I have a very functional 'gaydar'.. In the last 10 years it's been wrong once.. Now, before any of you think about having a go at me for making assumptions about people based on appearance, let me explain how mine works.. It requires that I actually have some interaction with the person, I have to get up close to them and have some sort of conversation of other interaction.. And, for me, in the end, it's all based on smell.. Gay guys smell different to straight guys to me.. Even when wearing the same cologne..

I don't have much of a 't-dar'.. And don't know or care if I ever develop one..

Quote from: Dee_pntx on March 09, 2011, 01:30:42 AM
I always know.  I've spent 50 years studying gender cues.

This is exactly what I would say.  Hips, eyes, jawline, feet....

Quote from: Alice in genderland on March 18, 2011, 04:24:37 AM
This topic has given me some ideas about how dystopian trans fiction might look like...

They could film it and call it "Transpotting"

Quote from: yoxi on March 18, 2011, 12:28:05 PM
They could film it and call it "Transpotting"

Yeah, it could be about some underground trans people looking for black market hormones in the streets of Leith and getting high on E or T in "hormone junkie houses", while brigades of police transspotters -like the "fingers" in V for Vendetta- use some renegade trans who know what to look at (the infamous "->-bleeped-<-dars") to search for those transfolk who are still living in stealth. Later on in the film, someone like Michelle Rodriguez or Maggie Gyllenhaal shows up, invites me to join the trans resistance and takes me to her secret lair 

And it'd have a kicking soundtrack!

Quote from: GinaDouglas on March 18, 2011, 11:05:15 AM
This is exactly what I would say.  Hips, eyes, jawline, feet....

no, you always suspect...if you always knew it's as good as saying bye bye to ever being percieved as anything other than your birth gender. because if you can do it, anyone can

Its really weird because one sesmester, i really really thought this kid in my class was an FtM. I finally talked to them only to come to find SHE was an MTF, pre everything, but still i thoought that was weird.

Quote from: Helena on March 20, 2011, 02:29:02 PM
no, you always suspect...if you always knew it's as good as saying bye bye to ever being percieved as anything other than your birth gender. because if you can do it, anyone can

exactly.  Which is one of the problems I have with a so-called transdar.   It's internalized transphobia in my opinion. 

Quote from: Andy8715 on March 22, 2011, 12:50:11 AM
exactly.  Which is one of the problems I have with a so-called transdar.   It's internalized transphobia in my opinion.

C'mon that's not true. People with a radar generally are not haters, they are lovers, or they are trans (or gay) themselves.

I would say internalized transphobia is more apparent in a TS that cannot and will not deal with the fact that he or she is a TS.

There are a lot of transpeople that hate the people that love them,
I would see that as internalized transphobia.

i don't 'cos i don't give a dam whether someone's trans, gay or martian

People with a radar generally are not haters, they are lovers, or they are trans (or gay) themselves.

Pretty much this.

It takes one to know one? Gay/trans people have far better luck picking out other LGBT folk, in my experience.

I've met two other FtMs, but I was so convinced that I was the only one like me at the time I couldn't tell they were trans.
They both told me they knew I was trans as soon as they started talking and hanging out with me, though.

Yes, my "gaydar" started working properly the day I started being properly comfortable with fancying men as well as women. Now I've noticed myself looking at people around me wondering who is trans, which had never occurred to me before.

I totally have transdar. Two of my best friends are totally passable, yet, despite that, I had a some hunch that they were trans when I met them, and the hunch, in both cases, turned out out to be true.

Quote from: GinaDouglas on March 18, 2011, 11:05:15 AM
This is exactly what I would say.  Hips, eyes, jawline, feet....

So, what you're saying is, "There's no such thing as being 'passable'. You'll always look like a man/woman in drag. You may be able to fool others, but not me!"

And how would you know if your "->-bleeped-<-dar" is truly that effective? What are you checking it up against? Medical records? High school diplomas? Are you going around downtown asking random people who ping your transdar if they actually are trans? Do you rely on the bush telegraph? Or are you simply assuming that anyone who trips your transdar is trans and anyone who doesn't, isn't?

Because if it's the last one, then I can go around guessing who has had colonoscopy and who hasn't based on physical cues, and I'll have as much reason to believe my "colonoscopydar" is accurate as you your transdar.

Yes, some people are easy to read. Some people don't pass at all. Some people have some obvious signs that cis people are generally ignorant of. And some just give off no unusual gender cues at all. And some cis people give off trans cues, as well.