Passing as male in 1970

[reddon666]

It's 1970 in Los Angeles. The MC is a 23 year old trans man deeply involved in hippy culture who's starting to come out as FTM (in an environment that my late-90s-born FTM self is damn glad he didn't live in

Comments

[beesandbrews]

For the most part men in the 1970's wore uniforms. If they worked in white collar jobs then that uniform was a suit and tie. They wore their hair cut above the collar. If they had facial hair, it had to conform to whatever their company policy dictated.

Men in blue collar trades generally had their uniforms provided. Generally, that would be some kind of coverall but it could also be coordinating pants and shirt.

Women had somewhat more freedom in choosing their clothing, as long as it conformed to the dress code in terms of skirt length, whether or not they could wear pant suits and so on.

Conformity was one of the things that the hippies were against.
Also the draft. Your character due to their age would have issues not having a draft card until they dropped out entirely.

Having embraced the counter culture fully, your would-be hippie would take on a new uniform, depending on where they ended up. Some communes followed religious teachings of various Eastern stripes. They might have adopted robes or caftans for both men and women. Or they might stick to natural fabrics, cotton / linen / wool, whatever could be crafted at home. Jeans and leather vests over cotton shirts were popular for men and women.

How they would manage would depend on the character and the circumstances. Certainly female actresses trained their voices to a lower register to sound more sultry,( read Lauren Bacall's autobiography for details) so that wouldn't be unheard of.

Oh, and just because people were 'hippies' doesn't mean they'd necessarily be all accepting. It rather depends on their philosophical bend and what aspect of society they were rejecting. (Just something to keep in mind.) It wasn't all free love and daisies. Sometimes it was about rejecting a society that was moving too far too fast and embracing earlier values.

You need to figure out who this person is, beyond trans, to understand how they would fit in and navigate a larger society. You also need to work out what strata of the various subcultures they're living in, because a West Hollywood bartender is going to live a different life than a machinist at Lockheed.