I'm a lifelong crossdresser. I love dressing like a girl. I did not choose to be this way. I am not a sissy! I feel this is a part of my genetics and had I not had been born with this I would not dress. To me it's simple. I don't believe crossdressers choose to live like this. I believe we are born as crossdressers!
Are you a crossdresser by choice or do you believe in the genetic factor?
emmi
I too feel that this is just the way I am and not a choice of mine. I am not a sissy nor am I gay, I just love to wear pretty things. Billie Jean
Being transgendered is fine with me, regardless of the cause.Originally Posted by emmicd
However, hhe question of origins of traits is much more complex than "choice" vs "genetics." See, for example, http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Gene-Nat...6813568&sr=1-3
I think that everything is a choice, but genetics and life experience make certain choices easier and more natural than others.
Genetics made me male, but mentally and emotionally I'm both masculine and feminine in about equal measure. The way I express this is through crossdressing (and other things). For me, crossdressing is a choice. A very attractive and natural choice, but a choice nevertheless.
Lotsa Hugs,
--Pam
I feel as though I don't have a choice. Depression and anxiety are the door prizes of resistance.
To me it's simple. I don't believe crossdressers choose to live like this. I believe we are born as crossdressers!
Are you a crossdresser by choice or do you believe in the genetic factor?
emmi[/QUOTE]
I believe that I was born with this inherent desire to express my feminine side. I certainly did not choose to be this way but rather I feel it chose me. I have been this way since as far back as I can remember. I have learned to accept this part of me and fully embrace it. I cannot comprehend being any other way and would feel strange if I did not have the urge to express my feminine side by crossdressing.
I was born a crossdresser, I couldn't possibly be any other way.
I too believe that we are born this way as possibly an abnormal/exessive hormonal thing or our mothers really wanting to have a girl?
No-one has come up with a proven theory just yet.....
hugs
Penelope
I am now starting to think we are born this way, it depends on when the trigger to start was pulled
Hi,
I too have always crossdressed, more so now than ever before. I read somewhere that crossdressing was hereditory and this could be a credible explanation. My father no, my son no, but my young grandson has expressed his desires to be a girl to his mom. He is 8 yrs old and she does not know my secret.
Mandy
By definition, being that GG's are XX chromosones and XY chromosones, you were born half female from the on-set.
Added to this that the during the first six weeks of gesetation a fetus is essnetially female, with being female the "default" and it requiring a hormonal bath to create a male ~ and given that there are geniune intersexed children that grow up to idenify with either gender, there's a solid argument to be made intersex and transgendered people.
According to the Kinsey Report, the vast majorithy of people (66%are bisexual.
Since having retired from the military, I am literally amazed and astounded how ignorant, un-educated, illiterate, un-informed the general population is! How many don't even read the local daily newspaper! And how biased they are, as well as the political parties are!
Last edited by Dana; 11-16-2008 at 03:35 AM.
I think we,re born like this!
Why would a boy child want to wear his mothers and sisters clothes from such a young age otherwise?
I started wearing my mums tights at about age 5 years old, a bit young to make a lifestyle choice don,t you think?
Well, i know that my mother believed (for whatever reason) that she was having a girl. Shed already named her "daughter to be" - Paula! Hence when I popped out i was called Paul.I too believe that we are born this way as possibly an abnormal/exessive hormonal thing or our mothers really wanting to have a girl?
No-one has come up with a proven theory just yet.....
hugs
Penelope
paula x
my 8 yr old son has also expressed desire to be a girl!
Last edited by Holly; 11-16-2008 at 10:38 AM. Reason: Merged two consecutive posts... please use the EDIT button to add content or the multiquote function to reply to multiple posts in a single post. Multiposting is not permitted on the forum.
It can be caused by many different things. How it ends up is entirely up to us.
Second star to the right and straight on till morning
I think genetics definatly.
I've seen MRI brain scans on TV of TS's compared to females and they were very similar, but both so very different than that of a straight males scan, hmmmmm, kinda makes you wonder.
I was born a crossdresser. My earliest thoughts stared around the age of 6 wanting to be a girl. It just feels right when I am feminine. There was no choice.
I'm TS but I know CD is really an inclination that can't be stopped.
It's like an addiction that you have to forget about trying to quit because you won't quit.
I believe it's genetic because most if not all the CD's I've seen do it lifelong.
I wasnt 'born' a crossdresser because I didnt get curious and try womens clothes until I was in my thirties. I dont believe in any of these theories because my circumstances are defiant of all that has been suggested so far.
Janie
Last edited by Janie Gunn; 11-16-2008 at 07:02 AM.
I don't think that when discussing nature vs. nurture that it can be an "either/or". I do lean heavy on the learned side of most behaviors though. Our genetics can give us a predisposition for certain behavior, but our environment decides if we follow that path. We start identifying with our mother first. That is our caregiver. Why wouldn't you mimic her behavior? Some of us just stay there and reject the male influences that come alittle later.
Tree huggin’, peace lovin’, pot smokin’, crossdressin', lazyass hippies like me.
Save a life
http://www.worldvision.org/home.nsf/index.htm
Ah-Ha! In the dozens of times I've seen this question come up here, this is the first time I've seen Katie B's concise and clear explanation of the difference between "congenital" and "genetic" expression of traits. And I'm liking it a lot. To me, it feels like the right answer!
"Congenital" gives many of us the rationale for believing that we were born this way, but avoids the almost unprovable (so far) genetic component. And tied to Lynn's idea of the "pre-birth" (but not necessarily genetic) pre-disposition and subsequent early acculturation process in our mother's arms, I'm thinking that this may be the answer for many of us.
This confluence of theories doesn't necessarily have to account for all of us though. Life is a crap shoot, ain't it? And there are numerous ways to make a "7". 6+1, 2+5, 3+4, 4+3, 5+2, 6+1...
Genetics, hormonal chemical bath, pre-disposition from mutagenic agents (wiki DES), acculturation, childhood trauma or adult decision...they all can play a part in getting us to where we are now.
Personally, I don't stress about any of this much, 'cos we are what we are. And there ain't no operation or drug or psyche regime or religious philosophy that's ever gonna change us, is there? That's the part I like. I don't wanna be any other way. 'Cos life is good. And, for me, accepting this life has made mine, both deja's and what's-his-name's life, even better.
Bless you all, though, for the hard thought and research you all put into it.
respect & love,
deja
There is no way I would have chosen this life if it was a 'lifestyle choice'. The anguish and pain I went through in my early years, right up to my 30's, is not something anyone would choose as their life. I believe that I was born this way, I had no choice.
For me it is a case of conditioning during development. I never thought I was a girl until someone else told me that. I saw some advantages to being a girl, but didn't think I was one. Then it escalated until I saw it everywhere in my life, and became convinced; surely my elders knew better than I did. So I believed what they told me, and what I interpreted their explanations to mean. When all the parts of the puzzle fit, it's a pretty strong suggestion that the picture you see is the correct one, even if it isn't. A child isn't able to dispute the information; he/she (ME!) doesn't have the cognitive abilities, nor the knowledge necessary. And so, the 'story' becomes reality. I'm like Pavlov's dogs; dress me up, and I expect affection to follow. Despite it no longer occurring, it still feels the same as it did when I was a kid. I feel upset/insecure/lonely/whatever, and want to dress up. So I dress up, associating the feeling of being pretty with the expectation of affection, and to a little bit, I actually feel better after dressing up. The stressor, whatever it is, is gone, I'm only focusing on feeling like a girl. And I often fall asleep while dressed, now able to relax, escaping from the 'real life' problems, into the fantasy world of being a female and focusing on all the things I imagine a woman would, instead of my own crummy life. Genetic? Not me. Choice? Not on your life. Who would choose this? Not me. I'd gladly be rid of it. But that isn't a choice either. So, I live with it.
Some causes of crossdressing you've probably never even considered: My TG biography at:http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/...=1#post1490560
There's an addendum at post # 82 on that thread, too. It's about a ten minute read.
Why don't we understand our desire to dress, behave and feel like a girl? Because from childhood, boys are told that the worst possible thing we can be, is a sissy. This feeling is so ingrained into our psyche, that we will suppress any thoughts that connect us to being or wanting to be feminine, even to the point of creating separate personalities to assign those female feelings into.
I think many people fail to really get what the nature vs nurture debate is all about. So many CD's are so quick to jump on the band wagon of "I wouldn't choose this lifestyle for myself so it must be genetic".
But just because you didn't actively choose it doesn't mean that it isn't learnt behaviour? Quite often learnt behaviour can be the result of environmental stimuli that you have absoloutely no control over.
Do you ever remember making an active choice to learn your first language? I'm sure you don't, but language is a learnt behaviour that has resulted from environmental stimuli at an early age.
Now don't get me wrong we do have a genetic predisposition for language, in that we have the phsyical ability to speak and the desire to learn a language but the actual language we learn as a child is the direct result of stimuli in the environment.
Apply that to crossdressing? Perhaps there is a genetic or congenital predisposition to femininity but it is the result of environmental stimuli that causes you to become a CD. For example as a young child you are attracted to feminine things as a result of a genetic or congenital predisposition which causes you to try on some of your Mothers clothing. You enjoy the experience as it causes you pleasure (for whatever reason that may be) encouraging you to do it again and as a result it becomes a learnt behaviour that crossdressing is something that you enjoy doing. Just because you didn't actively decided "you know what I want to be a crossdresser" doesn't mean that it isn't necessarily a learnt behaviour.
God does not play dice with the universe.
He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared from the perspective of any of the other players (i.e. everybody) to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stales, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules and who smiles all the time.
Hmm, perhaps. But if you have a rake of brothers, who are exposed to the same external stimuli as you are, then why are they all not CD/TS as well? I firmly believe that I was born TS, I had no say in the matter, my upbringing was cold and hard, but no colder or harder than the upbringing my 3 brothers also experienced. And yet they are all typical males, behaving in a fashion deemed 'normal' by society. I, however, am not a typical male, and most certainly do not conform to society's 'normal'. Nature or nurture? For me, I fully believe nature.
Anna if you re read you'll see I talk about a genetic or congenital predisposition that is likely to work in conjunction to environmental stimuli. Due to the very nature of genetics siblings do not necessarily have the same genetic make up due to the split of chromosomes (sp?). I don't think any of us can pretend to know exactly how it works. Who knows, perhaps you had a genetic predisposition to femininity and when that was combined with your very masculine upbringing it was enough to push you into CDing?
I think it's an intresting topic and certainly one that needs far more investigation before anyone can draw any conclusive answers.
God does not play dice with the universe.
He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared from the perspective of any of the other players (i.e. everybody) to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stales, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules and who smiles all the time.
Posting Permissions
