[bryony]

Many of my trans friends are stuck in low gear or are not moving at all. I have no choice but to leave them behind.

That is a... staggering... statement. It sounds... well....

I have a wide variety of friends on the (for lack of a better phrase) T* spectrum -- gender queer/fluid, semi-annual crossdressers, weekend warriors, non-ops, transitioners, post-ops, drag queens, and even a shemale porn star. Yes, real-life local friends, not social media "friends".

Everyone is where they are, and it's their own responsibility to be happy with it. I wouldn't dream of judging any of them based on my little spot on the spectrum as a yardstick. I don't consider myself to be "ahead" or "behind" anyone!

I believe myself to be fairly well adjusted in my little space... I've learned to not envy others' seeming perfection, in a grass-always-greener fashion. The post-op and the occasional crossdresser probably envy each other's lives for their own reasons. It's just pointless to want someone else's life.

But leaving people behind because they don't share your exact ambitions? Good luck keeping friends with an attitude like that!

I get the feeling that the only reason they were "friends" is because they shared that singular ambition. In which case, it makes perfect sense that as that shared ambition changed, the relationship ended. Of course, it doesn't sound like a friendship to begin with, but that's my best guess. It's like people I meet at college and we kind of are friends, but only as long as we have a class together. Once you take away that, we stop talking. More acquaintances than friends, because I never had much in common with them to begin with.

As for the topic, I'm not shy online, so I'll show mine whenever I like. Even irl, if women want to see then I'll show them. I'm the same person as I've always been,so....

I don't think I'll change much personality wise after SRS either. Lol to each their own. I will say that Showing them to a guy gives me a really exciting feeling now. Lmao

I hope you never change!

B.

[bryony]

I get the feeling that the only reason they were "friends" is because they shared that singular ambition. In which case, it makes perfect sense that as that shared ambition changed, the relationship ended. Of course, it doesn't sound like a friendship to begin with, but that's my best guess.

Good point. I suppose I was using my own definition of "friend" when I read that.

A friend will help you move. A true friend will help you move a body!

As far as baring them... I do hang around a number of pagans and polyamorous types, so I don't find nudity bothersome in the slightest. I wasn't raised that way, to be sure, but I can see where people would get a hangup about it.

I must say, as someone who spent most of my life going to and from the shower with a towel around the waist, I find it a bit weird wearing it around my armpits. It's not that I care who sees them, just that it might make them feel uncomfortable.

Of course, with the picture gallery, when it's just the neck down I care even less who has a look see.

All in the furtherance of human knowledge, eh?

B.

[MissC]

All in the furtherance of human knowledge, eh?

B.

I am absolutely for the furtherance of human knowledge.

I was raised in a religious household, which was part of a religious extended family. My parents were both preachers before they married. I don't hate them for it -- it's just the way it was -- but I did get to learn from a young age just what kind of bullshit it all is.

It's also why I don't think science has all the answers yet. Lots of folks who have eschewed religion take up science as their new faith... but it's misplaced. Science, to me, is a process of learning, and separating truth from myth. A true scientist realizes that we will never have all the answers.

I have been very blessed in this life -- this time around, anyway -- with a keen yearning for knowledge and desire for truth, among many other things. My late father taught me to share truth with others, even if they don't immediately -- or ever -- accept it.

So... if showing my boobs on the internet advances the cause of science, who am I to argue? I am but a link in a chain....

[GoneGirl]

Miss C, it's not my attitude that's a problem. I'm not putting a value judgment on anyone else's choice. Sarah got it right.

Clara

[MissC]

I'm not putting a value judgment on anyone else's choice.

I really hope you mean that, in contrast to your posting history.

It seems, to me anyway, that you've made an effort to de-legitimize folks who have not chosen your path.

To be totally fair, you would not be unique in that regard. Late transitioners, it is known, tend to be... different... from the rest of the T* spectrum in many ways. For myself, I accept that fact, because I can accept that the late transitioner has been through much more self-denial, burial of intention, and destruction of self-worth than I and others of younger generations have.

In other words, I have been through some self-hatred, but not 50 years of it.

I have learned to sympathize with your position... but that does not mean I can condone all of your reaction to it. You must learn to live within the context of the world that *IS*, now, today. The world now is good. I have, for example, just learned of a marriage between a girl I once fancied, and a trans-man (FTM). A delightful couple. The world is indeed changing.

Regardless, I wish you peace. May you find it for yourself... but please also realize that younger generations have nothing whatsoever to gain from the stories of pain from times past. The pain and awfulness of gender-otherness is over and gone; only remnants remain, only in places unenlightened by literacy.

It does make me feel unwanted to know that I am part of an older generation being pushed aside by such modern thinking... but as a 30-something... I am pleased to know that my generation -- the Generation of X -- made it happen.

Peace out, Clara... be excellent to yourself, and each other.

[bryony]

... but please also realize that younger generations have nothing whatsoever to gain from the stories of pain from times past.

Nothing whatsoever??

Can't agree with that as a generality...

“Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”
― Edmund Burke

B.

[flamesabers]

Er... because real women never show their breasts?

Each their own, of course. For me, I'll stop posting pictures when they stop growing. I put my thread -- program, experience, photos -- out there in the interest of science, so I feel I'd be doing a disservice if I quit.

I'm also not under any illusion that there's some magic line somewhere I might cross over and become a different person. I'm me; always have been, always will be... no matter what I do or how I look.

Agreed.

I think one's modesty (or lack of) can be measured on a spectrum, much like one's perspective on having sex. On one side there are the individuals who are all for casual sex, on the opposing side, there are those who feel sex should only occur between married couples with the intention to procreate. As Miss C has said, I understand some may feel reluctant to post pictures of their breasts due to a sense of feminine modesty. I also understand how others may feel breasts are just breasts and there's no reason to keep them cloaked in secrecy, especially on a site that's focused on breasts.

Even before NBE, I was always a little shy about going topless in public. The only times I went topless in public was when I was swimming. Of course I don't go swimming anymore, but I don't mind. When I need to bare my chest so to speak in a medical setting, I don't get all flustered. I see it as just a medical procedure. When posting progress pictures here, I don't feel like an exhibitonist. I just see it as a way to gather feedback and perhaps inform others on the possibilities of NBE.

If someone from BN wants to see my breasts in real life, I wouldn't mind showing them so long as it isn't in a openly public area. As for allowing others to feel or fondle my breasts, hehe, it depends.

[Marina Kits]

I posted just ONE set of photos showing my bare chest when I started here (Feb '13) and that was it. For ME, posting photos of chest has always been uncomfortable because (again, just MY opinion) I felt like I'm not showing you "ME" but rather just a physical PART of me. For some reason, that doesn't sit well with me. In my twisted mind, seeing me naked (bottom and now top) is the deepest level of relationship so it's reserved only for those who have gotten to know me thoroughly, in all the other ways, first. I totally get the other positions already mentioned though and it's all cool with me if you have a different opinion.