Linda Jensen — Sophia’s Choices

| Jul 27, 2009
Spread the love

Recently a friend of mine had a thought that she wanted to share with others. She posted it to a number of groups where she belongs such as Erie Sisters, Gender Mosaic, Xpressions and a few others. She expresses a great example of the conflict within many of us. We, as crossdressers, can be happy, very happy, in our male roles and we can find equal happiness in the feminine identities we adopt. She also says that she can get very frustrated with each of the roles at times. Apparently without trying Sophia has also reached a level of success in adopting different habits and mannerisms in her feminine identity than she would use as a male.  If you see a t-girl lurching as she walks and talking with a gruff voice that’s not Sophia.  I wanted to share her thoughts with the TGForum readers. What do you think? Do you feels as Sophia does?

Her comments elicited quite a response from her friends on the various lists. I would be interested to know what the ladies of TGForum have to say.

She wrote:

I am sitting this morning in my office at home and wondering how come sometimes I really feel like being Sophia and sometimes I do not. Sometimes I feel I could be Sophia 24/7 and sometimes never.

In a business meeting the other day I was looking at the women participating and saying to myself, this one is lucky, she can wear perfume, lipstick, nylons, high heels, skirt, lingerie, jewels and all this is helping her look fresh, sexy, attractive and offers her all the personal identity she is looking for.

On the other side, I was looking at another one of the women and she had jeans, t-shirt, running shoes, no make up, no perfume, obviously plain underwear, no jewels and her hair looked like a mess, she also had the liberty of being who she felt like.

I was jealous, the maximum limit I had as a male was, either jeans/t-shirt or a suit with a tie. Usually when I come in with a close shave, a suit and a tie, all women go! Wow! It drives me nuts, I know that I look good but also know that I look like 90% of men that wear a suit.

Women can choose to dress in femme mode or male mode and its ok, men on the other side have a very narrow margin. We start dressing in male fashion and we get the ??? Is this guy gay?

Last week, I was for 8 days in torn jeans, sweaty T-Shirt and steel toe working boots to build my workshop in my cottage garage. It was a great project and I lost 4 pounds , 2 inches of waist and my wife was finding me sexy. I did not feel at all like being Sophia. This week back at work, I am looking forwards to being Sophia but must admit that it is strange, I feel my muscles, look at my short nails, the couple of bruises and cuts from the project and do enjoy some of it.

I also look at the growing hair on my chest, legs and arms and find it ‘ yukkie’  I’m getting a waxing ASAP. This fall, Sophia is starting her laser treatments and getting her ears pierced. I do find sometimes that when I am Sophia 4 days in a row that it is hard to fully come back to my male side, same feeling as my workshop project but on the other side. The other day when I undressed Sophia from the Gals Spring Fling, I cried, I felt I was letting her go and was very emotional about it.

I do have what I could call, quite a high balancing pendulum, my male side does not like Strawberry’s and Sophia loves them. My male side does not like to dance, Sophia is always on the dance floor. Male =  races his car and Sophia = drives her automobile, Male = listening to the music and Sophia to the lyrics, Male = Walks with his shoulders and Sophia with her hips. This pendulum effect is getting more and more a -10 and + 10 than ever.

All this said, throughout the years of my adventures with Sophia, I am for now more than ever a Crossdresser. I don’t know if this will change with time, all I know is that when I miss Sophia, I miss her big time and when I don’t want her around, I really don’t want her around.

Here is a comment typical of the initial responses:

Hi Sophia,

You wrote a very eloquent email this morning. You brought up memories of me a long time ago. I can remember the time I looked at a smartly dressed woman and the feeling was different than most males would have. I want to be her.

Over time my female side became stronger and stronger. I could not hide who I was. Rachel wanted out in the worse way. She is alive and vibrant when out and my male side has now become withdrawn. I finally started to see a therapist and started hormones 18 months ago. I have now come out to several family members. My transition is slow but slow and sure wins the race.

I also go to work every day in a suit and tie, with all the trimming short hair and short nails. That is only the exterior of the building. I am really female inside and it gets hard each day to present someone who I am not. I am sitting in my office and after reading your email my feeling are overloaded. It might be that I go full time sooner than later.

R.

What do you think? How do you juggle your male/ female roles and feelings?

  • Yum

Spread the love

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Opinion

angela_g

About the Author ()

Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.

Comments (6)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. says:

    I find that my mood dictates where I am on the gender spectrum for any given day. It not clear cut however, to say that when I am in a good mood – femme, or bad mood -male, that’s just not true. It seems more based on why I am in the certain mood that pushes me one way or the other. Like so many others I find the older I get the more I correct my mood with the femine side. Of course there are many times where the fustration factor comes in of not being able to express myself as I feel I should, because of social restraints. A feeling that I am always missing something by not being able to totally be myself. It’s a balancing act that we must learn to do, to be able to enjoy who we are.

  2. Gina-Vizavi Gina-Vizavi says:

    Fascinating post with interesting insights and questions! So many of us refuse to make the “either or” choice and live our dual lives. Unfortunately, far too often our feminine side cannot be freely expressed outwardly which can lead to a great deal of angst. Each of us is pushing the edge of the envelope in our own way and hopefully there will come a time that it will be possible for people to present themselves openly and freely to the outside world in which ever “persona” they choose to on a day by day basis and be accepted regardless of what position they occupy on the gender spectrum. From what I’ve read about the current generation, many are much more proactive and asserting their “chosen gender” at a much younger age which may lead to society getting over its “gender dysphoria,” the prevailing dichotomous model which is so self-limiting and the antithesis of self-actualization.

  3. says:

    As a contruction worker I am very good at what I do and do not know what I could do to earn the wage I make. On the other hand after I get off work I can’t wait to go to my female side. When I look at a woman I am looking at her look,I am jealous that she has more freedom in the way she can dress and accessorise.My ears are double pierced and I am only alowed studs while GG’s are allowed so many more styles that I like to copy on weekends. I love my Barbie time and have more female clothes than male clothes,but I need to put food on the table.

  4. ronnierho ronnierho says:

    I’m happy to hear I’m not the only one who “swings” like this. It’s truly maddening: Knowing that yeah, you could take the final plunge and go 100% full time, only to miss that other side of your personality. And on the flip side, having to keep that other side hidden away, only to emerge under certain circumstances.

    If she finds a solution, please share it with me!

  5. angela_g angela_g says:

    As much as I love dressing like a woman and mingling with the crowd there are times when I can’t be bothered to “get dolled up” and I mingle in scruffy male mode. I find that it is tied to my general health. If I’m not feeling well I don’t feel like going through the effort to get shaved, made up, etc. and I’d rather just throw on a T-shirt and jeans. If I am feeling healthy and have something fun to do, even just a shopping trip, I will be dressed up in a flash and off to have fun. I like to maintain the illusion that I do my editing for TGF while dressed to the nines in elegant yet sexy femme business attire but the reality is that I’m often in a t-shirt and sweat pants without a stitch of makeup. (It’s always casual Friday at the TGF Office Tower.) Sometime there’s even stubble… all over. So I conclude that in my case balancing femme and male feelings and activities is tied to my health and to what I need to do.

  6. says:

    I get those feelings at times – and they scare me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!