Evan Urquhart

That's an interesting and complicated question. On one hand, what you say is absolutely true...

My parents, teachers, friends, even strangers all saw me as a girl. Their behavior was shaped by that, and mine was shaped by theirs.

I transitioned pretty late in life, and it makes sense that this outside socialization was important in shaping who I am. However...

...when it comes to how I related to things like movies, books, tv, role models, things get a bit more complicated.

I didn't model myself on women. I didn't... relate... to women in certain senses. I formed assumptions about how I would be treated...

...and the sort of deference I was entitled to that were almost totally based in my internal gender sense not in the real world.

When I talk with my wife (a cis woman) it's often clear how different I was. I saw myself as a boy/man, with women as almost irrelevant.

Must have been so hard growing up in a society that didn't have 'room' for you and offered such a narrow choice of who to develop into.