Anonymous wrote:Question:
When people transition, do they wait until they have all their ducks in a row before they begin dressing differently?
The reason I ask is that he's dressed like a man in every picture I've seen recently...and he's regularly photographed flying planes or doing something with race cars.
PS - He's opted to do this publicly...he's producing a reality show about it. And there's a part of me that thinks this is a bizarre publicity stunt. Like maybe he'll contemplate transitioning and decide not to go all the way.
It depends on the person. Some people jump fully in, others move more gradually. Some people stay in a more flexible zone. I had a college roommate who had been raised male found casual male clothes were appropriate when she was just hanging out, but she dressed to the nines in women's clothing when dressing up. That also works because many women were casual male-looking clothes. It's like we expect transgender or transitioning people to be the extreme of a gender and that's not going to be the reality in most cases.
The few pictures I see of Bruce Jenner are in casual-ish clothing, I wouldn't say it's strongly male or female dress.
Women fly planes and race cars.
When you're in the public eye, you really have no choice but to do it publicly. Even when you're "just" a nobody transitioning, you're doing it in front of people. People don't suddenly forget that you were James and now you're Joanna. It's an incredibly difficult process and I think only the knowledge that you'll get to be you on the other end of it makes it worthwhile.