I sure don't. It would be encouraging to hear from others like me.

One might ask what the typical trans narrative is?

-Sandy

Quote from: Sandy on December 27, 2010, 08:24:10 PM
One might ask what the typical trans narrative is?

-Sandy

"having known since I was two" or " I feel like a ____trapped in a ____'s body"

stuff like that.

From what I've read of your posts, your narrative is actually pretty typical.

Quote from: Sandy on December 27, 2010, 08:24:10 PM
One might ask what the typical trans narrative is?

And how one confirms that the 'typical' narratives haven't been carefully constructed to fit what psychiatrists want.

Well, sometimes those are just stereotypes but I definitely get what you mean.

I'm flamboyant. I like clothes. "Manly men" don't usually. So there's one.

I make the best of my body. I feel sort of trapped, but I'm coping. I don't want surgery or T or anything like that.

I didn't know so young. There may have been hints, but I didn't get it until fourteen, fifteen. And even then, I was in denial for a few years.

I don't try to like things that guys like, like cars and guns and stuff. (Not that all do, again, another stereotype.) I just like what I like. Those who love me don't care.

And so yeah, I get what you mean.

QuoteI'm flamboyant

I am also very flamboyant 

well for one, my nails are painted bright blue right now
I loved wearing dresses and going to school dances
and I didn't realize i was trans until i was 17-18, I started experimenting with gender around 16

Quote from: Elijah on December 27, 2010, 08:48:24 PM
well for one, my nails are painted bright blue right now
I loved wearing dresses and going to school dances
and I didn't realize i was trans until i was 17-18, I started experimenting with gender around 16

I use to love wearing dresses too!

Ooh, also, I love to bake and cook.

I sometimes get teased for it, but then I threaten not to make them anything, and they shut up.

I don't fit the 'typical' narrative, and soo many others don't either.

Please don't put much stock in it, but I still definitely understand how it matters when you're still wrestling with your trans identity.

What you're left with at the end of the day is the pain and the dysphoria and that is real.

I didn't like sports, cars, etc etc except.. rifles or anything that have similar ballistics intrigued me. 

Quote from: Samson on December 27, 2010, 08:55:39 PM
Ooh, also, I love to bake and cook.

I sometimes get teased for it, but then I threaten not to make them anything, and they shut up.

My fiancé and his best friend often have 'guy nights' at our house, which consist of them baking and watching Project Runway.
You can tell that a guy is totally secure in his masculinity if he can do stereotypically 'female' activities without giving a crap what others think 

Quote from: Samson on December 27, 2010, 08:40:36 PM

I don't try to like things that guys like, like cars and guns and stuff. (Not that all do, again, another stereotype.) I just like what I like.

I'm the same way. I bake, I sew costumes, but I also do martial arts and love fast cars and action flicks. I like what I like, and anybody who cares can mind their own business.

I don't think there really is a cut-and-dry 'trans-narrative,' at least not from what I've read on here in the last year.

I know I certainly don't fit anything typical (*points at pic title* I am eccentric, after all, heh).

Though there were tons of hints over the years, none of it added up for me until recently, so I'm not one those who 'knew since they were two' or anything. I don't freak out over my body...I certainly don't like it, but I put up with it like you would a annoying zit or ill-placed mole. It is what it is, and I can't afford to change it for now, so I suck it up.

Nothing big or dramatic of note.

You are who you are, and you'll only stress out if you try to fit in a box. It's instinct to try to 'fit in' with certain criteria, and if you're like me at all, you'll probably have to closely examine your thoughts and feelings to figure out when you're succumbing to the 'fit in the box' instinct, and make a conscious decision on what is truth and what is merely trying to fit. If you don't 'fit the box,' screw it. Make your own box. Or quadrangle...or pyramid...bwahahaha!

Do I have a typical story? Yes and No.  Yes in the sense that what I did or thought are similar to others. Like when I was young, I wanted to be girl or I had my surgery.

No, I never cross dressed or never considered it as such because, what I wore, was what I liked to wear and it felt right.  As Valeriedances said, "my clothes never defined me", I swore suits to work when I first started, I wore evening dresses when I went out, I dressed frumpy, when I was at university and currently I dress casual smart were I work at the present.

After coming home from boarding school. My thoughts kept getting stronger and stronger, that I wanted to be female, until eventually I realized that I was a female.  I then left my family and friends, I never suffered any pain or any dysphoria, I never considered suicide, I just did what I wanted without giving myself away.

I never came out to my family and friends my uncle did that, because of family pressure, actually from my mum wondering where I disappeared to.  After being away from my family for nearly 5 years, I said to each member I will only answer to the correct name and pronouns and I will totally ignore you, if you address me otherwise and if they persisted I would never associate with them again.

Except for a couple of times, I never associated with the community, in fact I avoided it like the plague after a couple of incidents.  I did what I needed to do so that I could finally live my life as a female.  I had surgery so that I could function as a normal female. I was never sexually active before surgery,  but, I certainly made up for that afterwards.  I was never gay and I was never sexually attracted to females either.  I have had several long term partners one knew the other did not.  I'm currently involved in a long distance relationship and I take care of my family.

So is this a typical narrative?  Well that is up for you to decide,  I live my life as normal as possible, with the exception of a few stories that are unique to me and me only and that's the way I like it.

Kind regards
Sarah B

ME. Many reasons.

Death Metal. Tomboy. Like to climb for weeks on end without showering. Only drink beer and whiskey. Like to work on my mountain bike.

Dude. No one is normal. We just cope with reality the way we cope. I'm still going to live as a girl. I have NO IDEA why I feel this way. I just feel very strongly that I should be a girl.

I found a very encouraging video on YouTube.

I didn't know until age 10 or 11ish I was raised kinda androgynous and was close to my sister yet I was generally fine with the idea of begin a boy it was only then I realized that I would turn into a MAN at that age and what that implied that things begun turning foul.

Even then I didn't really understand my feelings and I was just severely repressed things only became clearer when I was 16 and I grew my hair long with crossdressing in private that I knew I was "something like that" but I didn't admit I was trans then thinking transsexuals were drag queens.

Even as someone who probably could be accused of fitting much of the typical narrative, I really don't hold much truck with the concept of there being one. People are individuals first and foremost and only anything else that they may or may not be after that.

Besides as soon as you start placing too much emphasis on this so called typical pattern then some arse will go and start using it to start a pissing contest and then we get the whole ->-bleeped-<-r than thou debates which always end in tears.

If you are happy it doesn't really matter.

As a child, I played with Barbie dolls AND G.I. Joe.

I don't believe that there's really a typical trans narrative, the reason being that we're all individuals. I would also wager that anyone telling you that there is a typical trans narrative (and by inference if you don't fit it you're not trans enough) is doing it for their own validation and to quench their own insecurities.

Quote from: rejennyrated on December 28, 2010, 04:20:40 PM
If you are happy it doesn't really matter.

Never a truer word spoken.