Feeling inadequate about my body because of the trans ideology

I know this may not go down well (tone-policing etc.), but... while we've a load of more cynical posters visiting, we're also one of the best (only?!) recourses of this kind for women who feel as OP describes - and there will be some out there.

It feels like a pity if our beloved interruptarons and screen-shot-hunters and derailers succeed in undermining support for the vulnerable newbie (or scaring off people sounding out GC thinking).

When I first read FWR, the patience, care and thought kind of blew me away - above all, though, it was the contrast between that and the sheer nastiness of "visitors" that converted me to the cause.

I know there's still no comparison between that nastiness and the (always wry!) well-deserved caution here. But I also wonder if, while it may be tempting to feel the joke's on us if we don't call Howszat!!! within a few posts, it may be even more on us if we lose what makes this place so fab in stressing we've not been taken in?

I don't give a shit what visiting TRAs think of me.

I do care about women who may be hurting because this ideology's taught them that appearance is what defines them.

And, yeah, I know we've all heard the "women are being mistaken for transwomen" line a thousand times before, but I'd honestly not actually thought of it from the angle OP describes before - kind of like an existential angst eating away at pre-existing insecurities about whether you're woman enough (cos now, of course, trans ideology says there's ways not to be, which simply wasn't a thing before). I mean, I'd read about masculine women in loos and thought about girls who don't like make-up, but somehow hadn't got to the logical extension of this ideology having the potential to really create or aggravate a kind of, well, dysphoria, perhaps, in adult women, too. I hope I'm not putting words in your mouth there, OP.

Yeah, so, maybe I'm naive in that and in the Pollyanna posting philosophy (except when my mask slips on a bad day and I get all sarky for a post or two - so maybe I'm a total hypocrite, too!)

Regardless, to OP - or those like OP - I'm sorry, and I'd second suggestions to get counselling, while taking care to ensure you reach out to someone who's not captured by the way of thinking that's making you hurt.

This a million times.

5 foot 8 isn't particularly tall for a woman. Unless you have a deep, gravelly voice and an Adam's apple I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Like the 1/10. 😂

Meanwhile, I iz old, female, heterosexual, and only 5' 6" , but in the olden days I've been called 'sir' (or maybe son?) in shops when wearing dungarees and short hair.

Get your DNA checked, OP.

I'm infertile and after a lot of years of TRA bullshit bingo it's water off a ducks back to me

I'm infertile because my female biology malfunctioned not because I'm a man

I note that's it's only ever TW and their aunt Lydia's who weaponise infertlity

however I appreciate that I'm post menopause and give a lot less fucks then I used too

as a young infertile woman I may well have been more upset

Not all men have deep gravely voices, women's voices tend to deepen as they age. and like everything, size of Adams apple is on a spectrum and some women will have a bigger Adams apple than men with the smallest Adams apples.

I also don't go round baring my throat on a cold winters day so that people can see my abnormally long neck does not also have a visible Adams apple.

And trans males are having theirs surgically reduced.

I dont even know what tuberous breasts are. Big, small, long?

You are letting imagined issues take a huge hold in your mind and then you are dwelling on them and reinforcing them with the content you seek out online and starting a thread like this.

Breastfeeding is not something to spend any time thinking about when you are single, not pregnant and not likely to be having a baby any time soon. The possible shape of your breasts doesn't automatically mean you can't breastfeed by the way. Some women with insufficient glandular tissue have tuberous breasts but that doesn't mean that every women with tuberous breasts has IGT.

I find it hard to believe that someone could be gender critical and aware of the sex based differences between men and women, yet also think that they are somehow similar to a transwoman taking cross sex hormone therapy. Or think that you somehow share lots of features with male people just because you are taller than the average woman, and have some body hair and a straightish figure!

Wondering about what tall actually is, I just googled average female height in the UK, and it's close to my own. So why have I spent my entire life feeling such a short-arse? I've always thought of myself as short! Always!!! Mind slightly blown again, just now!

Maybe it shows, OP - it's all in the perception, and the insidious ways of thinking that creep in over time. I think the big thing in deciding whether to seek help is degree of distress caused. I'm often annoyed I'm not taller (shop shelves a personal affront) but none too bothered beyond that. In your case, a bit of rebalancing the way you think and particularly how you interpret those thoughts and your body may go a long way. Therapy needn't be in-depth on-the-couch stuff: just a way of learning to step back to get a clearer picture.

Exactly. Stop obsessing over transwomen and focus on getting a job and therapy. Both of those things will make you more attractive to a man if that's what you're really worried about.

Well I’m not Googling it.

Women come in all shapes and sizes, men too.

people can feel insecure about their bodies male or female

comparing oneself as less attractive than a male pretending to be a female is a new one on me.

Also highly unlikely a man would have tuberous breasts. They would either be fairly flat or surgically enhanced, not long and thin.

The postman mistook me for a man once. He wasn’t really looking and I’m 5’ 10 and was wearing an ugly jumper.

Lol, my mum says I look like a boy pretty much every time I'm wearing a tracksuit (which is a lot) and a cap. Weirdly doesn't give me the urge to start a thread to try to get a load of strangers to rag on trans people though.