You probably are.
You probably are.
Work on your elegance,
and beauty will follow.
Maybe you should not worry about what your "label" is, maybe you should just enjoy being who you are. What you are doing seems to make you happy and does not hurt anyone, so relax and enjoy yourself.
Here's the deal, FT. Whether or not they will admit it? It's a very rare CD or TS that has NEVER received an erotic charge from their ladies clothes or dressed image!
And, most of us CDs started out just as u r now. Don't be surprised if the desire to dress increases over the years. Not saying it will. Just don't be surprised if it DOES!
I'm 70. And, I freely admit to still being turned on by my mirror image most of the times I dress. Only, I'm no longer in such a hurry to take everything off afterwards!
Last edited by docrobbysherry; 03-14-2014 at 02:10 PM.
U can't keep doing the same things over and over and expect to enjoy life to the max. When u try new things, even if they r out of your comfort zone, u may experience new excitement and growth that u never expected.
Challenge yourself and pursue your passions! When your life clock runs out, you'll have few or NO REGRETS!
It's just semantics. Perhaps you fit some definitions of "crossdresser" and not others. Regardless of the semantics, you have something in common with the rest of us: on occasion, you wear the garments of the opposite sex (irrespective of the motivation). I happen to have the same motivation YOU have; perhaps I take it further - getting fully dressed, and venturing out into the public (to a limited extent). It is all quite stimulating. I have no desire to transition.
Last edited by Patty-Fay; 03-14-2014 at 02:27 PM.
Anyone can become a true, proper cross dresser. It just takes practice.
Lainie
You're only young once, but you can be immature forever!
So what are you supposed to practice? Putting on clothes?
Just for the record, not everyone has the same personal 'goals'. Cross-dressing is not a race.
way back when i first started, i got that sexual thrill also. At conclusion of that pathway, i was filled with disgust at both me and what had happened. But like so many have said here, that thrill dies away and the feeling of just dressing takes on a bigger meaning, and it by itself is so much better! Yes i still get a little tingle when i let Marsha out, but then, i think all women get a tingle when they put on a nice outfit and make themselves pretty. My dressing now, is for me, for Marsha, and for my sanity. the sex thing,. eehh! some other day.
what is this fetish dresser category all about.
a crossdresser is a crossdresser, no need to place a term that means many things on it.
ps...i didnt find a fetish dresser category here, who would want to term themselves a fetish dresser anyway.
jodie
This happens for a lot of CDers. It did for me. Thanks to a lovely teddy won at a lingerie show. (Although maybe not the disgust so much.. I was pretty open minded to begin with so just retained the curiosity)
But between that, then continuing to other outfits, it shifted into not necessarily sexual, but a becomes a way to express a femininity that had always been a part of me. While my discovery of this side later would probably be where I would truly think of myself a CDer, the literal technicality of putting that teddy on repeatedly decades before proves the need/enjoyment was there earlier and the general notion of CD.
So, my start was a fetish CDer until I dig further into myself and started trying to truly understand myself. And am still working on discovering.
Yes.. Although I gotta say after getting a couple corsets and things recently, that thrill's not completely dead
It's just not the most important reason anymore.
I can identify with you, as i am 59, always single, often dressed to have a thrill, aslo have had to move 2000 miles, quit my business, to help my elderly parents. My mom died at 91, dad is 93, will likely live at least another year.
Except that CDers do not experience what females feel ... not if the focus is on the exalted feelings associated with dressing and grooming - all the threads about the smoothness of shaved legs and hose, pretty panties, wearing bras to bed, etc. To females, all that is quite ordinary and there is no "elevated" feeling involved. No, judging by all those threads I read, CDers experience what CDers who fantasize about females feel.
To the OP, I agree with the others. CDing is CDing whether it is done for fetish or not. And if you ask most of the practiced members here, they will tell you there was an element of sexual expression when they were younger, even if they have moved on from that now.
Reine
Can anyone point me to the handbook for crossdressers and how we should behave?... if it existed it could be called CDBOK (book of knowledge), I wish it existed when I started out..
When I was in my teens, CDing was more as you have defined it, a means to an end. But as I have aged it is more about how I feel..
I don't like when people say that someone is not a true something. Usually is to lessen their value, saying "oh you're not part of the club because a true something does not do that".
So don't do it to yourself. In my eyes you are a crossdresser, end of story. Nowadays I have a very different approach to CDing myself, but I started just like you. You can "evolve" and enjoy other sides of it, besides the sexual thrill. Or you can stay where you are and do it your own way. Just go with the flow and enjoy it.
I experience much the same as you have with the early excitement now over thirty years ago. I was once happy with just a pair of panties for sexual fulfilment, I am now so happy and contented, fully dressing most evenings and weekends with hardly a thought about sexual fulfilment. I never thought of myself as a CD until about eight years ago, how much better my life became once I embraced my feminine side.
I dislike labels as a rule, with cross-dressing there are so many other things that could go hand in hand with it, such as submissiveness, nylon, silk, satin, even a leather fetish to name but a few. The taboo with cross-dressing makes it even more fun in a way.
So I am a cross-dresser, am I a proper cross-dresser? Who know? Who cares?
Lynn
I believe that's how it started for me, now thirty years later I have make-up, 2 wigs , a full women's wardrobe. I have never classified myself all I know is I love wearing women's clothing and the great feeling of being dressed as a women. I believe as long as you enjoy wearing the opposite sex cloths I consider a person a crossdresser.
thanks for all your replies, ive accepted that this is who i am an if i live to be 100 i will still be dressin up in sexy undies an fancy dresses! i imagine that a the sexual aspect will eventually fade (im only 44) in the passing years... but as i read someones replie it's basicaly because i dont have a wife or girlfriend im putting all the sensual energy into my own little fantasies....to fill the void, gap, call it what you will... it's the eroctic drive i would put into a real relationship if i were maybe to have a partner! but thats another story
I've been accused of being a fake woman, but never a fake crossdresser. I don't believe there is such a thing.
I'm a bit the same, it's more about the clothes for me. I really don't know what I'm going to do with these feelings tho, and still need some time for self-disovery. I'm still afraid of buying my own clothes, but that might come in the following months. For now, I'm pretty content with my life.
The way to separate the True Crossdressers™ from the posers like me (I do a lot of posing when I dress) is to form a union where members have to meet minimum qualifications. For a name I suggest either the International Fraternal Association of Eonist (IFAE) or the Protective Order Of Femulators (POOF). Whatdyathink?
I probably can't join because I don't think of myself as "a" Crossdresser™ at all. Crossdressing is just something I do adjunct to my main fetish.
There is a wide spectrum under the umbrella of "cross-dresser". About the only thing that you need to be a "true cross-dresser" is to feel good from the experience. It could be sexual or non-sexual.
You say you started at an early age. If so, were you satisfying yourself sexually when you started? Many cross-dresser's I've talked to say that it started before puberty and at first it was a fun thrill, but it was not sexual until puberty. At puberty it seems to be very sexual, and then as you get older it seems to get harder to get sexual gratification from it. However even as you get older you feel a great sense of well-being, comfort, and self-identity.
The thing is, right now you are running on testosterone. Testosterone is responsible for your sex drive. It is not responsible for your cross-dressing. Most likely your cross-dressing is a product of the neurotransmitters in your brain. When you cross-dress your brain interprets it as contact with a woman and releases dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and other neurotransmitters which produce the sensations of well-being and gratification.
I've always believed that about MY, "feeling like a woman", feelings, Reine. Never having a clue WHAT they really feel like, I've always thot my "fem feelings" were nothing more than my fantasy of what women mite feel like.
However, I believe a number of women have said that after they r dressed to the 9's, all made up and ready to go out? They have looked in the mirror and thot, "That is one smokin' hot, sexy babe. I'd do her!" The same as many dressers do!
U can't keep doing the same things over and over and expect to enjoy life to the max. When u try new things, even if they r out of your comfort zone, u may experience new excitement and growth that u never expected.
Challenge yourself and pursue your passions! When your life clock runs out, you'll have few or NO REGRETS!
replying to 'what females feel' when dressed'...my observations have been that the way I feel when wearing panties and a bralette under 'normal drab'--which I do often and for relatively long periods of time--is different from the way I feel in jockey briefs and a just a t-shirt. This isn't a mental thing, but how clothes feel on my body when worn. Right now I am wearing panties, a bralette, tight stretchy jeans and a drab t-shirt, feeling very fem and comfortable. Oh, and I forgot to mention, strappy pink sandals. A lot of the time this feels really normal to me, perhaps more normal than all drab.
I really can't understand why the label thing causes so much fuss, it's only a few threads ago since it came up ! Transvestite translate from the Latin, trans= to cross, vestite= clothes, = crossdresser. There is no sexual content in the literal translation.
I have no problem with either label, all I know now is I'm a lifelong member.