This is for trans people stuck at the start of social transition. Boosts welcome 
I do a lot of community support work and often talk with people who feel somewhat stuck between leaving behind their old identity and embracing their new one. Often for varying reasons but it all seems to come to the same point, their new identity is struggling to be born.
A friend in my social group said something critical for this:
I think one of the most important things for transition is being perceived. Existing as your authentic self and just existing where other people can witness you.
We socially construct our own identity, this is why you can't get very far on your own. For you to feel your new identity is real, and not just something you are pretending to be or faking, you must have people see it and reflect it back to you. You need to see other people see you as you see your identity, whatever it is woman, man, fem, masc, agender, non-binary, etc, and then treat you as your identity. This is what makes the identity feel real. We all implicitly do this at the start being the subject doing the viewing and the object being viewed, performing our gender for ourselves, but it can only ever be the start of things.
Your identity isn't just the clothes you wear, the way you cut and style your hair, the posture you inhabit, it's also the way people talk to you, the kind of complements or not you receive, the way people see you. When we talk about identity we often focus on the things we are in control of, but those things are caught within a web of culture that extends beyond us. The way we dress references those cultural things and in turn people recognise and reflect back those things to us.
#trans #socialtransition #identity
BellingenNSW
Advocate.com [Unofficial]
Triona
Susan Larson ♀️🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🌈