I don't put pics on at this time for safety reasons. I live in a small community that while some of the population would be great, others would not. There was a local fundraiser for the women's shelter that involved cross-dressing and there were death threats against the staff, contestants, etc. I also work in a very visible role in the community which works with at-risk clientelle who often have violent criminal histories, substance abuse, and mental health issues so I'm not so bold at this point as to put my picture up although it has been tempting to put it up and remove it within 24 hours or something.
I try not to flame anyone, but I have been surprised a few times. Sometimes the smallest thing can be become large for someone. For instance, I commented on maybe changing a certain garment (after stating quite honestly how amazing someone looked) and found out it greatly upset them because it was their prized shirt from X that was all they had, etc. So what someone's triggers are and the degree to which someone responds may not be proportional to the initial comments which can often be well intended and kind. Of course, not all commentators are so well intentioned. There was one person who I swear could have been a rep for FFS and was rather ummmm... strong in their language. I think almost everyone on the thread went berserk whenever they wrote.
Also, I think that Kelly_Aus's point and posts are really great. I love that she posts her pics and quite rightly points out that she passes and yet time after time someone will point out this or that feature. Here is what I think... We are primed to be concerned about passing as we identify with the gender and want to be seen and received as matching that gender. Because we are so concerned about doing so, we are already searching for anything that might show that we are not. As a result, we look at ourselves with a desire to see female but always picking out the male traits we desire to be gone. When someone then posts in a passing thread, we are already doing the same negative list in our heads (not always writing it to the participant) of whatever features they have that register at all as male (on mtf threads) rather than looking at the whole face. A face is more than the sum of its parts. To me, some of the most beautiful women have some of the strangest facial features but as a whole they look stunning (might have a high forehead, square chin, or thick eyebrows and so on).
