Hi everyone. I'm just pondering women's body expectations a little. Personally I think they are impossible to live up to.

I'm just curious what you're feeling most insecure about. Maybe it's something you feel like detracts from your possibility as a woman or something you just wish you could change?

For me personally it's my height. I am six feet tall and often stick out like a sore thumb because of it.

I guess I just try to work with that and embrace it. I hear alot that models are tall like that.

So that's just my insecurity but is there anything about your body you often feel self conscious of?

I only dress femme when my daughter and her partner are not at home. I putter about the house or work outside watering trees and bushes, tending our tiny garden, and living as a woman mostly inside the vast expanses of my mind. In this fantasy world, I am complete and usually happy. Then I go back to being drab: blue jeans and tee-shirts, flannel shirt jackets if it's chilly. But the woman still abides in the recesses of my mind. My body is beginning to respond to HRT and I love the changes. But I am concerned about the way my daughter will respond when she can no longer pretend I'm her father.

My face and my voice. Apparently I pass though.

Quote from: CosmicJoke on August 31, 2025, 09:11:26 AMHi everyone. I'm just pondering women's body expectations a little. Personally I think they are impossible to live up to.

I'm just curious what you're feeling most insecure about. Maybe it's something you feel like detracts from your possibility as a woman or something you just wish you could change?

For me personally it's my height. I am six feet tall and often stick out like a sore thumb because of it.

I guess I just try to work with that and embrace it. I hear alot that models are tall like that.

So that's just my insecurity but is there anything about your body you often feel self conscious of?

I don't consider height an issue. As you said, lots of models are tall, many celebrities are 6 feet or taller, and I have worked with women who are taller than I am at 5' 11.5". It just means we have longer legs. 

My issue has always been with facial hair. I fought with the VA many times to get electrolysis covered, and I got it approved at least three times. But there was no one there in South Dakota who could do it.

If I am going somewhere for an appointment or something, I shave very closely, then use makeup techniques to cover the shadow. It is effective, and I do not get misgendered like that.

Now that I am back in Colorado, electrolysis is available nearby, and I expect to begin that in a month or so. Good riddance after six years.

After that, I may look into scalp hair restoration. I have a nasty scar near my hairline from facial surgery. I am pretty self-conscious about that, so I am always wearing a hat, wig, or topper. In the summer heat, hair hats (as @davina61  calls them) are very warm, so I stick to baseball caps. In winter, it is nice to wear full wigs for a change of color or style.

Those are the most visible things that are difficult to hide. The next step is also to look into bottom surgery. Also, a service that is not available in South Dakota, so now it will just be a matter of financing. I have some options to explore, but I need to consult with a surgeon to get an idea of the options and cost.

None of this will change my feelings of being feminine. It is all cosmetics from my point of view. Getting these things done means less work in camouflaging the things I hate most. That saves time for more important things like gold prospecting or rockhounding. 

Hello, so, insecurities...where do I start? hahaha.

This has been me for the past years...
I

Quote from: Dances With Trees on August 31, 2025, 10:48:30 AMI only dress femme when my daughter and her partner are not at home. I putter about the house or work outside watering trees and bushes, tending our tiny garden, and living as a woman mostly inside the vast expanses of my mind. In this fantasy world, I am complete and usually happy.

Although, when I go on trips alone in my car, it is Anne who travels, fully dressed...and all these ghosts accompany me (in order from worst to least):
Voice: It really is becoming an issue for me and highly considering getting help. But, as a teacher, it can have its caveats and if I already have voice problems two or three times a year, surgery makes me very nervous. I am looking for a voice trainer and work my female voice and train it to withstand the classes and the academic year without failing.
Face My make up is getting better by the day, but I still have my concerns in passing. I am really considering surgery on my adams apple (although I have been told it barely comes out, but it is one of my insecurities).

I am sharing these as they are my main ones today. But, to be honest, what I do when my ghosts come out, I look around and see that there are soooo many types of women in the world that my insecurities are just mine, but I am as beautiful as any other cis women around.
Women are tall, short, fat, skinny, with long hair, short hair, big feet, small feet, big arms, small arms and many, many, more differences, and it is our conception of wanting to be perfect that makes us insecure.

As I am writing this I am grinning at myself because I remember a video I saw where women were looking at each other comparing themselves and always wanting what they did not have from the other.
"She has nice hands, I wish I had those hands", "Her hair is so bright, I wish I had her hair"..and like this by 6 different women. Doesn't happen like that in cis men.

Just to finish, I believe that insecurities are part of being a woman and wanting to be more female and prettier and better, so congrats sis. ☺️

For its my hands, i have big hands, I call them my man hands. My friends tells me there is nothing wrong with the size of my hands.

The hormones has made my hands softer. I almost always wear nail polish on my hands (acrylic nails) and keep my nails long, to make them more girly. I love getting my nails done, its some nice girl time, just for me). I go to a lady, her daughter is in the same class as my daughter, in my neighborhood, who does nails from her house, I get to chat with her, while she does my nails.

Quote from: noleen111 on Today at 09:07:50 AMThe hormones has made my hands softer. I almost always wear nail polish on my hands (acrylic nails) and keep my nails long, to make them more girly.

Wearing bracelets helps too. Long nails help make the fingers look longer (and thus thinner), nail polish, and bracelets complete the illusion. I do the same thing when I can.