Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I figured this is probably the place for cis folks like me to ask their stupid questions…🤷‍♀️

I don’t quite understand the focus on “passing.” I assume that the reason I don’t get it is that I have the privilege of not thinking about how people perceive my gender and so I don’t think about it. Like white people who don’t think about race…

But I guess, from my perspective, I don’t see why it matters. I suppose from a safety perspective, there would be some spaces in which being spotted as trans (or any type of queer) might expose you to harm. But taking that out of the equation…why does it matter how well you pass, as long as you are comfortable in your own skin, your own clothes, your own posture, etc?

Edit: Thank you for all the responses. It is clear to me that I vastly underestimated the importance of safety in this regard. I live in a liberal bubble and have been lucky enough to learn and work in spaces where I have never witnessed homophobia or transphobia. I don’t conform to many attributes of my own gender and so being misgendered is not something I worry about. I am also surrounded by many non-binary and genderqueer individuals and so I am used to not immediately assigning a gender to a person and also seeing them in environments where their gender is ambiguous and they do not suffer ill-treatment and often get compliments.

I think there is much about dysphoria that I don’t understand. I do not like most aspects of my body and wish daily that my body were different…but my reasons for hating my body and my identity aren’t intertwined in the same way that they would be if I were trans. I guess I thought that the purpose of transitioning was for feeling comfortable in your own body, and that markers of that body’s past are a normal part of that body’s history, so why hide them? But I am seeing now that not being seen for who you are is a part of the dysphoria.

I am sorry that my question was offensive, but I do appreciate the answers as they have given me greater insight.

Edit 2: Okay, so in reading the responses I think I have reached a revelation and I’m wondering if anyone still reading this can give me feedback….

The reason I originally asked this question was that I didn’t understand why people post pictures and say, “I feel cute! Do I pass?” To my mind, this read the same as, “I feel cute! Do you think I am cute enough?” What I am realizing now is that it is more akin to “I feel cute! How do you think I will be treated?”

Does this sound correct?