Passing Thoughts

Hannah McKnight muses on the eternal question for all cross-dressers:

Holding yourself to a set of standards, or letting others hold a set a standards to you, should never prevent you from presenting in the real world as the gender you identify as. If I waited to “pass” I’d still be in sitting in my living room waiting until my hands shrunk. Letting go of these expectations will free you and you will never look back.

My core beliefs on passing are still unchanging, but there is another reason why some of us want to pass.

Survival.

That sounds fatalistic and dramatic, but it’s absolutely true. Transwomen who “look like” ciswomen have a lesser chance of being “clocked” as transgender. We all know that being transgender opens us up to being laughed at, ridiculed, mocked, and worse. When we go out into the real world, we may have certain goals in mind, such as finding a pair of heels, or wanting to go out to dinner en femme, but usually not being harassed is among those objectives.