Seriously, have you prepared yourself for the aspects of your gender that prior to transition you would have not had to confront?
What I am referring to, is all the baggage, all the garbage, all the bias, all the discrimination, all the stereotyping, all the excesses and the abuses and the risks.
Because we don't get to just waltz in and cherry pick all the good stuff of course.
A girls life is NOT the same as a guys life.
If you are MTF, you will gain some things, and LOSE some things.
If you are FTM, again, you WILL gain some things, but you DO risk losing some stuff.
I grew up in a quasi military reality because of my interests. In the form of a male, well there were a variety of situations a guy can expect. It has not always been the case where women were altogether welcome in the military, and frankly they still really are second class members in the good ole boy club that is the military.
I don't recall females getting drafted much in the past. I am sure a few countries expect service from females. But that is also a guess.
In a crunch, in a situation where you suddenly find yourself in a nation at war, a male will suddenly be confronted with a different reality than a female in most cases. I suppose it depends on how you see military service. Being male during the Vietnam era was a lot different than being female.
I have a friend that is MTF, and has work that involves wandering around various parts of the world for the company securing company property. Every time she enters a male centric society her being MTF is a mixed bag of conditions. Sometimes what is between your legs is a bonus and sometimes it is a burden.
The working world is full of biases we normally just never see for what they are. Every time I walk into a fast food store, seeing a male at the counter always seems 'odd'. It always looks 'odd' seeing a male cashier at a grocery store. Waitresses seem ordinary, waiters not. Male bartenders seem ordinary female ones not. I don't see a lot of female mechanics or plumbers or electricians or welders. You don't see a lot of men sitting behind a reception desk. If two men and 3 women enter a plane in company uniforms, odds are the two men fly the plane the others are stewardesses.
And while it might just might be ok to say well women are built smaller and all that stuff and don't have as easy a time being firefighters. Well a MTF might have the original mass of a male, but don't think anyone is likely to care. Because is you identify as female, you will be regarded as one if they really consider you as one, which won't always be an ideal response.
Right now, there are a lot of places I can just walk into, that I will not be welcome the moment I'm wearing a dress.
I recently asked my mother if they would accept me in the Women of the Moose? She is a long time member of this fraternity and so was my father. They have both held fairly high office. But nope, the response she gave me, was I had zero chance of joining. Maybe she was being a bit too sure of that, but, it did ring true. But I told her, the idea of joining the Moose Lodge ie as a male member was crazy. I have no interest in hanging out with old men. Not that I reeeeeally wanted to join, but, I felt it might get me more social activities. I also thought the idea of going to meetings all dressed up sounded nice. I kind of liked the idea of being expected to be in a dress as the meetings have dress codes.
Bars have ladies nights. I am not sure how that would routinely go.
I know some places are so desperate for attention, that ladies are free, as they use ladies to attract guys that are expected to pay for admission to the event and or location. Again, no idea how that might fly for MTF. You sure no if you are passing as female, if you can walk into an event/location for free and not pay for your drinks.
On the one hand, FTM persons want to be taken seriously, and on the other hand, sometimes being taken seriously means you get to participate in something that might involve a price. Women and children first is an indication that men are likely going to go last if at all.
Some cultures just plain don't value one of the genders, and it's basically females that get the short end of the stick. In the blistering heat a man can take off his shirt and not need to really care. It is nothing for a guy to walk topless down the street in 100 degree weather with their shirt stuck in a back pocket or carried otherwise. Women, even if legally permitted to walk topless, will not be casually unnoticed. And of course if you are MTF and lack breasts, well, it sure makes a mess of your situation if you think you can express your rights to be topless like the other women.
A man can walk into a coffee shop in work clothes that are clearly grubby and in rotten shape and be mostly bedraggled looking hair under a helmet that is a total mess and not feel the slightest bit out of place. He's after all, just a man getting coffee for the crew. Now if a woman walks into the same store like that, she is going to attract stares regardless. We just expect women to be clean and presentable. If they are not, we look down on them.
Both genders have a long list of advantages, but they also have a long list of disadvantages.
Are you really ready to willingly walk into all of the disadvantages, which are unlikely to be going anywhere any time soon.
