I've very much noticed this, I know a lot of people dont judge people by male or female, but a lot of other people do, or those same people that say that subconsciously react differently when with a male or with a female.


It really does make a difference, because the truth is people DO see a difference, even if individuality is too widespread to make generalizations about everyone within a gendered group.


When I transitioned, men stopped calling me sweetie, sweetheart, etc. and those terms got replaced with man, dude, bro, brother, buddy, etc. Men started seeing me as one of them and interacting with me eye to eye, there isnt any of that weird sexual tension of a straight guy keeping a social space away from a girl. There's just some unspoken message that I'm like them, it's weird (I work at a store so I interact with new people recurringly).

One old lady called me handsome. Another one wanted help with makeup, took one look at me, and said she wanted a woman to help her with cosmetics (which is a good stereotype for me, pre-T that would have sucked to have been asked for help in that just because I was a girl).  They assume I'm not into this or that or that...so I mean I dont quite like stereotypes but landing into the male role meant the things I liked and disliked match me and now girls understand what I'm like based on their preconception of males. Which is silly but ultimately true in some senses.


What experiences do you have?

Yea it makes a big difference.

People give me more space. While like you say nobody's trying to keep out of my personal space so as not to seem forward, they keep their distance and don't attempt to touch me or get up in my face. That's not to say the reverse can't happen with females getting up in a male's personal space and thinking that's ok, but in my case I don't like anybody up in there unless I know them and want them there. Body language probably puts them off, or maybe the eyes, I don't know... aside from their instinctive reaction to someone who looks more male than female.

Voice cues - I have to keep a fair amount of control over it or it could sound like I'm raising it when that's not the intention. In fact I feel like I have to keep more control over everything in general - not because I'm danger of losing it, but because other people seem more nervous around me than before.

There's a ton of subtle things I could mention - how people react to being offered help, or even just how they react to me coming up to them and speaking to them, how they tend to approach me and the sort of things they say when they do, etc. Among friends there's actually no shift in how they treat me, I never got along with people who insisted on exaggerated treatment or we were never gonna get along anyway. But strangers don't know this so they tend to act in the instinctive way people do.

In some ways it's hard to tell, say like when at work I didn't ask people to help me carrying heavy stuff, I'd carry it myself, get it out of the way before anyone assumed I might need help with it to ask so there wasn't a lot of 'chivalrous' behavior I invited to comment on. Of course now they don't offer to help and that's fine. Previously if I offered to help another guy he would refuse; whereas now if a guy is having genuine difficulty with something, he'll accept the help. He's not losing any points in front of me. Women pretty much always accept the help before and after, if they're having difficulty with something.

Yeah, the assumptions. I'm not into cars (I prefer motorcycles) or most sports etc. and I just shrug and say I'm not. It's true that I'm not into especially 'feminine' pursuits so I guess that's fine. One thing that plagues me in this sense is looking younger than my years, and being assumed to have the IQ of a dipstick because of it, but I think that affects both genders and the way people treat them. I usually respond to offset that assumption in some way, and it usually works. Facial hair will probably come in useful for that as it does tend to immediately change people's assumption about your age/life experience, so I'll be sporting a 5 day stubble ASAP. Being thought youthful is nice for a while but after a while it's a pain in the ass.

I like the fact I'm assumed to be capable, and I get the space I prefer. While I'm not much for flirting, women's flirting is more tolerable, and I didn't get much of that before, whereas now it's quite common and men leave me alone in that respect, also welcome.

The preconceptions are out of my control and everyone is subject to them - but on the whole I prefer the treatment I get now and it fits my personality much better. There are no more awkward personal conversations about having children, people's boyfriends, or people bashing on men and assuming I agree with everything they say by default... yeah, it's generally an improvement in terms of interaction. But different when it comes to interacting with people who don't know me and are operating on stereotypes and guesswork.   

Yeah; I noticed when I started passing each time I'd go to a corner shop the cashiers would call me 'mate' which never happened before. I'm stealth at work and I'm expected to take part in the macho banter stuff that I'm not very good at. The women at work sort of act different around me; more distant perhaps and less likely to include me in their conversations but I'm socially awkward so that may have something to do with it and I can still talk to them about other stuff sometimes. I've noticed that walking in the street people tend to look at you differently compared to when people saw me as female. And I'm more likely to be taken less seriously because I'm still seen as a teenager instead of as a 23yr old adult.

well.. I've noticed over the years men tend to be more dismissive (sometimes very) of your thoughts & opinions... like they'll express themselves & not care about what you REALLY have to say on whatever it was.  This particular prejudice has happened more times than I care to count.

Women will be a lot more likely to hug, smile at you, etc... Then again I was kind of always that way anyways.   I think the cuter you are the more SOME women will be backstabbity though.