I was listening to my daughter explain who in her GCSE year was gender fluid, who might transition, who was bi, who was gay. Exhausting, not to say bewildering. It occurred to me, thinking back to my teenage self: if I was living in the now in 2021 with an online me, 3D me‘s, and all the areas where they overlap, would a 15 year old Liz draw the conclusion that having an irresistible fascination with feminine attire meant that in fact I was destined to present full-time as female, and/or undergo gender reassignment as we now call it?
My point is: are there young lads any more furtively borrowing their mother’s clothes, tv’s of the future? Or would a young Liz just look at the identity mayhem and obsession of today and think, well I better put on some nail polish and get down to The Tavistock asap? Nothing seems to be private any more, social media is the ultimate vehicle for compare and despair and confusion and it scares the bejesus out of me for younger generations. Um anyway.
As one of the oldest "old farts" on here (60) I never knew anyone at school who was openly anything other than heterosexual! When I discovered my fascination with ladies clothes I always though it was a "perversion" and although we had horror stories about the predatory types that lurked in the woods/parks/gay bars we never had any interaction with anyone who was not "normal"! Our education at school (70's) was very factually based around biological matters and never looked at different relationships and sexuality. I joined the armed forces at 16 and 10 months never having seen a woman naked or realising that there was such a thing as a transvestite, all I knew was that joining up would cure me of those feelings and make me normal!
As you can guess I never did get cured and spent over 20 years hiding so deep in the closet I was halfway to Narnia. Since then I have seen the world change so much, I work with openly gay and bisexual people and hear stories that I never thought I would hear. For instance a friends daughter is currently training to be a Teaching Assistant, they have a teacher who is non-gender and only responds to the salutation "L" instead of Sir or Miss, they wear anything they feel comfortable in, regardless of whether it is supposed to be male or female! However even if I were to "come out" now as a crossdresser, would I go to work wearing a dress? I have no doubt my employer would be supportive (their policy is excellent) and my colleagues would giggle and snicker for a bit (most of them are women) but it is not me! The ingrained perception I grew up with is still there and will probably never change!