Susan's Place Logo

News:

Please be sure to review The Site terms of service, and rules to live by

Main Menu

How do you know when people clock you?

Started by Mahsa Tezani, October 20, 2011, 01:15:23 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Mahsa Tezani

It's been two years since I've started HRT. In the 2 1/2 since I started transitioning, I've never been called sir. I've had a few people point out I was a man(err about 6 times) and had some action figure fanboys on a fanboy message board tear me apart on my old LJ...But that was due to some horrible stuff I did on the board and deserved that completely. My old LJ was when I first started and for the first year...things were bad in my opinion.

But living in the burbs of the SF bay area. Everyone calls me "ma'm"...even people I've talked to tell me, "I didn't know til you told me, how is that possible?". I've "fooled" several of my coworkers at my old job who had no idea of my prior life. I go to gay bars and no one asks me if I am a drag queen. Some gay man bought me a drink because he thought I was a "lonely ->-bleeped-<- hag whose ->-bleeped-<- deserted her" one night... then proceeded to get freaked out when I showed him my old pics.

I am not saying people don't know. I am sure many of them do. If the message board was any indication, people can spot...But say nothing. Teenage boys ask me out.. Now when I am out in public, women ask me about clothes...Men ask me for my number/rides/dates...I've used the women's bathrooms with no problems, and people are never confused about my gender. I am female to everyone. Men stare at me and check me out... Homies who used to call me a "->-bleeped-<-got" "fairy" "she/he/it" "->-bleeped-<-" now ask for my number. I got asked out by a guy who had tear drop tattoos who was tough as hell and he wasn't on the DL... The guy had no idea.

I mean I can tell my own kind. Even the most passable, passively attractive mtfs I can tell. It might be my background in cosmetics and anatomy, but I can tell due to facial structures. I look at my face and see masculine features.... I mean yeah, I had the "femme" gay boy face before..But it doesn't change the fact that my face is mannish...I've accepted it. Can no one else see it?

But how do you know if you're getting clocked? Is it because I live in the bay area and people are used to it?
  •  

~RoadToTrista~

You're face isn't mannish at all, you're very pretty. Maybe when you say you can tell, you're just looking too much into it lol. I can guarantee that there are ciswomen with slightly masculine facial structures or whatever.
  •  

Mahsa Tezani

Quote from: ~RoadToTrista~ on October 20, 2011, 01:28:04 AM
You're face isn't mannish at all, you're very pretty. Maybe when you say you can tell, you're just looking too much into it lol. I can guarantee that there are ciswomen with slightly masculine facial structures or whatever.

Well the one time I was clocked severely, this gay black kid said I had "masculine features" and the men on the board said I was "fugly". But they were toy collectors... Guys who are still mentally 12.

I mean I don't see it and yes, I've seen pretty transgirls..... But someone being attractive and passing as a GG are two separate concepts. I was once told I looked like a boy dressed as a girl by this toy shop owner and I asked why and he said, "boobs aren't big enough and the face is different than womens" then told me, "You aren't convincing"

But convincing in his view are transsexuals who look like HOOTERS girls apon further discussion with him. He was 31, good looking uy who loved Jesus.
  •  

Lily

Well from your photo your face looks great, and I don't see any masculine features at all. If all I saw was that pic and knew nothing else about you I would never clock you as trans.

Those guys are just crazy. I bet if they didn't know you were trans they would never suspect a thing.
  •  

~RoadToTrista~

And maybe your voice training was still bad at the time, lol
  •  

Mahsa Tezani

Quote from: ~RoadToTrista~ on October 20, 2011, 01:48:12 AM
And maybe your voice training was still bad at the time, lol

Meh...no matter how femme, we have the awkward stage while HRT does it thing. First impressions stick. I am 5'5", have tiny hands, tiny feet, etc..

But I no longer tell anyone...for the very reason I want an objective opinion.
  •  

Mahsa Tezani

Quote from: Lily on October 20, 2011, 01:45:08 AM
Well from your photo your face looks great, and I don't see any masculine features at all. If all I saw was that pic and knew nothing else about you I would never clock you as trans.

Those guys are just crazy. I bet if they didn't know you were trans they would never suspect a thing.

But I can generally spot other trans... Straight men avoid "traps" as such.

But some men have unrealistic views of women and that links into how they choose to view MtFs. I remember at wondercon, guys hit on me because I wasn't a geek girl...But I wasn't unobtainable like many of the hot girls there.

If a guy has realistic expectations on what women should look like, I get persued. I've dated my fair share of muscle/jock types...But the guy I'd end up marrying would look "perfect"...he'd look "just right" because thats a realistic view of everyday people. Real people have imperfections which make them beautiful and I like someone who is aesthetically pretty...I don't date based on personality alone. But yeah, I am realistic and won't be hookin up with a male dancer anytime soon.

But I feel a lot of people on the board see what they want to see when it comes to transwomen... which is why it is hard for me to comment on photos and why my commentary is sometimes harsh. I see what I see, non objectively.
  •  

angelfaced

i go through the same things mahsa. Ive been full time for like maybe 7 months and have not dealt with anyone that seemed to know. ive gotten a job at a nightclub where it was nothing but beautiful girls and noone had a clue about my past. When i left my last job guys that were mocking me seemed to forget that i used to be a boy by the time i had left. haha, life is soooo weird.

      As far as getting clocked recently, it only seems to happen when somehow i forgot to tuck,( it happens sometimes) its only happened twice in the last 7 months tho. i member seeing a guy checking me out while i was walking in a mall and i saw his jaw hit the floor. I have learned that i cant really act likei always know what people are saying or thinking. To me though when you walk past a guy and smile and he smiles back, you pass. When i just started living as a girl i smiled at a guy once and he responded with this look of horror on his face, so thats always been my judging scale. if people treat you like a girl then there isnt a question about your gender, but when u get strange looks ( you know wut i mean,not just people staring at you ) or people kinda laughing at you, then you might need to reajust how your presenting yourself. oh and i always seem to get read at a nail salon getting my eyebrows done. they dont realize it until after they have asked me if i want my facial hair waxed the 7th time, they kinda figure it out.... but then again i was at the place i get my nails done ( where i thought my ts status was well known ) and the lady kept asking me y no bf or kids ? lolol sheesh :D
  •  

Annah

unless they tell you they clocked you, i wouldn't worry about it because no one can read minds! Plus, you'll go crazy trying to figure out what people are thinking.
  •  

JenJen2011

Quote from: Mahsa the disco shark on October 20, 2011, 01:15:23 AM
It's been two years since I've started HRT. In the 2 1/2 since I started transitioning, I've never been called sir. I've had a few people point out I was a man(err about 6 times) and had some action figure fanboys on a fanboy message board tear me apart on my old LJ...But that was due to some horrible stuff I did on the board and deserved that completely. My old LJ was when I first started and for the first year...things were bad in my opinion.

But living in the burbs of the SF bay area. Everyone calls me "ma'm"...even people I've talked to tell me, "I didn't know til you told me, how is that possible?". I've "fooled" several of my coworkers at my old job who had no idea of my prior life. I go to gay bars and no one asks me if I am a drag queen. Some gay man bought me a drink because he thought I was a "lonely ->-bleeped-<- hag whose ->-bleeped-<- deserted her" one night... then proceeded to get freaked out when I showed him my old pics.

I am not saying people don't know. I am sure many of them do. If the message board was any indication, people can spot...But say nothing. Teenage boys ask me out.. Now when I am out in public, women ask me about clothes...Men ask me for my number/rides/dates...I've used the women's bathrooms with no problems, and people are never confused about my gender. I am female to everyone. Men stare at me and check me out... Homies who used to call me a "->-bleeped-<-got" "fairy" "she/he/it" "->-bleeped-<-" now ask for my number. I got asked out by a guy who had tear drop tattoos who was tough as hell and he wasn't on the DL... The guy had no idea.

I mean I can tell my own kind. Even the most passable, passively attractive mtfs I can tell. It might be my background in cosmetics and anatomy, but I can tell due to facial structures. I look at my face and see masculine features.... I mean yeah, I had the "femme" gay boy face before..But it doesn't change the fact that my face is mannish...I've accepted it. Can no one else see it?

But how do you know if you're getting clocked? Is it because I live in the bay area and people are used to it?

Ok, ok...We get it. Do you really have to rub your passability in our faces??? Hehe, just kidding. :P

From your pic, you look great. I don't see anything trans about you. Maybe that's the reason why no one is clocking you. You just look like another woman. Maybe Some people notice because they have a really strong transdar, like you state you have.
"You have one life to live so live it right"
  •  

Mahsa Tezani

Quote from: angelfaced on October 20, 2011, 01:05:49 PM
i go through the same things mahsa. Ive been full time for like maybe 7 months and have not dealt with anyone that seemed to know. ive gotten a job at a nightclub where it was nothing but beautiful girls and noone had a clue about my past. When i left my last job guys that were mocking me seemed to forget that i used to be a boy by the time i had left. haha, life is soooo weird.

      As far as getting clocked recently, it only seems to happen when somehow i forgot to tuck,( it happens sometimes) its only happened twice in the last 7 months tho. i member seeing a guy checking me out while i was walking in a mall and i saw his jaw hit the floor. I have learned that i cant really act likei always know what people are saying or thinking. To me though when you walk past a guy and smile and he smiles back, you pass. When i just started living as a girl i smiled at a guy once and he responded with this look of horror on his face, so thats always been my judging scale. if people treat you like a girl then there isnt a question about your gender, but when u get strange looks ( you know wut i mean,not just people staring at you ) or people kinda laughing at you, then you might need to reajust how your presenting yourself. oh and i always seem to get read at a nail salon getting my eyebrows done. they dont realize it until after they have asked me if i want my facial hair waxed the 7th time, they kinda figure it out.... but then again i was at the place i get my nails done ( where i thought my ts status was well known ) and the lady kept asking me y no bf or kids ? lolol sheesh :D

I do cosmetics. Several of the girls there had no idea I was trans. Yes, drags work there... But they say, "you look like a normal girl" which is kind of awesome. Of course, the downside is now that I am another member of girl world and things shall get catty.

Yeah, I definitely think I've reached the point where there is no question in peoples mind I am female. But I rarely see the "look of horror". Men do stare at me, but its never that judging, clocking stare. I used to think people were questioning my gender...But my friends told me, "Yeah, you're hearing things that aren't there". I think because we have people paying attention to us, it makes things a lot worse. But my female coworkers had told a few of the guys at work who found me attractive that I was a TS and I told HR. The guys were flirting with me and they had heard I was a TS, but no one believed it.

But yeah...I think the eyebrow thing may have been because the brows are soooo red after the plucking/waxing.
  •  

Mahsa Tezani

Quote from: JenJen2011 on October 20, 2011, 01:17:06 PM
Ok, ok...We get it. Do you really have to rub your passability in our faces??? Hehe, just kidding. :P

From your pic, you look great. I don't see anything trans about you. Maybe that's the reason why no one is clocking you. You just look like another woman. Maybe Some people notice because they have a really strong transdar, like you state you have.

I was waiting for this reply. No I want to have a discussion on people being clocked. I am not shameless self promoting! LOL
  •  

Bird

Mahsa

I go through the same thing on a daily basis (except I have not been asked out). I think once one of us gets to a point where we are passing, it is hard to tell when we are clocked. It is a bit tough because a woman can be looking at you just to check how you are dressed like, and a guy can be just checking you out.

Usually when someone does a strange face, like with a frown or jaw hits floor thing, I know I have been clocked. This has only happened to me in my first week of full time. Otherwise, I don't think it is possible to tell. The best example I can give, is once when I was washing hands at the hospital, I remember you read that post and know what happened. Another time, when I was at a nightclub, I had a guy looking at me while I was asking for a drink at the bar, I thought I was clocked but he went on to start small talk with me.

So, getting stares doesn't means you are clocked. I think we have this impression because women are checked out more often than guys are and for more reasons. A guy will hardly ever look at another one to check his clothes out, as a example.

But! Once at lunch I saw two gay guys, one looked at me and went to say something to the one next to him who then looked at me with a smile. That IMO is clocked. I think gay men clock me easily :P

So, in conclusion, I think only the judgemental face is a giveaway of "you are clocked" or being called a sir. In any other situation, we are just overanalyzing.

  •  

ZeldaHeart

Good thread!  Getting clocked is a very stressful topic to talk about, well, for me at least.  Why is it always assumed that if someone sort of does a smilesmile face at you, they have you clocked?  I've been full time for two weeks, and if a guy looks/stares at me then I assume it's because he thinks I'm cute!  If a girl stares, it's like "Oh no, is she seeing something male about me?"  I think we tend to over-judge situations like people looking at us.  I think the way to know if someone clocked you is if they keep looking back at you, maybe with a weirded out face; or if you see a group of people pointing at you or something.  Obvious signs like that.  It's hard to know, though, because everyone reacts differently to people who are trans. 

Also, Mahsa, I don't see how ANYONE could ever clock you.  You look a bit like Krysten Ritter.  Do teenage boys really ask you out?  lol.  I've yet to have that happen, but it must feel awesome.
  •  

Mahsa Tezani

Quote from: ZeldaHeart on October 20, 2011, 03:16:37 PM
Good thread!  Getting clocked is a very stressful topic to talk about, well, for me at least.  Why is it always assumed that if someone sort of does a smilesmile face at you, they have you clocked?  I've been full time for two weeks, and if a guy looks/stares at me then I assume it's because he thinks I'm cute!  If a girl stares, it's like "Oh no, is she seeing something male about me?"  I think we tend to over-judge situations like people looking at us.  I think the way to know if someone clocked you is if they keep looking back at you, maybe with a weirded out face; or if you see a group of people pointing at you or something.  Obvious signs like that.  It's hard to know, though, because everyone reacts differently to people who are trans. 

Also, Mahsa, I don't see how ANYONE could ever clock you.  You look a bit like Krysten Ritter.  Do teenage boys really ask you out?  lol.  I've yet to have that happen, but it must feel awesome.

I would think staring would be the obivious sign. I remember when I used to see people I knew were I would keep looking back and stuff. That was before I knew what transpeople were...
Yeah, its happened a few times. Like I was walking to the train station...I have a socal girl style. So I stick out... This 16 year old Mexican kid was like, "Baby your hot, give me your number" he was in his car and I was on the median trying to cross the street.... Then this other time, this 18 year  old guy saw me at the thrift store and he was like, "want to go out?"...

I mean I remember being really perceptive at that age and would see transpeople and think, "Wow, that girl is nice looking but there's something different about her" or "ohmygod...that woman is yikes" ... But men tend to think hormonally and have that primal instinct to go after women regardless if they are trans or not. I've found a lot of men don't care either...a beautiful girl is a beautiful girl regardless of what she was born as.
  •  

Bird

Quote.a beautiful girl is a beautiful girl regardless of what she was born as.

I hope to meet a lot of men who think like that :P

@Zelda

Well they were gay, so it is different. And damn Zelda, if your avatar is anything to go for, If you told me you were trans I would say it is BS.
  •  

Sailor_Saturn

Quote from: Mahsa the disco shark on October 20, 2011, 01:15:23 AM
But how do you know if you're getting clocked?

I'd look for someone holding a stopwatch. No, but seriously, there's basically no way to know unless someone pipes up. Or if you develop telepathic powers.
  •  

ZeldaHeart

Quote from: Bird on October 20, 2011, 04:08:35 PM
I hope to meet a lot of men who think like that :P

@Zelda

Well they were gay, so it is different. And damn Zelda, if your avatar is anything to go for, If you told me you were trans I would say it is BS.

Agreed about meeting men like that!  Also, sorry if I came across as insensitive with what I said about people smiling.  If two gay guys did that to me, I'd probably be totally hoping that I turned them straight!  Just kidding, that's just plain wishful thinking.  I'd be thinking they clocked me and go home and be sad.  Also, thanks a BILLION for saying that, bird.   You're too kind. 
  •  

Forever21Chic

 
  Marsha i luv your threads, always so interesting. I think you're looking way to much into this though, you look lovely and totally passable in my opinion & i'm totally jealous of your makeup skills!


  When people laugh and whisper while looking at you then THAT'S YOUR SIGN! lol. Voice is what gets most ts girls clocked, for awhile i wouldn't talk like at all while i was out and about. Takes alot of practice but anyone can achieve a passable female voice.
  •  

Mahsa Tezani

Quote from: Rukia87xo on October 20, 2011, 05:36:33 PM
When people laugh and whisper while looking at you then THAT'S YOUR SIGN!

Jan, you win the prize!  :)
  •