Notes from transition: women in customer service positions are smiling at me more which weirded me out for half a second and then I realized they're reacting to a heavily tattooed dude who possibly needs to be gently placated and got sad.

On the other hand I am having to learn to do the thing with other dudes in passing where, like, you studiously ignore each other's very existence while looking for the bug spray or whatever.

Because the thing I did as a matter of course when I was being read as a woman, where I looked them over to gauge whether or not they might fuck with me, comes off REAL DIFFERENT from someone read as a heavily tattooed dude.

Like I got some looks implying I was a psychopath looking for a fight before I figured this one out.

Anyway I have always been polite to customer service staff but now with the women I find myself using every trick I have learned from working with sheep to telegraph "I am not a problem. I don't want to hurt you."

Quiet voice, quiet eyes, quiet hands, loose shoulders, body angled a little away, stay out of their personal space, be scrupulous not to engage in any more chit chat than they initiate.

Anyway it's all kind of unsettling.