#also biased because i haven't been able to meet spaniards as an insider as much so touch with many grains of salt this is not meant

[butcharium]

over the summer I have mused a bit over how different cultural contexts interpret me, a butch woman, differently. Like when I've been visiting Spain with my gf to see her family there I am often adressed as a man by people we interact with out an about, whereas at home I get the impression that by far and large I am mostly seen as a woman (but not always as I'll come back to). When I lived for a very short while in central Europe, my peers expressed wonder why I, Just Some Guy as they consistently thought, never corrected those who oh so persistently adressed me as Ms. [redacted].

There's also a certain rural-urban divide, at least I think it has mostly been when in cities in Spain that people mostly have seen me as a woman (or are plain confused despite my gf talking about me using female gramatical gender), whereas elsewhere I have been seen more as Just Some Guy. When I've visited rural relatives at home I think I am more often seen as a guy by strangers than I am at home in the city, but also they have a surprisingly large room for female masculinity as they're very wont with practical and tough women (just don't be a lesbian about it). In the city I live in I am relatively often asked about my pronouns when I meet new people, in a way which reveals that they clearly don't think I'm a cis man, but they're also rarely able to hide a cerain air of surpisement when I tell them that I'm a woman. Sometimes I am seen as Just Some Guy, but with inconclusive data that seems to often be from people who appear to have moved here in adulthood.

I do think that it is more often in cities that I am mostly seen as a woman (/not a cis guy), which seems to speak of a greater range of how women dress being normal maybe, with the great exception of the big central european city I lived in where I someties felt I was seen as Just Some Guy really most of the time.

To be fair to the Spaniards tho, I've personally rarely seen women there with my features like narrow hips, stocky build, rather square face, whereas I see this in the women around me at home all the time. In central Europe I got the impression that it was mostly about social conservatism. Then I must admit , though, that I really am amongst the top percentiles of hairy european women, with sideburns and a moustache, and stubble under my chin, but with a certain bias I will say that this is handled the best at home