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Thread: Crossdressing a lifestyle choice or genetic?

  1. #51
    Gold Member MJ's Avatar
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    Nature vs. Nurture?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ema1234 GG View Post
    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. .
    we are not born cross dressers we are born transsexuals only most are still in denial. out of fear..
    this is not a choice. it has been encoded during our creation from conception we have no choice. it is not in any way the result of environmental stimuli. so whats next another type of stimuli to cure us because if some believe this is learned then it can be unlearned.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  2. #52
    Living Dead Girl Schatten Lupus's Avatar
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    I feel as though I don't have a choice. Depression and anxiety are the door prizes of resistance.
    I've been through some rough bouts with depression over shoving myself in the back of my mind. Allthough, I didn't really know what depression was until I hooked up with my SO alittle over a year ago, so I didn't know I was depressed.

  3. #53
    Loud and Proud Member ReginaS's Avatar
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    My Choice

    Quote Originally Posted by AmandaM View Post
    I feel as though I don't have a choice. Depression and anxiety are the door prizes of resistance.
    Like many of you girls I started at age 4; too young to have made any kind of life choice like this. Unfortunatly my parents let me know right away that wearing Mom's pantyhose was "bad, wrong, you're dad will be mad." That taught me to hide and feel shame.
    In the past few years I have found where I do have a choice. I can remain in the shame I was taught or I can follow my genetic imperitive and embrace who I am.
    Loud and proud of who I am offers hope and joy. Trying to deny who I am offers only depression and anxiety as Amanda points out.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]Living the Dream!
    Regina

  4. #54
    Big Sister Nicki B's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MJ View Post
    we are not born cross dressers we are born transsexuals only most are still in denial. out of fear...
    MJ, if you'd said we were all trans or TG, I'd agree with you - but we don't all need to transition, or need medical intervention? We are all driven to different degrees..

    Gender isn't binary - and it's fluid.
    Nicki

    [SIZE="1"]Moi?[/SIZE]

  5. #55
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    At the least, I'm a crossdresser, if I must use a title. I may be alot more, who knows? I do know this, I am gender enhanced, period. I really wish we all would stop using titles, and all become simple, "gender enhanced".

  6. #56
    Junior Member FlygrlChristy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Anna the Dub View Post
    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.
    Just to stir the pot a bit, I found this article from Science Daily, it's a bit old but has some interesting research that somewhat supports how this could possibly develop.

    American Association For The Advancement Of Science (2005, February 28). Defining Male And Female -- Research Casts Further Doubt On Newborn Sex-assignment Surgeries. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 16, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0223144619.htm

    Christy

  7. #57
    Member Heather_Marie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MJ View Post
    we are not born cross dressers we are born transsexuals only most are still in denial. out of fear..
    this is not a choice. it has been encoded during our creation from conception we have no choice. it is not in any way the result of environmental stimuli. so whats next another type of stimuli to cure us because if some believe this is learned then it can be unlearned.
    MJ I could not say it any better my self I truly believe it is genetics I have done a lot of sole searching and that is my conclusion genetics at least that is what I believe with me.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  8. #58
    Junior Member Susantgrl's Avatar
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    I was born a crossdresser, ever since I was little I remember wearing either my mother's clothes or my sister's. God forbid if they knew that now. Lol. I don't think it is a choice. It gives us the opportunity to express our feminity in a natural way. Too bad society does not understand and accept this. I'm not a sissy, yet it seems that that is how society percieves us as.

  9. #59
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    Something we are born to be but fueled by lifestyle.

  10. #60
    Member Jennifer Brooks's Avatar
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    I was born this way. At times, I wish I would have been born the entire way as a GG.

  11. #61
    Nicole Jones sallyjones's Avatar
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    Exclamation nature or nuture

    i believe that some of the factors that make us cling to the crossdressing is partly hormonal at birth but that nuture has a lot more to do with it than we think. how many of us had a very motherly mom, and maybe an older sisiter i have spent my life seeking answers. the course of like is ever changing and we store every sense 24/7 and we process this info continuously. so ewstregen starts the process(emotions). then reinforced with girly behavior sent to us from mother and older female siblings.

  12. #62
    Gold Member MJ's Avatar
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    case in point

    Quote Originally Posted by Nicki B View Post
    MJ, if you'd said we were all trans or TG, I'd agree with you - but we don't all need to transition, or need medical intervention? We are all driven to different degrees..

    Gender isn't binary - and it's fluid.
    there are 3 now ex *** Cross Dresser *** who are now full time and transitioning this year alone from this very site .
    how many will do the same next year. what does that tell you ?
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  13. #63
    just wanta b Brandiwvr's Avatar
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    hi all, there was a study done in asui. by a great genetic scietist. and he discovereed a gene that had been mutated. i think thats how they explaned it. but al most all transgendered indaviduals had this gene. ????????????/

  14. #64
    Senior Member Farrah's Avatar
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    I really believe we were born crossdresser. How else do you explain dressing up at such ages as 3 or 4 without someone doing for. I know I started dressing before I knew what a crossdresser was. I am now beginning to accept and embrace this part of me.

  15. #65
    Banned Read only battybattybats's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MJ View Post
    we are not born cross dressers we are born transsexuals only most are still in denial. out of fear..
    Then what about the Genderqueer?

    Being both genders or neither publicly requires more guts then transitioning entirely.

    Nope, there must be degrees of transexuality just as there are mild, moderate and severe cases of autism or mild moderate and severe cases of being intelligent like any other neurological variations.

    Quote Originally Posted by deja true View Post
    Self acceptance must lead to the acceptance of others. And that softening and rejection of prejudices carries through not just to gender variabilities but to color, race, religion, social class and on and on...
    Logically, morally and ethically true. Alas people are encouraged not to think and to accept such blatent double-standards and dichotmomies and most of all to avoid self-awareness. Self aware people are harder to sell rubbish too you see.

    But there is no-one who can give a decent reason to justify such a double standard. All it takes is people learning to think.
    Last edited by battybattybats; 11-17-2008 at 12:41 AM. Reason: avoiding double post

  16. #66
    Junior Member Melani's Avatar
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    I definitly feel

    I was born with an over developed fem side. As a child in a southern conservative household where one is expected to fit into the traditional gender roles. I believe my repression of this fem side drew me to secretly wearing my Mom's and sister's clothes as the only way to express this side of me. These 2 halves are at constant odds, sure it was easier to control it when I was younger but now the battle has intensified. All I want is bring the 2 halves together in one complete and happy person. I am fem and masculine regardless of the clothes I wear, it shouldn't matter what I am wearing, its how I feel that is important.

  17. #67
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    Well, I for one made the decision when I was two or three years old after analysing all the lifestyle options out there and comparing and contrasting them that cross-dressing was the right choice for me, and never looked back!

    I don't think a child at that age can make those kind of analytic decisions, but it was certainly ingrained in me about that early in my life. I agree with Katie B that this is likely a congenital issue, with either a genetic basis or pre-disposition, or some type of influence during the pre-natal period. Sure, a lot of our experiences lead us to repress a lot of our behaviour, or for some whose family may dress them up or whatever, may allow those feelings to come out more easily and openly, but it is certainly not any kind of 'decision' that the vast majority of us make. Sure, an actor that dresses in women's clothes for a role they play makes a decision to do that, but that does not make them a cross-dresser in our sense. They are not nagged by a compulsion to dress that worsens the longer they go without doing it like most (I believe I am right in speaking for most of us on this) of us do.


    As for it being a purely environmental influence, I find that as hard to accept as the pure genetic cause that is so hard to prove. I hear stories all the time of the overnurturing mother, the hard and cold mother, the sisters dressing a guy up as a child, the kid that was punished for wearing his mothers clothes or saying he wanted to play with dolls or be a girl, the softie dad, the overly macho dad, the boy with all brothers and male influences who lacked the feminine influence, the boy with all sisters and a single mom who lacked the male influence, etc. All of these situations can make sense as to why they might 'drive' a boy to cross-dress, but there are so many opposing situations and causes that I don't see any real common threads there. If it truly were all environmental and upbringing, then I would expect to hear certain similarities in the stories of cross-dressers growing up, and also would expect a certain ability to predict, seeing a young boy in a similar situation, that he will become a cross-dresser (without knowing anything else about him), and I certainly have not seen that.

    Whatever the cause, I am kind of glad I have it now, as it is really quite a pleasant affliction as long as I can accept it and not feel I have to constantly repress it.

    That's my two pennies worth.

  18. #68
    Banned Read only battybattybats's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Katie B View Post
    It makes as much sense to say that all gays are really TSs in denial, or that all CDs are really gays in denial.
    Actually the brain-scans indicate that gays and lesbians are a different kind of transexual, in that they have parts of their brains more like those found in the opposite sex but different parts of the brain to that which has been found often in Transexuals that is more like their self-identified sex than their birth anatomy sex.

    So in fact Gays and Lesbians do currently appear to be a different kind of transexual but yes, transexual.

    No-ones doing enough research on crossdtressers to know if we are a third catagory, a variation on transexuals or just people with mild amounts of transexualisation of the brain.

    In my view, the whole 'denial' thing is a Freudian con-trick which means "I'm a psychoanalyst, I'm cleverer than you, if I can't fit you into my categories I can always claim you're in denial. It's logically impossible to prove either way, so you can't get out of it."
    Well I did well enough to suppress my feminine feelings in my teens that it was often only a few times a year i'd actually remember how I felt about these things and would cry myself to sleep wishing I'd wake up a woman. The rest of the time I managed to 'not think about it' and would literally forget it most of the time. I think that was an experience of being in denial. Much of it I only remembered clearly after starting to come to terms with my CDing.

    You might as well say all right-handed people are left-handers in denial, it's just as logical.
    But people lying to themselves, convincing themselves that something is true when it's not and vice-versa is a known phenomenon! Hypnosis can't exist without it!

    Now indeed much of psychology is flawed, often lacking proper methodology. However you cannot render non-existent phenomena like hypnotic pain-resistence and psychosomatic reactions just because they don't fit your paradigm. If the material evidence conflicts with the theory then the theory is incomplete or it is partially or totally wrong. So while the explanation for and understanding of the phenomena is clearly incomplete you can't rule out the existence of the phenomena just because it is yet to be understood.

  19. #69
    In hibernation... Sarah Martin's Avatar
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    Emmi,

    I believe that almost all cross-dressers are born 'wired' this way. I certainly am! I think it's built into us...Sarah was present in me from a very early age and, if life choices had been different when I was younger (early 1960s) I'd almost certainly have opted for a 'full-time' female role as Sarah, letting my male side wither and die away.

    Sarah
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] A day without crossdressing is a day wasted.

  20. #70
    Aussie girl Tasha McIntyre's Avatar
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    Hi Emmi.

    You can't decide how to feel but you can decide how to act, therefore I believe we are born with a more prominant girly side than non crossdressing guys. How we express our girly side is an active choice we all make. Just my

  21. #71
    Big Sister Nicki B's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MJ View Post
    there are 3 now ex *** Cross Dresser *** who are now full time and transitioning this year alone from this very site .
    how many will do the same next year. what does that tell you ?
    The old joke is 'What's the difference between a TV/CD and a TS?? Two years.'

    Of course, sometimes it's true - but not always. That implies we can only be either male, or female (what I meant by binary) - and, for myself, I know I'm something of both and sit happily somewhere in the middle?
    Nicki

    [SIZE="1"]Moi?[/SIZE]

  22. #72
    Black, Hollow & Cold balletchick's Avatar
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    I to feel I was born this way. I have been dressing since I was a child. It feels natural to me, I'm more relaxed and clear minded when dressed feminine

  23. #73
    Member Marjory's Avatar
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    Knew I loved dressing and knew I had to hide it from as far back as I can remember... I think it's biological, maybe not genetic but, somewhere in my chemistry for whatever reason.

  24. #74
    Senior Age Member sissystephanie's Avatar
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    How about Because I like to!!

    I'm in agreement with Karren H! Have no clue as to whether the desire is genetic, biological, or whatever! And you know what? I don't give a "hoot"!!!!

    I dress because I like the fit, feel, and look of feminine things. Not for sexual reasons at all. Been doing this thing for over 60 years and the reasons haven't changed! But under the silk and satin, or whatever, I am still the same male I was at birth!! O.K., maybe a little worn, but hey I have been around the block a few times!!

    Over these many years I have done a lot of research, and come up with a whole lot of "answers." Depends on whose book you read, or who you listen to. But I think a lot of us dress simply because we like to! Is that "genetic," or the way we were raised? Do any of us really care?? I know I don't!!

    Stephanie

    Lady on the outside, but man underneath

  25. #75
    Chrissy Lynn Thomas
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    I was born as a cross dresser, although I hate that word and prefer transgender. As long as I can remember I have always wanted to be a woman and just really adored women and not just in a sexual sense. To me there is a certain level of mystique that women have. I am making no claims to being a scientist that has conducted years of research but I do believe that transgender is part of the make-up of our brains whether or not we started at a young age or later in life. I base this on the fact that what else would cause a man to put on woman’s clothing at free will. Having said that, yes there are those that it is purely a sexual fulfillment and they get nothing else out of it. But for most of us here it is more. It is part of who we are. Once we are able to accept that we have no shame in what we do. It is just one small (or large) component of what we are.

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