i'm new to this group, and i joined because i'm pretty sure i have this disorder. i avoid leaving the house unless i absolutely have to, because i am ashamed for anyone to look at me. i just wish i looked average, so i would be invisible in a crowd, but somehow i always stand out to people. they always notice how i look and always seem to remember. in face-to-face social situations, it manifests itself by people telling me i look like various famous people, but not necessarily attractive ones. i've been told i look like annie lennox, kim gordon, and iggy pop. i am naturally androgynous which is a terrible curse for females, because women get social approval for looking ultra-ultra-feminine and girly -- which i don't. i look like my dad to myself, and he looks like a skinny paul newman, which needless to say doesn't make a pretty girl. and despite what's fashionable at the time, i constantly hear men say they always prefer long hair on a woman, or that they could never be attracted to a woman with short hair. i have tried to battle this by growing my hair long and wearing makeup, but it doesn't help, because i have a broad build, wide shoulders, large hands and feet. people have even mistaken me for a man when i did have long hair! i am not comfortable going all-out and wearing dresses and heels etc., besides, i think i would just look like a transvestite. androgyny in women has always been synonymous with ugly in mainstream culture. maybe lesbians appreciate butch women, but they have to put up with constant crap from everyone else. i feel guilty for feeling the way i do, because there are people out there with real deformities and disfigurements, but even if i'm not the ugliest person on earth, what good does it do me? no matter what people say to me, regardless of the minute scattering of people that are able to find me attractive, the fact is that the world belongs to Pretty Women.