I do not want acceptance for my X-dressing

[DanaInME]

Lucy-
Your right to "stay in the closet" is every bit as sacred and important to the community as my right to "politicize" my gender expression. Carry on and enjoy!
Dana

[JennyLynn]

I do so appreciate Mikells' response. I've almost been shown the door more than once. It's always a good rule of thumb to take a breath and consider the rules of the forum.
There is lots of support, and yes, sometimes judgment. Tough skin is a good trait.

[LadyInRed]

if it works for you and you enjoy it, congratulations on finding what works for you

[Helen Grandeis]

I try to understand in my brain when one of us talks about the "woman inside" or "born in the wrong body". But that's as close as I can come to understanding it because I don't experience it. Likewise, if someone doesn't have a fetish they can't really know what it's like. Sometimes I chuckle and sometimes I cringe when I read posts regarding fetish dressing from those who claim they have none. But I keep reading, hoping to hear from Lucy Bella, Desirae, Lacie, Katey, and others who really know from experience what they are talking about. Those are the kind I can connect with.
I neither want acceptance nor don't want it. I have gone out, but I live in the closet, meaning other than my wife, nobody knows I crossdress. And why should they, as I am a fetish crossdresser and consider that to be a private matter? They don't need to know the details. As Lucy Bella said, dressing conservatively can be unfulfilling. So I would rather dress MY way and stay in than tone it down to go out. And I'm sure some others agree. The point I want to make is that I have read many posts complaining about the closeted CDers who complain about acceptance. There may be some, but many of us are happily closeted dressers who do no such complaining. So I'd like to see an end to painting all closeted dressers with that dadgum broad brush.

The thread started to get off track when it became about labels. That topic has been beaten to death and we're always back where we started.

Katey, after a few years on the forum, I have come to believe that feminine-identity dressers (gender-nonconformists) are not just at a different place on some phantom masculine>feminine spectrum, but that we are fundamentally very different. And pleasure dressers (for those who don't like the word "fetish") are at a disadvantage: we are limited in our discussions (no explicit sex talk) while feminine-identity dressers can freely discuss what makes them tick (since it's not sexual). But those are the rules. Also, the forum (this one) is about crossdressing (MtF) but overwhelmingly is about being feminine, living a feminine life, full-time dressing, transitioning etc. Ironically, for many, "it's not about the clothes".
Well, some of us understand that it IS about the clothes.

Actually, its probably a lot more sexual than many people would admit even if for many it does not come to a sexual conclusion. We don't have our brains wired as we dress nor are we followed by telepaths to "objectively" assess what we are feeling.