I was super-femme looking even before HRT so I used the women's locker room and changed in the stalls.
Quote from: ♡ Emily ♡ on April 10, 2014, 01:58:20 PM
By not going into such places.
For me, I cannot choose the locker room so I am automatically pointed towards male room and the amount of testosterone, which hangs in the air there... is unbearable.
exactly this. For me the male locker room is just awful. I cant really go in there because if i do trans stuff blows my fuzzy little head off. And this is why I've been sent to detention for not dressing out at school 6 times. ugh.....
I was at the gym and my hair is pretty much on the fem side (see avatar) and over a month of HRT has really andro'd me out already.
Was getting the odd double take and this worries me. lol.
I feel really uncomfortable in men's rooms, but I don't know if I'll ever feel "okay" walking into certain female spaces. Even once I fully transition, I don't know how safe I'd feel there as many have such negative thoughts about us. sucks though because I've considered joining a gym at one point and it probably would help me in many ways.
Since getting my Carry Letter I use female facilities all the time and have become very comfortable with them. There are awkward moments at times of course, but once you are over being nervous in them people do not pick up on it and problems minimize a lot. :)
I don't know, IME, it feels like people overplay the whole women's spaces thingy. If you look female, use the woman's room. I feel like I don't pass most days but on those days if I use the men's room, with no make up on, I get stared at like an alien. But in the woman's room I feel totally comfortable. The only public restrooms I use are at train stations and people are in and out so I haven't noticed the whole talking thing. Unless there's a line, and I hate lines, so I leave. I've only had one coversation in the woman's room months and months ago and the woman was completely friendly and talked my ear off. I guess my situation is different but as long as you're presenting female and dress your age, women won't pay any mind. I used to be scared too but now whenever I ask which way the bathroom is people point me to the woman's room, so...what choice to I have.
Changing rooms might be different but I doubt it as long as you have breasts...that's prolly the single biggest factor in determining if a person is female in a person's mind, which happens subconsciously. But, before I passed as well as I do now, I used the woman's room and had zero problems...ever. Once, Just once, a girl stared at me while I was drying my hands. That's it.
I guess the one thing that I hated and loathed about myself most of my life, being tiny and having boobs, is now my biggest assets...other than my ass...eh lol jk heck, more woman start conversations with me out of nowhere, everywhere...but the bathroom. So, use it. But, present female if you are going to. Don't dress "andro" cause that means different things and my not be the andro style woman mean...google it...and that isn't presenting female. Pluck your eyeborws, some, wear makeup, put on woman's jeans and a woman's top, accessorize, carry a bag (I snagged a nala ross hobo bag from Urban Outfitters on sale for $25 at 75 percent off!) and be confident, meaning look people in the eye and don't act like you're committing a crime.
I stopped going to the gym for this very reason. Having said that, I am thinking about rejoining one soon and will probably just go ready to work out.
Jane