baby book answers questions

[Barbara Maria]

Recently while going through some old boxes,I found my baby book.I didn't even know there was one. In the book it's noted that for the first five years of my life,there were no boys in my neighborhood,just girls.I'd forgotten,but reading entries in the book,it came back like it was yesterday.I remember playing dolls and hopscotch with them,and trying to jump rope.I even had my own doll house and they would come over and play with me.Maybe that explains why I've always felt girly and related better to girls than boys.I don't know,but I'm glad it did.I like it this way.When I think about it,it's a wonder it took as long as it did for me to start dressing.XO Barbara

[Beverley Sims]

Sometimes I think it is that type of imprinting that starts us off.

There has not been a great deal of discussionon the board about imprinting at a young age.

Mostly it has been theoretical analysis.

[Tinkerbell-GG]

My H had mostly female influence in his childhood and was even very memorably made to wear girls clothing a couple of times. I definitely think imprinting plays a big part, but I'd also bet there's a genetic component that makes some boys more susceptible than others. Otherwise, all boys raised by single mothers would crossdress and I'm guessing this isn't the case.

[Krisi]

It turns out that my mother really wanted a girl, not a boy and she dressed me as a girl when I was very young and nobody was looking. She also made me model the dresses she sewed for her nieces (I remember that). Did being dressed as a girl at an early age cause me to want to dress as one in later years? I don't know. Did the known fact that she wanted me to be born a girl cause me to want to dress as one in later years? Again, I don't know.

I suppose I could pay a shrink to tell me but I really don't care at this poing and I don't think he would know any more than I do.

[NicoleScott]

There are forum members who firmly believe their crossdressing is genetic, the only evidence being their earliest recollection of their affinity to feminine things. The problem is that we have no recollection of events during our first year or two. But there may have been an imprinting event during the infancy that can't be consciously recalled later.
Whether it's genetic or imprinting may depend on what drives the crossdressing. It may be a genetic cause behind a [male] person's internal feminine identity that drives the crossdressing, but those who dress driven by an unusual attraction to certain feminine items that cause sexual excitement (fetish) may be more likely to have been imprinted than have a genetic link to such items (have they found that pantyhose gene yet?).

[krissy]

When i was 5 i used to sit on the floor as my mom would get dressed for going out with my step dad. It was when they first met.She would be sitting in a black slip and black bra doing her makeup and hair .i loved to watch her change to the beautiful woman she was.but i think i got my wanting to wear womens clothes right then because i remember saying to myself I want to be that pretty .that and my evil step dad later.

[Anna H]

my mom was very young when i came. she didn't have good
luck with men and was married a few different times. some guys
want a girlfriend/wife so badly that they think they can handle
a girl with a bunch of kids, but it's pretty clear when they
don't really like you.

so, we moved often and lived with just her mostly. i never got
close...or even liked...anyone she was married to. everything
was always very temporary.

all that time, practically everything i learned about was from
her perspective. she was the only one in the world who'd always
look out for me and keep me safe. she was the only constant in
my life.

she was very young, only 15 years older than me, so she was
practically a kid herself. she had 4 sisters too, and it was pretty
much a completely female world i grew up in.

i didn't like boys at school (which was always changing) either
because i was always the new kid and they sure like to pick on
the lowest in the pecking order. the girls, though, were always
interested in whoever was new. very welcoming and friendly.
girls were always safe and caring. i could never know what some
punk-ass boy would do.

i never did have any problem with how i am, and always liked
it very much. it was just very necessary to keep it all a big
secret. but, a big secret adds a lot to life for someone with a big
imagination. it's always been lots of fun! ♥

it was pretty much a female world for me growing up.

[DonnaT]

I barely remember much about my younger years.

I had a brother a year older and when I was one, my mom was expecting another son (she always new that the babies would be boys (5), never even picked out a girls name) and for several months I lived with my maternal grandparents and my older brother lived with our paternal grandparents. What went on there I have no idea, but I doubt my moonshining country grandpa would have allowed my grandma to dress me as a girl.

As we grew up, it was most always us boys playing and fighting. I could climb to the top of the apple trees when I was 4, and pick apples for apple pie. There were girls in the neighborhood, but I never played with them, and would always find something else to do if they came around. My other brothers had no problem playing with them.

Why I shied away from girls I have no idea.

[BillieJoEllen]

As a child growing up I had a lot of cousins both boy and girl. My family got together quite a lot. It seemed like whenever we were together I would gravitate toward the girls and play 'house' with them. Most of the time though the boys weren't always around so then of course I would have to play with my girl cousins. Since my earliest recollections though I have always thought of myself as a girl. With my girl cousins I have a lot of stories to tell.

I don't have a box of recollections though but a few years ago around the holidays an uncle was visiting and showed some pictures of me when I was baptized. I had never seen those pictures before. I was three and a half years of age at the time. I was wearing a really gorgeous little girly dress white in color. I don't remember doing that but probably didn't put up a fuss at the time. I don't know why my father put up with me wearing it because he always wanted a little 'macho' boy.

[sometimes_miss]

Everything in our lives that occurs to us, affects us in some way. Exactly how much, well that varies from person to person.

[Tinkerbell-GG]

(have they found that pantyhose gene yet?).

Haha, well if they have, I sure didn't inherit it. I hate the dang things!

And I also suspect that a lack of imprinting memories doesn't mean they didn't happen. I can barely remember early childhood yet I know I must have had one! I doubt very much there is a gene that causes men to wear wigs and dresses as these are social constructs. We could just as easily be a naked society. I guess that there may very well be a gene that makes some men susceptible to visual stimuli more than others, or more tactile, or whatever. It may even be some sort of 'peacock' gene as a throw back to the days when men dressed to impress. Who knows, but I'd bet it's a combination of things and my H always says if it hadn't been Crossdressing, he's certain it would have been something else. He's just wired to 'need' something. It's very much sexual for him, but I also think it's a coping mechanism of sorts as he dresses the most when life is stressful.

[CharlotteP]

I can weigh in on the imprinting, because it definitely happened to me. I was maybe 7 or 8 and there was special on TV about sex change operations. I was totally fascinated with the fact that this was even possible. I thought to myself how wonderful it would be to be a girl!! That night I had a dream that I was undergoing the operation and was excited that I was going to be a girl.

I've been fascinated with my femme side ever since.

Charlotte

[MeredithG]

Lots of good posts here! As others have said, identifying with the caring and femininity of a positive mother role model was a big factor in my early path. As was the negativity of my alcoholic dad, who criticized everyone in our family for one reason or another. I also had a female cousin close to my age and some girl grade school neighbors that asked me to play games and sometimes act out being a girl or older woman we knew. And my mom got me my sister's cheerleader sweater and her own plaid skirt and pantyhose to dress up for Halloween one year. Those encouraging acts made a big impression on me so many years ago and helped me find some early comfort and acceptance.

[CynthiaD]

I loved playing hopscotch with the girls in the neighborhood. I could also talk them into letting me play house sometimes. (I had to be the dad.) I played with the boys a lot too. Boys were allowed to do things that were forbidden to girls, like climb trees and go to the park alone. I loved helping my mother in the kitchen and learned how to cook and bake cookies when I was 8 or 9 years old. Of course by then I was regularly borrowing my mother's clothes on the sly. I never really thought about the boy/girl thing until later.