Is crossdressing socially acceptable to you?
I have been wondering how many people on these forums actually think crossdressing is socially acceptable - to themselves?
Twenty plus years ago, while single, I couldn't see why I couldn't crossdress in public if I wanted to so I simply walked out the door. I still recall the shocked looks on people's faces at the first convenience store I happened to go into. They looked at each other for clues about what to do and I gave them what they needed to know by just being a customer, "Where's the beer in here?"
About five years later I was living a busy married life with my wife and it occurred to me that I wanted some crossdressed time on the town again and asked my wife about setting up some times to go do things. She didn't want to be hassled with it during the work week and said, "If you can find someplace to go, just tell me when and I'll find something I can do on my own while you're out." By then the Internet had caught on and it took like five seconds to find a "CD Support Group" meeting to go to. Ahhhh, people!
Support groups, of course, are heavily used as "an excuse and a place to dress up and go to" so I wasn't too surprised that the group was split between dedicated support group leaders, old timers, and, well, basket cases... The group leaders managed the serious part of the meeting time, the old timers tried to sit still for the hour, and the basket cases either sat in frozen silence, talked about, "this is so weird for me 101," or, cried.
The real value of the meetings were going for coffee afterwards. By then, everyone had gotten over being helpful, bored, or, worried. Now it was just a bunch of people talking, trading stories and business cards, and, trying to make plans to go bowling or meet for lunch on "third Thursdays." I go to some of the same places now that we went to then - Starbucks, restaurants, and theaters and think about that crowd of CDers that had been there on some night or afternoon in the past as part of that first group. The people and the buildings look and sound the same... The world seems just fine.
So, I'm fine being who I am and I'm fine with most other people crossdressing, or, having tatoos, or, being in different political parties. As long as they make no more noise, spill as little or less of their drinks, and, give others the space to be who they are... I really don't pay much attention.
So, how many people reading these words are fine with crossdressing, their crossdressing, and, other people crossdressing?
It is, "OK" to you, as you read this, or, does CDing still seem somehow "wrong" to you?
Your thoughts and feelings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Denise Rhodes
Society as a whole will never accept someone being who they are really not and trying to get others to believe it. It's more about being comfortable as who you are as your own person.:)
D,
The question is not about what society accepts; it's about what you accept, or, not...
Society as a whole, is a hole. Things can be argued over that huge open space forever and there will probably always be somebody who will take a contrary view to everyone else. That may be good, that may be bad. The point is, unanimity is so rare a thing as to be an unreasonable goal.
The current question is not meant as a poll of everyone else, it's meant as a simple, "How do YOU feel about crossdressing?" question.
I'm just asking each crossdresser reading these words to think about how THEY feel about crossdressing - their own, and, perhaps the crossdressing of others.
Are you personally good with crossdressing, ashamed of crossdressing, confused about crossdressing, or, what?
How accepting are you, and, why?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
joandher
I don't think that cross dressers/transgendered people really have a choice, -i.e. of being one of the majority ( of so called normal ) people,from what I have researched c/ders are born that way, and I for one feel very privileged to be one, and able to see,and experience both sides of the coin as and when I feel like it, I think life would be very dull if I couldn't dress, how and when I like
:hugs:
J-JAY
J-Jay,
I am reminded, in the "no choice" part here, that everyone is born with "potential" to do and be many things, not necessarily just one thing.
There may be some people who are born CD, but that's hard to imagine. More likely to CD..., I suppose that's possible. In general, however, I think the "potential" notion, to do and be anything, gets one the farthest with explaining CDing. Most of us have some experience with CDing early in life, and it stays with us after that and we seem to "add" meaning to it as we go along.
Today's comments in various posts allude to it beginning young, before any thought of sex at all - of any sort, yet after the onset of puberty the behavior is usually incorporated into our sex lives... Later that "motivation" dims and "a side" of our being more fully develops that we hadn't really thought to create, it just seems to follow from the experiences we've collected.
About that time the major stresses in our CDing/normal lives seem to occur - this need to be "who we have become" butts up against the knowledge that, "This is not normal." It takes a bit of knowledge to realize that normal is a statistical norm, not a person named Norm, and that everyone, you and I included, fall somewhere on the bell curve on any graph of any activity.
A lot of us seem to get past this stress by accepting ourselves as whatever we are - and then continuing with life with less stress, worry, or, concern about CDing, or, for that matter, normality for ourselves or anyone else. Acceptance of self very often leads to acceptance of others. Live and let live.
I have a friend who fishes in the morning before going to work, fishes in the evening after work, and spends most his weekends fishing somewhere.
He wife says, "Yeah, that's what he does."
It's normal for him.
Most of the rest of us find all that a bit fishy...
Neither he nor she cares what we think, however.
And, that's OK, isn't it?