Member-only story
One thing I immediately noticed when I left my mirror and went into the world as a novice transgender woman was when I was suddenly noticed more by both primary genders, male and female.
Of course, being raised in an unwanted male world, I knew how many guys made a big deal about the appearances of the women around them. What I was not prepared for was the amount of attention I received from other women. Especially, younger ones as teen girls were especially observant. I cannot or prefer not to recount the times I was stared down by a group of teenaged girls or younger.
My primary example was the day I was out shopping in the racks of a women’s clothing store when around the corner came a small child who startled me. Obviously, I startled him also because he ran back to his mother (who was close by) and said, “Look at the BIG woman!” Initially, I was relieved because he had called me a woman. Then he continued and said, “The big MEAN woman.” Naturally, I learned a big lesson. The BIG mean woman should always be prepared to be friendly, which means I needed to immediately learn to wipe that old male scowl off of my face. If that was all I needed to do to not scare little kids, it was an easy lesson to learn.
For a while, I was intimidated by all the attention I was receiving until I began to understand where it was coming from. The more I dressed…
