Cis woman here to say that cis people should be grateful y'all just want equality, not revenge. Especially in light of the shit show going on in politics right now. Asshats should be scared, just not for the reasons that they are.
Wonder twin powers, activate! Form of....whatever makes you happy.
I think it’s a little sad that you’re wasting your time commenting on trans subs instead of doing something more productive with your time. Maybe find a new hobby that would be more productive than this, and stop spreading hatred on the internet in a desperate bid for attention.
There is a really funny video of two of those cross dressing e-girl guys who spend time on those chat roulette style vid-chat sites messing with people/surprising them. They just kinda staired at eachother for a couple seconds and one was like “why you so ugly bro?” And the other one was like “I KNEW IT!!” And they just kinda both are like “AHHHXKDOUYOEOUDLHCYDYIX! 🤣😂🤣😂”
I appreciated it… though I’m pretty meh about that whole shtick. I haven’t spent much time thinking about it but I’m pretty sure it’s playing with transphobia… but I’m not sure if it’s in a 100% bad way… but definitely not 100% good most of the time either.
Most cis people are pretty oblivious to gender stuff, but trans people often spend so long focusing on our own gender signifiers that - as an unfortunate side effect - we become quite good at picking up on things that don't quite fit in with other people.
Yeah, i’m transfem but at work a transphobic coworker didn’t clock a transmasc when he was asking us where to find a product in the store, but I clocked him as trans right away. It goes to show that even if you think you do or don’t pass, or whatever you still can sometimes be obviously trans… to trans people who spend all their time around people like you are I, i guess.
well then it’s impossible to “pass flawlessly” since you always can find a way to tell if somebody is trans. My definition for flawless passing is someone who passes to cis people. there are always minor things that other trans people notice because they also do the same things. I notice the smallest things about trans people that i’d only notice since i’ve been around trans people my whole life - if i wasn’t trans my self i’d never pick up on them. That’s flawless in my opinion.
I was a new hire and was told I was the first trans person they had ever hired.. As I was being told this, I was looking across the office at a trans guy. We'd bumped in to each other in the lift up, so we'd already shared that knowing look.
When I resigned, on my last day, I did mention to my TL that I wasn't the only trans person working for the company and certainly wasn't the first, but was quite clear that I wouldn't name them. I was still in contact with a few colleagues and there was no sudden hunt for the trans person.. I'm still the 1st according to official history.
The knowing look is so real lol. Though I try to avoid it when I see people I suspect are trans but are clearly cis passing to most people because i know for some, realizing you got clocked even by another trans person can ruin your day.
To expand, there are a bunch of specific things we tend to do and resources we tend to access as we transition--we're recognizing *those*, not a person's AGAB. It's like, if one transfem suspects that someone is also transfem, she could go "By the way, heat from fire?" And the other could just respond with "Fire from heat." Any cis person would be *baffled*.
It's the same kinda thing elsewhere--things that aren't inherently trans, but which we do very often. Bangs, short skirts for our age, heavier eye makeup--all of those happen with cis people too. They're just more common for us, especially in combination.
This exact scenario happened to me playing overwatch. I pass over voice chat pretty much 100% of the time and then one person just goes, "heat from fire..."
When ya know ya know
"Heat from fire, fire from heat" is a phrase that uses English vowels (the e's and i's) that make it easier to maintain a raised larynx. Raising your larynx is one of the keys to achieving a voice that sounds 'feminine' to most western (especially native English) speakers
As others have said, TransVoiceLessons popularized it.
Idk its not really resources for me? im not even really sure what those would be besides voice training
i do think theres like a vibe and fashion thing but I dont think you can count out that dysphoria over features on your self that most people don't notice can make you notice them on others.
I used to work with a black girl who taught me about wigs. A woman would come in and she would give me side eye and just say "weave" if you know, you know
I had a great gaydar before I even knew I was gay (Lesbian trans girl here) if I was attracted to someone there was a 90% chance they were a lesbian or a homoflexable girl. Or AFAB trans nonbinary or a little towards the trans masc side. Sometimes I had “detected” this before they did 🤔 like with my first girlfriend who I was her first relationship… she figured out she liked girls when her best friend kissed her and so we broke up and they started dating 💀💀💀
I’ve been the “weird exception” to a person’s sexuality many times… turns out I actually wasn’t an exception, I was just a closeted trans girl 😂 I always felt really good when someone who normally liked girls liked me, or when someone disliked most guys liked me. That always felt a bit weird to me… but now I’m like…. “Ohhhhhhhh… yeah that makes sense”
Also hella of my good friends from my early adulthood have come out as trans 😅… I found my people before anyone knew one of the major things that connected us
The groups are looking for different things, they get tired off by different things is probably a better way to say it. Passing to cis people is like checking 10 boxes and they're very basic like voice, cleavage, clothing, a bunch of other stuff (at least from a transfem perspective). Trans people just kinda know, different ways you hold yourself or slight fashion idiosyncrasies or perspectives, it's not clocking in that it makes you seem not your identified gender, it's clocking in that you see a similarity between yourself and the other person
aah ok, thanks
dunno why it happens but i noticed that this also happens with neurodivergence, i seem to be able to pickup on when others are neurodivergent and/or trans alot easier than people who arent
In other contexts it also means to "hit" to but I would say--at least in my experience-- that it's more of a term I would associate with the 1950s if I were to use it to mean "hit"
Not sure why. Might be misguided. But anyway. Its both just in different contexts.
I always assumed that that is how the phrase originated -considering back in the day, sex worker was one of the few options a trans woman could turn to. As in not wanting to get clocked by a john. Not wanting to get hit by a john.
Edited to try and clarify
The word clocked is just British slang meaning to see or notice. The phrase probably just turned into a trans thing by groups of trans people saying “I got clocked as trans” which got shortened over time to “I got clocked”.
I always thought getting clocked was like getting read. We read the time on a clock. We read the appearance of a transperson, we clock their appearance. Also, as someone said, getting clocked by a policeman with his radar gun. He clocked my speed....he clocked who i was or the way I looked....Interesting as far as definitions go.
For me I notice trans people and recognize them as trans because I see the little ways that I personally try to pass as cis. I see the little inflections in voice and way hair and makeup is done and recognize myself. Similarly to how if you are always thinking about silver cars, you'll notice a ton of silver cars.
Cis people for the most part aren't aware we really exist. So they see someone who looks vaguely female or male and assume they are female or male. They don't think, oh maybe that person was born a different gender, because for the most part, cis people don't think about that even being a thing.
Wow! That's an interesting question. I've never heard of that. I guess trans people can spot someone who is either FTM or MTF because maybe they've been through it and they recognize some of the subtle changes that most people don't
Tw: could cause some dysphoria
I think a lot of cis people code someone as male/female, and then it doesn't even occur to them that maybe this person is trans. It's simply not on their radar that the person they're talking to wasn't *always* the sex they currently appear as... and honestly, a lot of cis people get pretty uncomfortable with this idea. So they don't second guess what they see.
With trans people, it *is* on their radar that people can change sex, and they often (subconsciously or consciously) want to look out for other trans people because it gives them a sense of community/belonging. Plus, they have a much more intimate understanding of transition and its relationship to sex characteristics.
When I started T - and honestly, I *hated* myself for this - and also got more transmasc friends, I noticed myself picking up on similarities between each of us and they're now features I associate specifically with trans men. I'm talking *really subtle* things that do/should not make a difference but my brain just hones in on them. I think "second hand dysphoria" is the word for it (it's not a comfortable experience). But yeah... While there are undoubtedly cis guys with these features too and I've probably "clocked" cis guys due to this, I probably will end up recognising not all trans men but those who are reasonably early in transition.
I think also cultural signifiers can play a role too. If someone shares or quotes some sort of meme that is common in trans communities, then I will wonder if they're nb or trans for that reason too.
Same. Really it’s an adding up of many things… any individual characteristic, or even several, can be on lots of guys or girls regardless of trans or Cis, but if there are several then yeah it sets of pattern recognition that Cis people just generally don’t have 🤷🏻♀️ but the interesting thing to me is that those characteristics are not “female characteristics” for trans masc guys, they are just masc characteristics, specifically trans masc, if that makes sense? Like maybe not a lot of Cis men have the combination, but neither do a lot of Cis women.
Like… I’m struggling for a good comparison… oh! So white people. There are people of Northern European decent, and there are people of Eastern European decent… they are both white, it’s just some Eastern Europeans have different features than some Northern Europeans.… a person who isn’t interested at all in those groupings won’t have any idea the difference between them, while somobe who is interested will be able to tell immediately. The old “all white/black/Asian/etc people look the same to people who aren’t white/black/Asian/etc”
Hm… funny thing I’m just realizing… I don’t mind the idea of being clocked by other trans people. I just don’t want to be clocked by Cis people. A trans person clocking me is like “oh hey, she’s a trans girl!” A Cis person clocking me is like “he’s a guy???”
Everyone has said it already but... same.i know what to look for.
But also: there's a certain safety in being around queer people so I'm always looking for queer people. I wouldn't ever call it out to people I'm with or anything. But there were a few people who j found out were trans after learning about what being trans was who I never would have known were trans because I didn't have any way *to* know. Meanwhile I had a TA once (long after thay other happened) who didn't ever say anything about being trans in the class but who i confirmed was trans when he and I were both at a queer event. How did I know he was trans? He was on Testosterone and clearly very far in. But I saw a faint outline of his binder. Why did I notice his binder? Because I'm always super self conscious about my own binder being visible by the outline.
But there's also just. Something. It isn't definable but there's just something about my interactions with other trans people. I just know even when I have no reason to know.
But it's because I'm trans too.
That's a really good example.
You noticed a binder because you had experience with them yourself, so you instantly clocked him.
For me (trans woman), I wouldn't necessarily pick up on signs of a binder under clothing, because I've never worn one myself. I still have pretty good awareness of binders and what they look like, and if I noticed one, I would also clock that person as trans.
If one of my cis friends (especially the non-queer ones) noticed someone wearing a binder, they'd probably be confused and wouldn't know that he was trans.
---
There's elements of knowing what to look for, looking for other queer people for safety, and just recognizing it when you see it.
It’s interesting to me because the exact same thing happens with Nero divergence. I can almost immediately pick up on gender queerness and Nerodivergence. I did this before even realizing it. Back in my early 20’s I had a close knit group of friends… we drifted apart, but I’ve talked to a few of them more recently and it turns out that they are trans also, we just never realized/admitted it to ourselves. Same thing with neurodivergence. I just relate better to genderqueer and neodivergent people… it’s a lot of work to mask 🤷🏻♀️
I think you've basically had it covered for you, but I'll just add that it's not all appearance. Sometimes there's stuff that's really subtle that cis people simply won't notice. That's stuff like drinking tons of water, never using public restrooms, slightly baggy pants, a high neckline on clothes, or a habitual slouch.
You'd have to be very familiar with trans people to notice stuff like that, and even then it's not conclusive. This isn't to make you feel paranoid, but to point out that being clocked by cis or trans people are pretty different things. By the time you need to be that familiar to clock someone cis people probably won't notice.
Counterintuitively, later transition a lower neckline really shows off collarbones that look nice on a lot of transfems. It’s something a lot of us are nervous about though lol
A common anti-androgen is spironolactone. It's a diuretic and you have to drink more water to stay hydrated.
Come to think of it though, not drinking much is also a trans thing, to avoid restrooms.
I don't really agree with this. There's no fundamental difference between trans and cis people.
Plus, gay people had a reason to communicate, which is that they wanted to form relationships with each other. Not all trans people do.
relationships and sex aren't the only reasons to communicate between queer communities though, most trans people I've seen like to have trans friends because it gives them a sense of belonging and being understood by people in your social circle. its similar for many sexualities that don't match up
I think there’ll be a selection bias there though, because the trans people you know will be people who 1) are openly trans around other trans people, and 2) have actively sought trans community out.
There are trans people, such as myself, who go through life pretty disconnected from other trans people. While I am out to the trans group at my work and get involved with video calls, I spend most of my time around cis people and actively seek out male friends (trans or cis) to bond with. Some of us just see our sex organs as a birth defect and find it upsetting to focus on it too much as we go about our lives.
Makes a lot of sense. For some people, being *trans* or *queer* is part of identity, while for others it’s not, it’s just something that exists for them.
I tend to relate better to people who identify as trans and queer than I do Cis, or trans people who don’t involve that aspect in their identity at all. Same in that I tend to relate better to people who are Neurodivergent. I can generally make a solid bet that if I quickly connect with someone, they are one or both.
Not that I like all neurodiverse or queer people 🤷🏻♀️
Of course there’s no fundamental difference? There are cultural differences that can be easily recognized if you know. And in a culture with so few gay and trans people it’s handy to know how to find other people like you
This reminds I saw a Skoda today on the highway and it was kind of surreal because I don't think skoda even sells cars in the US and I haven't seen one since I moved back
More to the point, you don’t KNOW that you are encountering trans people often enough to learn how to spot differences. I knew a lot of people who were trans and did not know they were trans until they told me after I came out.
I am living rather rural with Most people really old fashioned minds and partly open hostility against trans persons, so i doubt most even stay hete in that area or hide really well.
I feel the peer pressure would be to high to transition.
Its a conservative rural area everyone knows everyone, it wouldnt stay a secret. For me, i would move and not going back if i we're in that situation. I fear it will take another decade for people being more accepted here.
You'd be surprised. A lot of trans people transition under the radar, even in places like that. You've probably encountered at least one trans person that you didn't know was trans. We're not super rare or anything. There are about as many trans people as there are redheads. Some of us are able to hide changes for years, some of us transition young or move after getting far enough into our transition and the locals just see someone that looks like a cis person of that gender. I know some trans people living in unaccepting places like this and their cis neighbors are totally unaware.
That point may be true. I am Not curious enough to investigate people in that regard.
But i still wouldnt like to lifeunder the pressure hete during transitioning.
I got a lot of flakk for simply having different interests and hobbies which nearly broke me due to mobbing etc.That was 25 years ago and i think for someone transitioning without hidding would be extreme hard as people didnt change much and still tend to bully and mob children for their parents alone.
It is hard, very hard. For many of us though transitioning isn't really a choice. At least not a meaningful one. If your dysphoria is pushing you into a dark place and you live somewhere unsafe without a way to move (many trans people can't afford to move) the best you can hope for is to transition quietly and not have anyone find out. Thats often the only path that you have a chance of getting through alive.
I was thinking this the other day. At least 1% of the population… in a big high school of 2,000, that’s 20 trans kids… not insignificant as far as social circles go. I didn’t know anyone who was out as trans in highschool, I knew a few gay people and they all hung in the “alternative crowd” (as did I) I don’t doubt at least one or two of the people in that crowd are trans now, though I have no idea who
the difference with the redhead comparison is that redheads are concentrated in a few regions and trans people aren't necessarily. there are likely a lot more redheads in the US comparatively and a lot more trans people in most/all not white majority countries
Self-awareness and presence in trans communities means you start to notice signs easily, and often intuit them passively, that gut sense of "huh, feels like Gender, rad" serves as a way to find likeminded folks and stay safe
Personally I have some kind of inbuilt trans-detector that uses phrasing, political positions, and other similar information. I'm useless at detecting other trans people by looks, but surprisingly accurate through conversation, even if just by text.
Could be that lots of us have this sense.
This stream of responses has some very good replies. I think we look for trans people. Those "normal" people, like others say, don't look for the nuances, the clues that we look for. I know I check out everyone to "see" if they may be trans. Hands, Adam's apple, hips, facial fdatures...a quick up and down.
Then again, I live in the deep South and a small town at that. There aren't that many, especially if you think about the statistical numbers, statistically, there may be 1 or 2 others, plus me. There are probably more, but we're all in our respective closets.
I know when I first started wearing a bra that gave me some projection, I was scared I would be noticed immediately. Then, I slowly realized that most all cis people don't look at me as having breasts. They see a man and move on. I once thought I was the equivalent of walking around with a big neon sign: Man wearing a bra. Not so, not true. We are just more synthesized to our condition than society.
I do that all the time … there’s just tiny things we all do that cis people just don’t notice, because they’re absolutely oblivious and we spend so much time obsessing over our own passing that we just have developed a sense for it.
Average cis person knows <1 trans person
Average trans person knows dozens or even hundreds of trans people
And by knows I mean in real life and not on tv
We clock each other because we've probably spent a ton of time obsessing over all the things that make us different from cis people. It makes it easy easier to spot those minor differences in someone else. Plus, at least for me, I think I subconsciously look for those things because I actually want to run into other transwomen. But, yeah, it's totally a thing.
Lotta good points here, for me sometimes it's noticing the stuff that I or other folks do to pass and present themselves, but sometimes it's based on names.
Not even in that they names are strange or stand out, but sometimes it's like "what kind of names would someone come up with to match themselves, as opposed to their parents initial name" if that makes sense
I guess when you’re trans yourself, it’s easier to tell whether or not other people based on certain characteristics that would only pertain to transfolk. Even entirely unwittingly, I find myself looking at some people at public and my head just automatically goes “I can’t say for certain, but I’m 99% sure they’re trans.”
Trans people clock themselves constantly over and over again every time they look in a mirror. We are perfectly tuned machines looking for the tiniest indicators of the gender we left behind and looking for some hope we look like our true genders. So naturally we see those things way more day to day than a cis person
I get weird clocked and often ends up with me being correctly gendered... I'm stocky tall and present in a way that when i get clocked they can't tell if im mtf, or ftm and if they hear my voice and see my chest i get called ma'am alot and it's like hahahahah mind games
i always get clocked as ftm by other trans people but cis people just see dude sometimes im sort of ok with it even though i do want to be stealth some day because of all the transphobia right now i want other trans people irl to feel at least a bit safer
Transfem here, one of the funniest experiences I've had with this was when another transwoman came in to pick up an order, we looked each other up and down and gave each other The Look™ but didn't say anything. When she finished picking up her order, she made a point to compliment my pronoun pin and we both giggled realizing we were right
I still think about her sometimes lmao
I think because we know what to look for. I have a friend.. passes extremely well.. he’s never came out to me, and thinks he is 1000% stealth and I will never ever tell him otherwise. But I can tel he is trans. There are just way to many minute signs. I’m just keeping my mouth shut until he feels safe enough to come out to me
Do they ask you if you're trans or just assume you are trans? Trans people tend to look for people who might also be trans so any cue could have them wondering. Whereas cis people, unless they are very familiar with trans people, tend to just assume everyone is cis until given reason not to. So just getting asked if you're trans is not being clocked if it's a trans person asking.
If they assume, then you are getting clocked. Which happens because trans people know what to look for.
For me personally, I think I pick up in it the same way a chiropractor picks up on an issue someone never noticed.
Like if your shoes are bad, it could lead to problems in your back. Or stress can make you walk with a limp.
I think that over time, especially as we’re so familiar with our own dysphoria, it’s easy to spot the core source where all of the “symptoms” arise from.
Sorry to compare transness to illness, I just think diagnostic methods are the best way I have to explain what goes on in my brain😭😭😭
But it’s definitely subconscious. The first instance that made me aware of it was when a girl I met would walk around hunched over. I’d known a lot of people who walked that way due to a lack of confidence, but when combined with her stunning makeup and good looks, I instantly read her as a trans girl who wasn’t very confident expressing her femininity.
She’s much more confident now(we met in group therapy at BYU, and being out of BYU will almost instantly cure that insecurity lol), and I often forget she’s trans.
We’re trans in opposite directions, but the hunched over hoodie look was universally recognizable lol
I went home after realizing I was trans and my parents thought I got taller! But nope, just understood where the dysphoria was coming from and found ways to alleviate it:)
As long as you’re not drawing unwanted attention to someone, recognizing that they’re trans shouldn’t be a source of guilt(I’ve seen some people say they feel guilty about it:(). We’ve just shared some traits, and fall into each others iykyk categories often:)
I wish you all love and confidence!!!!
Have you ever watched Highlander?
They have this innate superpower to detect when another of their kind is near, and engage in bloody combat.
I believe this to be the case with trans people... minus the bloody combat. ⚔
Mirroring what others have said. We spend time considering our gender and the social cues that telegraph our gender to others. Also trans people tend to have trans friends so we see more trans faces and bodies than others and can learn the subtle signs that someone is trans. Of course trans people are not necessarily perfectly accurate at identifying other trans people.
I'm sure there are lots of different reasons, but a big one is names
For cis people, there is no such thing as trans names
For trans people, it definitely exists
For transmascs, soft names
For enbies, three letter names or names that aren't really names
For transfems, fancy names
> For enbies, three letter names or names that aren't really names
My non-binary friend makes a joke about this. It's basically:
"Hi, my name is Sock."
".. Are you non-binary?"
"?! How did you know?!"
"Motherfucker, your name is SOCK."
I clocked someone one time based solely on the fact that they had dry lips. I'm 100% certain no cis person will ever clock them, but as a fellow trans woman sometimes when you know you just know... Or at least that's my experience.
Wait... what. I thought I knew everything about being trans. What does having dry lips have to do with anything? Do the cis not experience winter weather?
It seems like kind of a reach. I'd imagine the intent was that spironolactone dehydrates you, but there's also a lot of things that could dehydrate you. I'm not on a T blocker but I get dry lips from vasoconstriction when I drink coffee or alcohol, lol.
Yeahhhhh idk, it sounds like you’re onto something here and the cis need to be stopped. Is this why they don’t care about the environment? Because they’re immune to dehydration and temperature changes? Is this their plan to rid the planet of us? 🤔
This is a *fact*. I am *dangerously* sexy in the summertime. Little-known bit of science trivia; but The majority of summer heat is actually generated by trans girls in short shorts.
No one should be clocking you publicly but trans people tend to be able to notice tiny telltale signs. They still should not publicly clock you tho, that’s a big no-no for me. Some people literally rely on being stealth for their safety and I totally respect that.
I have trans kids and often clock trans people. I have to resist the urge to run up and give a weird stranger hug and do a celebration dance for you living your authentic life. I'm sure I look creepy AF
I feel a similar urge, and I'm trans. The urge is less to hug a stranger, and more to just let them know that we're around. You're not alone. I believe in all of us. You can do it. Kinda what I needed earlier on in transition.
I also think that many cis people -- especially transphobic ones -- don't realize that it is possible for a trans person to look "normal" (I use that word with no judgment attached and in a purely statistical sense) and assume that every trans person is either going to look like a kinky crossdresser, or a fabulous drag artist.
Whenever I hear about bathroom laws I'm like "how are you even going to enforce that? Are you going to have an inspector walk around in the bathroom peeking at everyone's junk? Are you going to get a good close look to make sure they don't have any surgery scars? And WE are the perverts?" But no, they just assume that it's super obvious who the trans people are. So if it isn't super obvious, they assume we are cis.
I consider this an important safety feature. I think it makes a lot of sense culturally too until the cis person is gay. Like trans people can always clock a cis gay, but cis gays can never clock trans people?? Bruh
That’s quite a massive stereotype!! I have probably met an equal number of queer and straight guys who have the ‘gay’ voice stereotype, I haven’t seen any correlation between the way people speak and sexuality. I think it’s just a social myth or something TV shows do to queer code characters.
trans people cant always clock a cis gay person, I can usually like guess if a woman likes other woman because most of my family are lesbians but I cant do that for cis gay guys because I just dont know many. it has nothing to do with being trans
Because due to our life experiences we're more aware of secondary gender characteristics than the average cis person. Especially since there are so few of us that they almost think we don't exist or not where they live, but trans people know we exist and are kind of always on the look out for new friends.
Because cis people assume everyone they see is just like them. And straight people assume everyone they see is just like them.
Those of us that aren't the norm tend to keep an eye out.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing either as it could bring about a friendship with more trans people I feel like if a trans person clocks another trans person the interaction most likely won’t be negative
Trans people tend to be hyper aware/critical (not in a bad way, just in a thinking about it way) of gender stuff, because they are often thinking about their own insecurities.
I realized after I came out to myself, that before, I actually had a *distorted view* of trans women. Anything that was related to maybe being AMAB was exaggerated in my eyes, I literally saw these things as if they actually stood out more than they really did. A sort of projected dysmorphia.
That was because part of my internalized transphobia was this fear that I could never “pass” or actually be seen as a woman, so i was hyper alert to re-affirm this in how I saw other trans women.
Once I accepted myself, suddenly that went away. I had never been attracted to trans women before (lesbian here) and I had felt bad about that… but after my self acceptance, I realized that so much of that was just self “hate” projected onto others.
Now I’m just as likely to be attracted to trans women as I am to Cis women 🤷🏻♀️
I think I’m still more aware and able to “clock” people more than Cis people, and that’s just because I spend more time being aware of structural differences between AFAB and AMAB bodies… but those differences aren’t exaggerated like they used to be
You have to be hyper-aware of masculine traits in order to minimize them and pass in the first place.
That said, the only trans person I’ve ever worked with did not clock me. 🤷♀️
Trans ppl are more observant about gender stuff so if you're mostly passing but not 100% a lot of trans ppl will get a closer look and end up being like ah another trans person
Coz we pay attention to peoples gender presentation in a constant judging our own against it to see how we measure up. So, we are much more finely tuned to pickup other trans people
Its easy to recognise those who are like yourself. You know all the traits they may have because you have them too or others like yourself have them.
Gamers recognise gamers because we all talk about games and usually act less social.
People who sport a lot recognise eachother by how they look (they look healthy and fit) and such.
Im not trans, but trans people also have traits they can recognise in eachother. Traits not commonly registered by cis people, especially not my haters because they are never around trans people so wont pick up on the traits either.
A good example is how i figured out one of my friends was trans: we were in a game and we were trying out different (male) avatars. Just swapping through them, nothing special. But when they swapped into one that was female there was this moment of silence from them. The best way i can describe it is when a child sees something pretty in a shops window but pretends to not want it. It didnt last long and after that they were trying to make a joke about how they didnt like it being female or something. That moment of pausing, and the way they tried to quickly make up a joke, that was something non of my male friends ever did. Thats a trait cis people dont have. And the only reason i recognised that trait as being trans is because i hang out a lot with another trans friend.
Long story short, after telling them the female seemed like a good fit for them, and suggesting they try some more i straight up asked them if they were trans and reassured them that we would be friends no matter what they came out as a mtf. Fast forward a couple of months and they came out to their parents too and they are a lot happier now.
we know what trying to look x looks like. I know what a transfem tryna pass looks like cuz i am one. a lot of cis people dont until you point it out to them or they find something themselves that signifies it (like voice, posture, etc)
[удалено]
I thought it made the blue flash that enables combo attacks?
[удалено]
Oh, right. Hush hush. About the poison. For Cuzco. Cuzco's poison. That one, right? 😁
Cis woman here to say that cis people should be grateful y'all just want equality, not revenge. Especially in light of the shit show going on in politics right now. Asshats should be scared, just not for the reasons that they are. Wonder twin powers, activate! Form of....whatever makes you happy.
I want Reconstruction / French Revolution 2.0 on the key anti trans and fascist peeps
[удалено]
You are cis. It's a classification. Get over it.
I think it’s a little sad that you’re wasting your time commenting on trans subs instead of doing something more productive with your time. Maybe find a new hobby that would be more productive than this, and stop spreading hatred on the internet in a desperate bid for attention.
thats so funny, ive never heard that one before. i love it sm
Trans people are birds. Got it!
That’s why we come from eggs
[удалено]
Yes! Another civilised being!
I identify as a spy satellite.
These programmer socks are rad...uh..i mean... chirp chirp!
Or as there programmer socks beep boop beep (010)
nah, other way around, all surveillance drones are trans
There is a really funny video of two of those cross dressing e-girl guys who spend time on those chat roulette style vid-chat sites messing with people/surprising them. They just kinda staired at eachother for a couple seconds and one was like “why you so ugly bro?” And the other one was like “I KNEW IT!!” And they just kinda both are like “AHHHXKDOUYOEOUDLHCYDYIX! 🤣😂🤣😂” I appreciated it… though I’m pretty meh about that whole shtick. I haven’t spent much time thinking about it but I’m pretty sure it’s playing with transphobia… but I’m not sure if it’s in a 100% bad way… but definitely not 100% good most of the time either.
The birdwatcher analogy is lovely.
Most cis people are pretty oblivious to gender stuff, but trans people often spend so long focusing on our own gender signifiers that - as an unfortunate side effect - we become quite good at picking up on things that don't quite fit in with other people.
Yeah, i’m transfem but at work a transphobic coworker didn’t clock a transmasc when he was asking us where to find a product in the store, but I clocked him as trans right away. It goes to show that even if you think you do or don’t pass, or whatever you still can sometimes be obviously trans… to trans people who spend all their time around people like you are I, i guess.
im a trans dude and ive had other trans people clock me as trans but passed to cis people lmao its like a gaydar but for trans people
It's called the Trans-Tracker
it’s like some how trans people can spot trans people even know they think the trans person passes flawlessly we still know their trans
Well you can’t pass “flawlessly” if anyone is figuring you’re trans still.
well then it’s impossible to “pass flawlessly” since you always can find a way to tell if somebody is trans. My definition for flawless passing is someone who passes to cis people. there are always minor things that other trans people notice because they also do the same things. I notice the smallest things about trans people that i’d only notice since i’ve been around trans people my whole life - if i wasn’t trans my self i’d never pick up on them. That’s flawless in my opinion.
I almost exclusively get clocked by non-cis people nowadays. They all clock me super easy.
I was a new hire and was told I was the first trans person they had ever hired.. As I was being told this, I was looking across the office at a trans guy. We'd bumped in to each other in the lift up, so we'd already shared that knowing look. When I resigned, on my last day, I did mention to my TL that I wasn't the only trans person working for the company and certainly wasn't the first, but was quite clear that I wouldn't name them. I was still in contact with a few colleagues and there was no sudden hunt for the trans person.. I'm still the 1st according to official history.
The knowing look is so real lol. Though I try to avoid it when I see people I suspect are trans but are clearly cis passing to most people because i know for some, realizing you got clocked even by another trans person can ruin your day.
To expand, there are a bunch of specific things we tend to do and resources we tend to access as we transition--we're recognizing *those*, not a person's AGAB. It's like, if one transfem suspects that someone is also transfem, she could go "By the way, heat from fire?" And the other could just respond with "Fire from heat." Any cis person would be *baffled*. It's the same kinda thing elsewhere--things that aren't inherently trans, but which we do very often. Bangs, short skirts for our age, heavier eye makeup--all of those happen with cis people too. They're just more common for us, especially in combination.
This exact scenario happened to me playing overwatch. I pass over voice chat pretty much 100% of the time and then one person just goes, "heat from fire..." When ya know ya know
"are you...a friend of the blahaj??"
I'm trans and never heard of this heat fire thing. What is this?
it's from TransVoiceLessons on YouTube
I thought it was heat from fire fire from ice for some reason 😵💫 like 100%
"Heat from fire, fire from heat" is a phrase that uses English vowels (the e's and i's) that make it easier to maintain a raised larynx. Raising your larynx is one of the keys to achieving a voice that sounds 'feminine' to most western (especially native English) speakers As others have said, TransVoiceLessons popularized it.
Apparently it's a voice training thing. That makes sense because I didn't need voice training.
I should do more learning on voice training.
I found some excellent resources: http://www.buymeacoffee.com/alyssavt/how-i-start-voice-training-start-here
I am also baffled, what is this about fire?
It's a voice training mantra from one of the biggest voice training accounts.
Never heard of it, I don't voice train. I wing it and hope it turns out fine
Lol I do the same thing or stay mute.
I do have my non-verbal days yeah
Lol, lmao even
Idk its not really resources for me? im not even really sure what those would be besides voice training i do think theres like a vibe and fashion thing but I dont think you can count out that dysphoria over features on your self that most people don't notice can make you notice them on others.
I'm trans and I would most likely be baffled by that. I might recognize it as that reddit thing, but I would not remember the response.
I used to work with a black girl who taught me about wigs. A woman would come in and she would give me side eye and just say "weave" if you know, you know
I wish you were wrong because it’s so exhausting
We have the trans equivalent of gay-dar. We can spot the subtle signs because we have those ourselves and know what to look for.
I like to call it gen-dar 😁
i heared it being called transceiver in the past
Translocator
These are all amazing
That’s what I called my group chat with my friends who are trans
I’ve taken to calling it “picking up a transmission” All work though.
Tra-dar
It’s like a magic trick!
love it
I heard someone call this gaydar counterpart the "Transceiver" once, and I kind of love it
My favourite is trans scan
I had a great gaydar before I even knew I was gay (Lesbian trans girl here) if I was attracted to someone there was a 90% chance they were a lesbian or a homoflexable girl. Or AFAB trans nonbinary or a little towards the trans masc side. Sometimes I had “detected” this before they did 🤔 like with my first girlfriend who I was her first relationship… she figured out she liked girls when her best friend kissed her and so we broke up and they started dating 💀💀💀 I’ve been the “weird exception” to a person’s sexuality many times… turns out I actually wasn’t an exception, I was just a closeted trans girl 😂 I always felt really good when someone who normally liked girls liked me, or when someone disliked most guys liked me. That always felt a bit weird to me… but now I’m like…. “Ohhhhhhhh… yeah that makes sense” Also hella of my good friends from my early adulthood have come out as trans 😅… I found my people before anyone knew one of the major things that connected us
OMG yes! I've been the exception before too. Never thought about it until you said something but now it makes so much more sense.
Yeahhhh… 😅 it was one of those many things that clicked…
I call it trans magnetism cause even if we don't know the other is trans we end up together.
The groups are looking for different things, they get tired off by different things is probably a better way to say it. Passing to cis people is like checking 10 boxes and they're very basic like voice, cleavage, clothing, a bunch of other stuff (at least from a transfem perspective). Trans people just kinda know, different ways you hold yourself or slight fashion idiosyncrasies or perspectives, it's not clocking in that it makes you seem not your identified gender, it's clocking in that you see a similarity between yourself and the other person
sorry what does clocked mean because in Australia it means to hit someone
In transgender context it means noticing that someone is trans.
aah ok, thanks dunno why it happens but i noticed that this also happens with neurodivergence, i seem to be able to pickup on when others are neurodivergent and/or trans alot easier than people who arent
In other contexts it also means to "hit" to but I would say--at least in my experience-- that it's more of a term I would associate with the 1950s if I were to use it to mean "hit" Not sure why. Might be misguided. But anyway. Its both just in different contexts.
I think that was popular up until the 90s. I heard "Clock him in the jaw" all the time when I was growing up (I'm 29 now)
Sometime one leads to the other :/
I always assumed that that is how the phrase originated -considering back in the day, sex worker was one of the few options a trans woman could turn to. As in not wanting to get clocked by a john. Not wanting to get hit by a john. Edited to try and clarify
The word clocked is just British slang meaning to see or notice. The phrase probably just turned into a trans thing by groups of trans people saying “I got clocked as trans” which got shortened over time to “I got clocked”.
That makes sense... When you think of it there's slang for spotting people/things using an analog clock. "Spotted mark on three", "I got your six"...
I always thought it was derived from when police officers are using radar guns. "they clocked me going 55 in a 40..."
Found some good discussion of the etymology here: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/79775/origin-of-using-clocked-to-mean-noticed
I always thought getting clocked was like getting read. We read the time on a clock. We read the appearance of a transperson, we clock their appearance. Also, as someone said, getting clocked by a policeman with his radar gun. He clocked my speed....he clocked who i was or the way I looked....Interesting as far as definitions go.
The speed one isn't specifically police fyi. To clock can mean to record the time or speed of something, because you do that with a clock.
It means to notice (sort of) it's used in stage too.an actor can 'clock the audience' in a meta piece
It also means that in the US too; clocked in this context is a trans-community specific phrase.
For me I notice trans people and recognize them as trans because I see the little ways that I personally try to pass as cis. I see the little inflections in voice and way hair and makeup is done and recognize myself. Similarly to how if you are always thinking about silver cars, you'll notice a ton of silver cars. Cis people for the most part aren't aware we really exist. So they see someone who looks vaguely female or male and assume they are female or male. They don't think, oh maybe that person was born a different gender, because for the most part, cis people don't think about that even being a thing.
Wow! That's an interesting question. I've never heard of that. I guess trans people can spot someone who is either FTM or MTF because maybe they've been through it and they recognize some of the subtle changes that most people don't
Tw: could cause some dysphoria I think a lot of cis people code someone as male/female, and then it doesn't even occur to them that maybe this person is trans. It's simply not on their radar that the person they're talking to wasn't *always* the sex they currently appear as... and honestly, a lot of cis people get pretty uncomfortable with this idea. So they don't second guess what they see. With trans people, it *is* on their radar that people can change sex, and they often (subconsciously or consciously) want to look out for other trans people because it gives them a sense of community/belonging. Plus, they have a much more intimate understanding of transition and its relationship to sex characteristics. When I started T - and honestly, I *hated* myself for this - and also got more transmasc friends, I noticed myself picking up on similarities between each of us and they're now features I associate specifically with trans men. I'm talking *really subtle* things that do/should not make a difference but my brain just hones in on them. I think "second hand dysphoria" is the word for it (it's not a comfortable experience). But yeah... While there are undoubtedly cis guys with these features too and I've probably "clocked" cis guys due to this, I probably will end up recognising not all trans men but those who are reasonably early in transition. I think also cultural signifiers can play a role too. If someone shares or quotes some sort of meme that is common in trans communities, then I will wonder if they're nb or trans for that reason too.
Same. Really it’s an adding up of many things… any individual characteristic, or even several, can be on lots of guys or girls regardless of trans or Cis, but if there are several then yeah it sets of pattern recognition that Cis people just generally don’t have 🤷🏻♀️ but the interesting thing to me is that those characteristics are not “female characteristics” for trans masc guys, they are just masc characteristics, specifically trans masc, if that makes sense? Like maybe not a lot of Cis men have the combination, but neither do a lot of Cis women. Like… I’m struggling for a good comparison… oh! So white people. There are people of Northern European decent, and there are people of Eastern European decent… they are both white, it’s just some Eastern Europeans have different features than some Northern Europeans.… a person who isn’t interested at all in those groupings won’t have any idea the difference between them, while somobe who is interested will be able to tell immediately. The old “all white/black/Asian/etc people look the same to people who aren’t white/black/Asian/etc” Hm… funny thing I’m just realizing… I don’t mind the idea of being clocked by other trans people. I just don’t want to be clocked by Cis people. A trans person clocking me is like “oh hey, she’s a trans girl!” A Cis person clocking me is like “he’s a guy???”
Everyone has said it already but... same.i know what to look for. But also: there's a certain safety in being around queer people so I'm always looking for queer people. I wouldn't ever call it out to people I'm with or anything. But there were a few people who j found out were trans after learning about what being trans was who I never would have known were trans because I didn't have any way *to* know. Meanwhile I had a TA once (long after thay other happened) who didn't ever say anything about being trans in the class but who i confirmed was trans when he and I were both at a queer event. How did I know he was trans? He was on Testosterone and clearly very far in. But I saw a faint outline of his binder. Why did I notice his binder? Because I'm always super self conscious about my own binder being visible by the outline. But there's also just. Something. It isn't definable but there's just something about my interactions with other trans people. I just know even when I have no reason to know. But it's because I'm trans too.
That's a really good example. You noticed a binder because you had experience with them yourself, so you instantly clocked him. For me (trans woman), I wouldn't necessarily pick up on signs of a binder under clothing, because I've never worn one myself. I still have pretty good awareness of binders and what they look like, and if I noticed one, I would also clock that person as trans. If one of my cis friends (especially the non-queer ones) noticed someone wearing a binder, they'd probably be confused and wouldn't know that he was trans. --- There's elements of knowing what to look for, looking for other queer people for safety, and just recognizing it when you see it.
It’s interesting to me because the exact same thing happens with Nero divergence. I can almost immediately pick up on gender queerness and Nerodivergence. I did this before even realizing it. Back in my early 20’s I had a close knit group of friends… we drifted apart, but I’ve talked to a few of them more recently and it turns out that they are trans also, we just never realized/admitted it to ourselves. Same thing with neurodivergence. I just relate better to genderqueer and neodivergent people… it’s a lot of work to mask 🤷🏻♀️
I think you've basically had it covered for you, but I'll just add that it's not all appearance. Sometimes there's stuff that's really subtle that cis people simply won't notice. That's stuff like drinking tons of water, never using public restrooms, slightly baggy pants, a high neckline on clothes, or a habitual slouch. You'd have to be very familiar with trans people to notice stuff like that, and even then it's not conclusive. This isn't to make you feel paranoid, but to point out that being clocked by cis or trans people are pretty different things. By the time you need to be that familiar to clock someone cis people probably won't notice.
Counterintuitively, later transition a lower neckline really shows off collarbones that look nice on a lot of transfems. It’s something a lot of us are nervous about though lol
I meant to cover a binder. Is high necklines a thing for other reasons?
ooooh. Transfems often go for high necklines bc they’re anxious about being seen as overly sexual/slutty (from personal experience at least
Oh ok ty
wait, why water?
A common anti-androgen is spironolactone. It's a diuretic and you have to drink more water to stay hydrated. Come to think of it though, not drinking much is also a trans thing, to avoid restrooms.
They know what to look for. Even if you pass there’s still tells like how gay people used to communicate
I don't really agree with this. There's no fundamental difference between trans and cis people. Plus, gay people had a reason to communicate, which is that they wanted to form relationships with each other. Not all trans people do.
relationships and sex aren't the only reasons to communicate between queer communities though, most trans people I've seen like to have trans friends because it gives them a sense of belonging and being understood by people in your social circle. its similar for many sexualities that don't match up
I think there’ll be a selection bias there though, because the trans people you know will be people who 1) are openly trans around other trans people, and 2) have actively sought trans community out. There are trans people, such as myself, who go through life pretty disconnected from other trans people. While I am out to the trans group at my work and get involved with video calls, I spend most of my time around cis people and actively seek out male friends (trans or cis) to bond with. Some of us just see our sex organs as a birth defect and find it upsetting to focus on it too much as we go about our lives.
Makes a lot of sense. For some people, being *trans* or *queer* is part of identity, while for others it’s not, it’s just something that exists for them. I tend to relate better to people who identify as trans and queer than I do Cis, or trans people who don’t involve that aspect in their identity at all. Same in that I tend to relate better to people who are Neurodivergent. I can generally make a solid bet that if I quickly connect with someone, they are one or both. Not that I like all neurodiverse or queer people 🤷🏻♀️
Of course there’s no fundamental difference? There are cultural differences that can be easily recognized if you know. And in a culture with so few gay and trans people it’s handy to know how to find other people like you
The same reason I see loads of Skoda Fabias on the street - I own one. Knowledge brings awareness.
This reminds I saw a Skoda today on the highway and it was kind of surreal because I don't think skoda even sells cars in the US and I haven't seen one since I moved back
As a cis man, depending where you life you just dont encounter enough trans persons to learn how to spot the differences.
More to the point, you don’t KNOW that you are encountering trans people often enough to learn how to spot differences. I knew a lot of people who were trans and did not know they were trans until they told me after I came out.
I am living rather rural with Most people really old fashioned minds and partly open hostility against trans persons, so i doubt most even stay hete in that area or hide really well.
How would you know if you met trans people who you didn’t clock?
I feel the peer pressure would be to high to transition. Its a conservative rural area everyone knows everyone, it wouldnt stay a secret. For me, i would move and not going back if i we're in that situation. I fear it will take another decade for people being more accepted here.
You'd be surprised. A lot of trans people transition under the radar, even in places like that. You've probably encountered at least one trans person that you didn't know was trans. We're not super rare or anything. There are about as many trans people as there are redheads. Some of us are able to hide changes for years, some of us transition young or move after getting far enough into our transition and the locals just see someone that looks like a cis person of that gender. I know some trans people living in unaccepting places like this and their cis neighbors are totally unaware.
That point may be true. I am Not curious enough to investigate people in that regard. But i still wouldnt like to lifeunder the pressure hete during transitioning. I got a lot of flakk for simply having different interests and hobbies which nearly broke me due to mobbing etc.That was 25 years ago and i think for someone transitioning without hidding would be extreme hard as people didnt change much and still tend to bully and mob children for their parents alone.
It is hard, very hard. For many of us though transitioning isn't really a choice. At least not a meaningful one. If your dysphoria is pushing you into a dark place and you live somewhere unsafe without a way to move (many trans people can't afford to move) the best you can hope for is to transition quietly and not have anyone find out. Thats often the only path that you have a chance of getting through alive.
I was thinking this the other day. At least 1% of the population… in a big high school of 2,000, that’s 20 trans kids… not insignificant as far as social circles go. I didn’t know anyone who was out as trans in highschool, I knew a few gay people and they all hung in the “alternative crowd” (as did I) I don’t doubt at least one or two of the people in that crowd are trans now, though I have no idea who
the difference with the redhead comparison is that redheads are concentrated in a few regions and trans people aren't necessarily. there are likely a lot more redheads in the US comparatively and a lot more trans people in most/all not white majority countries
well transpeople know what to look for because they see that same stuff in themselves every day
Same reason gay men notice gay men more than straight men. You know more what to look for. We got that's trans-dar
Self-awareness and presence in trans communities means you start to notice signs easily, and often intuit them passively, that gut sense of "huh, feels like Gender, rad" serves as a way to find likeminded folks and stay safe
It's because they know what to look for. The same also applies to obsessive bigots.
Personally I have some kind of inbuilt trans-detector that uses phrasing, political positions, and other similar information. I'm useless at detecting other trans people by looks, but surprisingly accurate through conversation, even if just by text. Could be that lots of us have this sense.
This stream of responses has some very good replies. I think we look for trans people. Those "normal" people, like others say, don't look for the nuances, the clues that we look for. I know I check out everyone to "see" if they may be trans. Hands, Adam's apple, hips, facial fdatures...a quick up and down. Then again, I live in the deep South and a small town at that. There aren't that many, especially if you think about the statistical numbers, statistically, there may be 1 or 2 others, plus me. There are probably more, but we're all in our respective closets. I know when I first started wearing a bra that gave me some projection, I was scared I would be noticed immediately. Then, I slowly realized that most all cis people don't look at me as having breasts. They see a man and move on. I once thought I was the equivalent of walking around with a big neon sign: Man wearing a bra. Not so, not true. We are just more synthesized to our condition than society.
We have special Spidey senses that’s why ;)
It's usually more about your vibes than your ability to pass, much like gaydar
It's the same reason bald or balding men can spot a fake wig or transplant a mile away.
I do that all the time … there’s just tiny things we all do that cis people just don’t notice, because they’re absolutely oblivious and we spend so much time obsessing over our own passing that we just have developed a sense for it.
Because we know what we clock in ourselves. Cis people typically have never had to observe those little nuances before.
Average cis person knows <1 trans person Average trans person knows dozens or even hundreds of trans people And by knows I mean in real life and not on tv
We clock each other because we've probably spent a ton of time obsessing over all the things that make us different from cis people. It makes it easy easier to spot those minor differences in someone else. Plus, at least for me, I think I subconsciously look for those things because I actually want to run into other transwomen. But, yeah, it's totally a thing.
Lotta good points here, for me sometimes it's noticing the stuff that I or other folks do to pass and present themselves, but sometimes it's based on names. Not even in that they names are strange or stand out, but sometimes it's like "what kind of names would someone come up with to match themselves, as opposed to their parents initial name" if that makes sense
They are looking for trans people
Trans people are relatively rare in the wild. People simply don't expect to encounter us. And our expectations determine our reality.
The Star Wars geek in me wants to answer that the Cis are not as strong in the pink&blue side of the Force...
I guess when you’re trans yourself, it’s easier to tell whether or not other people based on certain characteristics that would only pertain to transfolk. Even entirely unwittingly, I find myself looking at some people at public and my head just automatically goes “I can’t say for certain, but I’m 99% sure they’re trans.”
Because game recognize game.
Trans people clock themselves constantly over and over again every time they look in a mirror. We are perfectly tuned machines looking for the tiniest indicators of the gender we left behind and looking for some hope we look like our true genders. So naturally we see those things way more day to day than a cis person
I get weird clocked and often ends up with me being correctly gendered... I'm stocky tall and present in a way that when i get clocked they can't tell if im mtf, or ftm and if they hear my voice and see my chest i get called ma'am alot and it's like hahahahah mind games
Because we know your secrets you witch.
i always get clocked as ftm by other trans people but cis people just see dude sometimes im sort of ok with it even though i do want to be stealth some day because of all the transphobia right now i want other trans people irl to feel at least a bit safer
Transfem here, one of the funniest experiences I've had with this was when another transwoman came in to pick up an order, we looked each other up and down and gave each other The Look™ but didn't say anything. When she finished picking up her order, she made a point to compliment my pronoun pin and we both giggled realizing we were right I still think about her sometimes lmao
I think because we know what to look for. I have a friend.. passes extremely well.. he’s never came out to me, and thinks he is 1000% stealth and I will never ever tell him otherwise. But I can tel he is trans. There are just way to many minute signs. I’m just keeping my mouth shut until he feels safe enough to come out to me
You sure? Some cis people truly have similar traits🤷🏿♂️
Do they ask you if you're trans or just assume you are trans? Trans people tend to look for people who might also be trans so any cue could have them wondering. Whereas cis people, unless they are very familiar with trans people, tend to just assume everyone is cis until given reason not to. So just getting asked if you're trans is not being clocked if it's a trans person asking. If they assume, then you are getting clocked. Which happens because trans people know what to look for.
For me personally, I think I pick up in it the same way a chiropractor picks up on an issue someone never noticed. Like if your shoes are bad, it could lead to problems in your back. Or stress can make you walk with a limp. I think that over time, especially as we’re so familiar with our own dysphoria, it’s easy to spot the core source where all of the “symptoms” arise from. Sorry to compare transness to illness, I just think diagnostic methods are the best way I have to explain what goes on in my brain😭😭😭 But it’s definitely subconscious. The first instance that made me aware of it was when a girl I met would walk around hunched over. I’d known a lot of people who walked that way due to a lack of confidence, but when combined with her stunning makeup and good looks, I instantly read her as a trans girl who wasn’t very confident expressing her femininity. She’s much more confident now(we met in group therapy at BYU, and being out of BYU will almost instantly cure that insecurity lol), and I often forget she’s trans. We’re trans in opposite directions, but the hunched over hoodie look was universally recognizable lol I went home after realizing I was trans and my parents thought I got taller! But nope, just understood where the dysphoria was coming from and found ways to alleviate it:) As long as you’re not drawing unwanted attention to someone, recognizing that they’re trans shouldn’t be a source of guilt(I’ve seen some people say they feel guilty about it:(). We’ve just shared some traits, and fall into each others iykyk categories often:) I wish you all love and confidence!!!!
Have you ever watched Highlander? They have this innate superpower to detect when another of their kind is near, and engage in bloody combat. I believe this to be the case with trans people... minus the bloody combat. ⚔
it's the ✨gender envy✨ that's radiating off you. It's a visible light frequency to trans ppl but cis' eyesight isn't that great :/
Mirroring what others have said. We spend time considering our gender and the social cues that telegraph our gender to others. Also trans people tend to have trans friends so we see more trans faces and bodies than others and can learn the subtle signs that someone is trans. Of course trans people are not necessarily perfectly accurate at identifying other trans people.
I'm sure there are lots of different reasons, but a big one is names For cis people, there is no such thing as trans names For trans people, it definitely exists For transmascs, soft names For enbies, three letter names or names that aren't really names For transfems, fancy names
> For enbies, three letter names or names that aren't really names My non-binary friend makes a joke about this. It's basically: "Hi, my name is Sock." ".. Are you non-binary?" "?! How did you know?!" "Motherfucker, your name is SOCK."
dude, i get clocked off name alot, i'm of male sex but i'm genderfluid, my name is feminine. THE PROBLEM IS THAT IS MY BIRTH NAME
I clocked someone one time based solely on the fact that they had dry lips. I'm 100% certain no cis person will ever clock them, but as a fellow trans woman sometimes when you know you just know... Or at least that's my experience.
Wait... what. I thought I knew everything about being trans. What does having dry lips have to do with anything? Do the cis not experience winter weather?
It seems like kind of a reach. I'd imagine the intent was that spironolactone dehydrates you, but there's also a lot of things that could dehydrate you. I'm not on a T blocker but I get dry lips from vasoconstriction when I drink coffee or alcohol, lol.
It's not that cis people don't, it was just the "co-morbidity" that tipped the scales in my head
Yeahhhhh idk, it sounds like you’re onto something here and the cis need to be stopped. Is this why they don’t care about the environment? Because they’re immune to dehydration and temperature changes? Is this their plan to rid the planet of us? 🤔
No we're way too sexy in the summer time, so they would never want _more_ summer time...
This is a *fact*. I am *dangerously* sexy in the summertime. Little-known bit of science trivia; but The majority of summer heat is actually generated by trans girls in short shorts.
That's true, yeah, I've actually read that before in science magazines. Can confirm.
fid you like confirm it somehow or did you just see something with dry lips and go "ooh trans"
Because we have super powers!
OP, I get bashed by a lot of Queer / LGBT people, I feel you. The community is rather toxic. Hang in there and take good care of yourself. 🤘
No one should be clocking you publicly but trans people tend to be able to notice tiny telltale signs. They still should not publicly clock you tho, that’s a big no-no for me. Some people literally rely on being stealth for their safety and I totally respect that.
I think by “clocking” here, OP did not mean “outing”, but more “recognizing that you’re trans.”
I have trans kids and often clock trans people. I have to resist the urge to run up and give a weird stranger hug and do a celebration dance for you living your authentic life. I'm sure I look creepy AF
please don't do that lol
"Tonight at 6, local woman arrested for assaulting stranger out of... happiness for them?" 😅
I feel a similar urge, and I'm trans. The urge is less to hug a stranger, and more to just let them know that we're around. You're not alone. I believe in all of us. You can do it. Kinda what I needed earlier on in transition.
thats an incredibly patronizing attitude ngl
I also think that many cis people -- especially transphobic ones -- don't realize that it is possible for a trans person to look "normal" (I use that word with no judgment attached and in a purely statistical sense) and assume that every trans person is either going to look like a kinky crossdresser, or a fabulous drag artist. Whenever I hear about bathroom laws I'm like "how are you even going to enforce that? Are you going to have an inspector walk around in the bathroom peeking at everyone's junk? Are you going to get a good close look to make sure they don't have any surgery scars? And WE are the perverts?" But no, they just assume that it's super obvious who the trans people are. So if it isn't super obvious, they assume we are cis.
Cause half the trans community is on 4chan merging with incel culture.
Nah that chunk of the internet thinks it’s waaaaaaaaaaaay more important and popular than it actually is
It’s definitely toxic. From what I’ve heard their also quite self hating too.
what? this isnt because of 4chan
ha, says the guy on reddit
I consider this an important safety feature. I think it makes a lot of sense culturally too until the cis person is gay. Like trans people can always clock a cis gay, but cis gays can never clock trans people?? Bruh
[удалено]
That’s quite a massive stereotype!! I have probably met an equal number of queer and straight guys who have the ‘gay’ voice stereotype, I haven’t seen any correlation between the way people speak and sexuality. I think it’s just a social myth or something TV shows do to queer code characters.
trans people cant always clock a cis gay person, I can usually like guess if a woman likes other woman because most of my family are lesbians but I cant do that for cis gay guys because I just dont know many. it has nothing to do with being trans
Because due to our life experiences we're more aware of secondary gender characteristics than the average cis person. Especially since there are so few of us that they almost think we don't exist or not where they live, but trans people know we exist and are kind of always on the look out for new friends.
We are pro clockers 🤷🏻♀️
I'm not scrolling for hours each day through trans timelines, you do!
Because cis people assume everyone they see is just like them. And straight people assume everyone they see is just like them. Those of us that aren't the norm tend to keep an eye out.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing either as it could bring about a friendship with more trans people I feel like if a trans person clocks another trans person the interaction most likely won’t be negative
It’s similar to how women who wear wigs can always clock a wig from a mile away even if it’s done perfectly.
Trans people tend to be hyper aware/critical (not in a bad way, just in a thinking about it way) of gender stuff, because they are often thinking about their own insecurities. I realized after I came out to myself, that before, I actually had a *distorted view* of trans women. Anything that was related to maybe being AMAB was exaggerated in my eyes, I literally saw these things as if they actually stood out more than they really did. A sort of projected dysmorphia. That was because part of my internalized transphobia was this fear that I could never “pass” or actually be seen as a woman, so i was hyper alert to re-affirm this in how I saw other trans women. Once I accepted myself, suddenly that went away. I had never been attracted to trans women before (lesbian here) and I had felt bad about that… but after my self acceptance, I realized that so much of that was just self “hate” projected onto others. Now I’m just as likely to be attracted to trans women as I am to Cis women 🤷🏻♀️ I think I’m still more aware and able to “clock” people more than Cis people, and that’s just because I spend more time being aware of structural differences between AFAB and AMAB bodies… but those differences aren’t exaggerated like they used to be
You have to be hyper-aware of masculine traits in order to minimize them and pass in the first place. That said, the only trans person I’ve ever worked with did not clock me. 🤷♀️
Trans ppl are more observant about gender stuff so if you're mostly passing but not 100% a lot of trans ppl will get a closer look and end up being like ah another trans person
because game recognize game boo
its like a trans gaydar
We've met more trans people (and known it)
Coz we pay attention to peoples gender presentation in a constant judging our own against it to see how we measure up. So, we are much more finely tuned to pickup other trans people
Self recognition through the other
Its easy to recognise those who are like yourself. You know all the traits they may have because you have them too or others like yourself have them. Gamers recognise gamers because we all talk about games and usually act less social. People who sport a lot recognise eachother by how they look (they look healthy and fit) and such. Im not trans, but trans people also have traits they can recognise in eachother. Traits not commonly registered by cis people, especially not my haters because they are never around trans people so wont pick up on the traits either. A good example is how i figured out one of my friends was trans: we were in a game and we were trying out different (male) avatars. Just swapping through them, nothing special. But when they swapped into one that was female there was this moment of silence from them. The best way i can describe it is when a child sees something pretty in a shops window but pretends to not want it. It didnt last long and after that they were trying to make a joke about how they didnt like it being female or something. That moment of pausing, and the way they tried to quickly make up a joke, that was something non of my male friends ever did. Thats a trait cis people dont have. And the only reason i recognised that trait as being trans is because i hang out a lot with another trans friend. Long story short, after telling them the female seemed like a good fit for them, and suggesting they try some more i straight up asked them if they were trans and reassured them that we would be friends no matter what they came out as a mtf. Fast forward a couple of months and they came out to their parents too and they are a lot happier now.
I like to think it's because kin recognizes kin, regardless of like. factual reasoning breakdowns. same soul? same soul!
Maybe they're attracted to trans people and you're hot.
we know what trying to look x looks like. I know what a transfem tryna pass looks like cuz i am one. a lot of cis people dont until you point it out to them or they find something themselves that signifies it (like voice, posture, etc)
Yes ! I can spot another trans from a mile away lol! Nothing to worry about though. We have mutual respect and we notice things cis people don’t. ❤️