how did the internet effect crossdressing

[Natalie_393]

Around 10 to 15 years ago , everybody wasn't on the internet yet and we didn't have this site and many others like it, This is a first where 1000's of crossdessers around the world get to contact each other for answers or just a another crossdressing friend you can talk to, was crossdressing different before the internet? I'm 25 I didn't really get into dressing up until when I was 16 by then I was looking for answers and others like me.The internet was there, but it wasn't around up until the late 90's, how is the internet making crossdressing more known.

[BiancaEstrella]

Around 10 to 15 years ago , everybody wasn't on the internet yet and we didn't have this site and many others like it, This is a first where 1000's of crossdessers around the world get to contact each other for answers or just a another crossdressing friend you can talk to, was crossdressing different before the internet? I'm 25 I didn't really get into dressing up until when I was 16 by then I was looking for answers and others like me.The internet was there, but it wasn't around up until the late 90's, how is the internet making crossdressing more known.

It's done a few things:

1) This, and sites like it, as a resource to discuss amongst others
2) Positive vessels to show that most crossdressers DON'T fit the Jerry Springer stereotype
3) It can help with dating, since you can put that right at the forefront, and thus begin filtering out people who consider it a dealbreaker
4) Shopping is exponentially easier

Just to name three. Of course, the signal-to-noise ration still needs improving; there are many anonymous people who use the barrier of a computer screen to hurl invectives our way.

I can't much answer for the pre-internet era and how it actually was then -- I don't know, was there like a crossdressers pen pal service?

[ColleenW]

How has it changed things?

Well I think that a lot of us started out thinking that we were alone, at least I did and it was quite a shock to find so many others out there for support. One of the best things is no longer having to experiment, if I have a question about makeup or waxing, bra fitting, etc. I can come here and get answers and recommendations. It helps to see what others are doing too; it's great for ideas. Just to name a few.

[Vickie_CDTV]

I got online around 1996, so I was around at the dawn of CDing online. But, I started getting involved with the TG community shortly before, so I remember some of the way it was just before.

One way the internet changed things is that it was very hard to find resources, support groups, etc. The main way people found others and the TG community at large was through print magazines and newsletters (often only available at dirty book stores.) Sometimes there were talk shows that covered TG topics (thank you Donahue) and gave out contact information.

Ironically, many of those popular TG magazines some of us remember from those days (like LadyLike and Tapestry) are now out of business since everything is now online.

One other thing is shopping. It is so much easier with the option to shop online than deal with the embarrassment some feel shopping in person. One can also find things that are hard to find (such as womans shoes over a size 11) so much easier, and shopping online is so much faster than shopping through catalogs.

[Patty B.]

It is like night and day, little to no information available, even in a college library, only clinical studies, cases. Very little useful info, and if you live in a rural area, it was and still can be restrictive. Used to suspect I was not alone, but now I know, I definately not the only crossdresser. Just the amount of info and help that is available is a real benefit to the internet. I'll never know what life would have been with the internet, but I'm sure glad its here now.

[Sarah_GG]

Hopefully you mean how did the internet affect crossdressing, because if the internet was responsible for effecting crossdressing... well?! :devil:

The internet is a valuable learning resource for crossdressers and their loved ones. You do have to be selective though. When I first googled 'crossdressers' I came up with all sorts of bizarre sites - some porn, some anti-CD, some supportive and some not.

The internet must be applauded, at the very least, for allowing crossdressers to feel that they're not alone. And that there is a wide world of support, opinion and help out there.

sorry :love:

[Gillian]

Well, how did the internet have an impact on me?

I learned to no longer feel ashamed of being a crossdresser thats for sure. I ahve met online via here some wonderful new friends and they are friends as they understand and comfort me, make me happy, help me explore who Gillian was and will be, and listen to me in some dark days, I listen also as that is what friends are? right?

It has taught me how to be better at my passion with clothes make-up and forms, has given me confidence beyond my wildest dreams and has opened my eyes to so many things I cannot put them down here but enough to say, I have been so grateful to the invention of the internet.

[Engendered]

Are there no potential downsides? Everyone seems to be posting the positives. :)
It certainly is helping us to get out there, encouraging us to leave our shell more as we feel more comfortable, but it's also increasing the likelihood that people who we don't want to know will find out. We need to be careful about what information (even these posts), that we put out there. The best bet is to assume that everyone you know may one day read these and see all your pics.

Anyway, a small example from my own life a few days ago about how the internet has changed. I have my male/female self quite separate in day to day life. With that in mind, I also have separate email addresses for my guy self and female self. I only use my female email address to contact a few of my friends and on sites like this.

So I needed to contact someone and the only place I found them was facebook, so I decided to make a facebook account for my female self. I registered with my email address (I did not allow facebook access to my address book), and it *instantly* suggested around 30 people that I may know. Around 20 of these were CD. Obviously at some point, these 30 people allowed facebook to access their own address books and my email was in there. It's sort of funny that facebook, even before I joined it, knew that the person at my email address was likely a CD.

Now, let me end this by saying that I'm out to all my friends, and my closest family, so this doesn't worry me too much, but it is interesting to know just how much information sites can compile about a person without you even thinking about it too much.

[Cathy J]

The internet and this forum in particular have changed my long life as a crossdresser much for the better. Before, I had no contact with others like myself and was waaaay deep in the closet. I'm still in the closet, but now have a better handle on life. In a nutshell, I understand myself better now.

Of course, shopping for clothes is sure a heck of lot easier via the internet especially using Pay-Pal.

I love this forum and all you girls. CD's and GG's.

[AKAMichelle]

Before the internet I didn't understand what I was and why. 2 years ago I finally started exploring and found this site and several groups which opened my eyes to the whole thing.

My life would have been much different if I had known all of this years ago.

[kimdl93]

The internet has certainly made it easier to become part of the network of CDers and been a great resource for information on every imaginable subject we might be interested in exploring. The downside, beyond the privacy issue, would probably be the substitution of an on-line existence for a real life existence. Its easier sometimes to find a sympathetic listener here than out there, but I'm concerned that its all to easy to become isolated from people.

[Jorja]

I first started crossdressing back in the early 70's. I had met a group of crossdressers at a club and really hit it off with them. One thing led to another and soon I was asking them for help with my own look and style. As Patty B. said, there was little to no information available. I guess we made it up as we went. Too bad we didn't write it down and publish a book. We could have cashed in when the internet arrived. We were too busy having fun.

[Christine Andrews]

For me, the Internet made crossdressing infinitely more accessible in terms of providing information in a supportive and annonymous context. It has enabled people to learn about crossdressing in manner which reduces shame and/or any embarrassment an individual may feel (some of both in my own case:)).

It has allowed businesses in the niche of the transgender segment of the market to develop and grow and reach a greater market - you don't have to rely on hear say or local knowledge to discover them, now you simply use any search engine of preference and you have list of options. This also empowers us, giving us choices and access to products which general high street brands may not carry.

If you wish to maintain anonymity you don't have to shop out of town, many onlne stores ship in discreet packaging and one can always order under an alias if you feel it necessary.

The internet has given crossdressers a invaluable commercial environment but far more important and beneficial is the support of the social aspect. For me personally, this website has been a rock and the many members have provided incredible feedback and advice whether to my (rare) threads or to community in response to other users queries. This ability to seek and receive advice and guidance in a setting of anonymity (or familiarity as users become more well known:)), with different perspectives and experiences, from around the world is a great boon.

Whilst there are drawbacks with the internet including the question of true anonymity, web security, the potential for abuse and individuals misrepresenting themselves for their own amusement - the benefits of the internet upon crossdressing far outweigh the negative.

For me personally, the internet has had the effect of empowering not just crossdressers but all trangender individuals from anywhere on the gender spectrum.

[BRANDYJ]

It has opened a world of information about what until the Internet was so hard to find. Very few books had ever been written about the topic. So how was anyone faced with needing or wanting to know if they were alone, ever find any good information.
The Internet is the best Information highway to ever come along. But we have to be careful of exactly what information we read since as someone said, it's not all good. So much is porn or anti crossdressing due to asinine religious beliefs base don mis quotes of the Bible.

[Tina B.]

Change, you want to talk change huh? Well I started dressing back in the mid 50's when just a small child. I knew I was a one of a kind, a freak of nature, until I saw Christine Jorgenson on the cover of Life magazine. For you young ones, she was the first American sex change, at lest the first one we heard of. I kept that mag as long as I could and read her story over and over. In my twenty's when I first heard of a Transvestite, it sounded like me, so I looked it up in my old Websters dictionary, and the word did not exist, at lest not to my dictionary. I broke the word up, Trans-vest-tite and figured it out for myself
Trans-to cross over, vest, and article of clothing, tite seem to suggest an action I figured, and that was all I could find, until I got the nerve to start going to "Adult Book Stores" Those always seemed so seeded, and things like Chicks With D#%ks, was never what I was looking for. And you all know what we have now! Down side to the net, hard to maintain your privacy if you put to much out there, but if you do put it out there, having thousands of people to talk with from all over the world, it's all well worth the risk.
Tina B.

[Frédérique]

This is a first where 1000's of crossdessers around the world get to contact each other for answers or just a another crossdressing friend you can talk to, was crossdressing different before the internet The internet was there, but it wasn't around up until the late 90's, how is the internet making crossdressing more known.

You’re talking about ancient history! When I was younger, in an attempt to learn ANYTHING about crossdressing, I mean real crossdressing (not dressing up for laughs or entertainment), I used to tiptoe into the adult area of my local library and look for books about gender “variations.” They had a few, and I read them all over time, but the knowledge therein was woefully inadequate. Subsequently, I dressed in a vacuum, not knowing why (which is a GOOD thing), simply enjoying each moment en femme as it unfolded. But, something was missing, and as soon as I had access to the Internet, I looked up crossdressing. That simple exercise caused a renaissance of sorts (in my appreciation of what I had already achieved), and I soon learned that I was somewhere in the middle of the pack, a tranny among trannies. :battingeyelashes: Finding others like me was a revelation, because when I first entered the world of crossdressing I had to cut through a dense jungle of sexuality – it was only when I made my way to sites like this that I relaxed. It’s OK to NOT be what everybody thinks you are, and it’s wonderful to have a place for discussion. All my friends are here, you know…:)

[StaceyJane]

I remember when I was first out of college. I was really struggling with my gender feelings and the internet barely existed. I fought myself alone for a long time.
Since the internet came along I have found so many people just like me. I have gained the courage to explore myself and I am so much happier.

[pernille d]

prity much like all of you the internet has had a possitive effect on me but with some downsides.

good points = i found out i was not alone, very much not alone!!! + over the last year via the internet i have found out who and what i am,found friends,learnt a great deal about being a cd and i have found out its ok to be different.I have developed quickly as i have gone from being in closset to going in public so it has bosted my confidence 10 fold .

bad points = i spend too much time on the net + as i found the answer to many questions that has made me depressed because i can see what is ahead of me and all of the hard choices i will have to make in the future.

[windycissy]

The Internet changed everything...for those of us ancient enough to remember dusty card catalogues at the public library ("Transvestite" was right before "Transylvania") and furtive mail order pickups in brown paper envelopes at the post office, the Internet meant liberation, and much more: you can live exclusively in the virtual world of course, but for me the Internet has given me a way to hook up with real people I met on this forum, etc and go out and do fun stuff together, like square dancing in a petticoat and playing tennis in a little white dress, things I would never have imagined possible.

[Paula TV]

I'm really glad when I came of adult age, the internet era was already in full swing. If it wasn't for the internet, I wouldn't have been able to dress in the full garb with real women's clothes that fit me! I wouldn't have as many photos either. I would find it very hard to go into shops alone and buy from scratch as a guy.

[Starling]

...I wouldn't have as many photos either...

Yes, the digital camera pretty much changed everything. It's at least as crucial as the Internet to our ability to meet each other and be a community.

:) Lallie

[Tina B.]

Lallie, your right, I don't have to maintain a darkroom since the Digital era of photography, but I did find a down side to the net, I goggled the word transgendered, and they came up with 4,490,000 sites, unfortunately I figure over 4,000,000 of them are probably pornographic, not that that bothers me, but for SO's and family trying to learn more about us, they have no way to know which has relevance and which doesn't. And even if you do know, there is just so much trash out there to dig through to find the gems, such as this site.
But all things considered, for us, I believe these are the "Good old Days".
Tina B.

[Starling]

That's a problem, Tina. Perhaps there should be a Good Crossdressing seal of approval.

:heehee: Lallie

[Danni Bear]

Tina,

Not only are they porno but also repeat themselves hundreds of times. Most are infected with viruses also,be careful out there. You never know what you will find or it find you.

Danni

[longdog]

Well I was able to buy clothes I was to embarrassed to buy in person... I bought a tight Speedo One Piece, which felt great, but had to throw it away as it became increasingly harder to find hiding spots from my girl friend. I let her in my room and she started to clean it, and almost opened an area where I was hiding it when I stepped out for a second.

And I found out im not the only guy doing it (what a relief).....


Now if only I could find a girl who's ok with it on the Internet....

[fluffy]

One of the best things is surely how we feel less alone with our problems. Crossdressing seems more normal because we know there are SO many others out there. We're not even a small minority in society.

This gives us the awareness that we are sufficiently many that we can demand to be treated and seen as relatively normal. Many of us just don't know that yet. But the truth will ultimately win.

I don't think the internet helps with finding partners though - at least not for me. I know some people have found their matches like that but I wouldn't even know where to look because I don't trust dating sites.

[Katheryn]

Around 10 to 15 years ago , everybody wasn't on the internet yet and we didn't have this site and many others like it, This is a first where 1000's of crossdessers around the world get to contact each other for answers or just a another crossdressing friend you can talk to, was crossdressing different before the internet? I'm 25 I didn't really get into dressing up until when I was 16 by then I was looking for answers and others like me.The internet was there, but it wasn't around up until the late 90's, how is the internet making crossdressing more known.

I was going to break up your quote and reply to parts of it, but decided, instead, to answer it as a whole, as it applies to me.

Pre-internet, there were local BBS's, and, while not as widely used as site on the internet, due to having to place a long distance call to log on, they did offer me the first outlet to others who had non-societally acceptable differences, gay, bisexual, trans people, etc. who had previously all been in the closet had an outlet, suddenly, to others like themselves, me included. A door opened to a whole new world of others like me. This meant, to me, that I wasn't alone, that there were others out there like me, and that I wasn't necessarily going to be stoned to death for wearing women's clothes.

It was the folks I met on those BBS's long ago that gave me the understanding and courage to come out to the friends and family to whom I revealed my "horrible secret". Found out it wasn't so horrible after all.

Since that time, the internet has broadened that feeling and helped me to understand that there's many different people out there who run the gamut from crossdressers to post op transexuals, and that everyone's path is valid for them, but not everyone. There are T* people of every background and every group, politically, religiously, etc.

That's how the internet has affected me and my dressing, now, for your actual question, I'm not so sure it's affected society as a whole, since most people won't come to a site like this or be exposed in their net surfing to the reality of crossdressing or transexuality. It has probably helped some crossdressers educate loved ones to the reality by refering them to the site, family or SO's. But mainstream society not so much, IMHO.

Kate

[stefanie]

i remember when the internet was first launched..... and well good ol' dial up aol too.

I recall on of my very first queries was about transgenderism. There were not chat or groups at the time......but Just to find out more was an inspiration itself.... that i wasn't alone and that it seemed there were more of us than I ever would have thought.

what really surprised me though was the amount of admirers and the diversity in the transgendered community itself.....

[Gerrijerry]

internet? what is the internet?

[erica12b]

up tell the net ,i thought i was mostly alone there where some storys in the paper and on tv but i did not think there where very many cds out there,but there are, just not around my area, i also now know its ok to dress and have started to except myself

[NV Susan]

OMG, good question. I've been cross dressing a long time, way before computers. Besides the benefit of shopping online I think the biggest thing this has done for me is to let me know how many of us are out here!!

[HundredWings]

It's done both good and bad things:

On the one hand, it connects people with a similar interest, even one that most wouldn't call 'normal'. In addition, it shows that crossdressing isn't this terrible, horrible thing.

On the other, there's an abysmal signal-to-noise ratio in terms of wholesome crossdressing resources like this one and the fetish/porn/etc resources that aren't inherently bad but tend to crowd it out for crossdressers and aspiring crossdressers that aren't really looking for it.

[Jessica Who]

To me, the biggest thing is the sense of community. I can easily recall those times during childhood when I felt all alone in this world. I would get glimpses of men in drag from movies and television, but it was always an obvious joke.

The Internet gives us a safe haven with great forums like these and allows for better communication and friendships that would have otherwise not been possible.
:love:

[Satrana]

Before the internet many CDs thought they were freaks of nature and the only person in the world to have this interest. Such thoughts ensured a deeply closeted existence with no thoughts of ever coming out to anyone including SOs. Even when you did discover there were others like you, the image was terrible - we were sexual perverts and medical books listed us as a psychological disease.

So pre-internet so very depressing and very isolated. No support, no information about how or why or what to do. Just a big black hole of guilt and shame.

I would never have found the courage to come out to anyone never mind walk about in public. And i would be eternally confused as to why this happened to me but now I have solid answers to my questions. And I can offer advice and support to others and help foster a sense of pride in the community and a willingness to fight for our rights to be treated fairly and with respect.

I was on the internet early on from 95 onwards. You would be surprised just how far the community has come in just the last 15 years. There has been major shifts in ideas and understanding and the will to be true to ourselves has blossomed exponentially. There is now a real sense of pride emerging.

Pre internet = Dark Ages of ignorance and prejudice
Post internet = Renaissance of new hopes and ideas

[NicolaD]

I can trace back my desire to CD to when I was still in Junior School, and wishing I was dressed as a school girl. That was way back in the early 70's before anyone had even heard of Home Computers let alone the Internet

Back then after been caught a few times by my parents and been told that what I was doing was evil and a sin. I was one very confused and mixed up boy, just didn't understand what I was or why I needed to CD.

I like many around that time, thought I was unique and alone. And the desire to CD must be wrong and sinful. I only wish we had the Internet back then, when I was younger, it would have helped a great deal.

For me my saving grace came late one night, when I saw a television advert for the Beaumont Society transvestite support group . After sometime I got up the courage to phone them. And that’s when I learnt alot about myself and about transvestism, and that I was not alone and far from unique.
I was certainly far more relaxed and comfortable with myself knowing that I was a transvestite and that my desires were actually natural to many.

I believe that sites like this serve a great good, with the information and support that it has to offer. I just wish I had access to it 30 years ago. Just glad I made contact with that Beaumont Society support group.

[KatieV]

If there had been an internet forty years ago I'd be a different girl today; I was born too late. I cetainly would have gone farther, faster, and probably would have experimented with hormones. And my mother would have probably supported me, too, had she seen that it was so prevelant.

[tanya1976]

As well as being a invaluable source of information it does afford one the chance to interact with other people like myself from behind the safety of a computer screen. Although I'm sure I will have to step out from behind the glass sooner or later!

[Charleen]

B/I, it was the dark ages! Like alot have said, I thought I was alone and a freak. I've known since I was a child I had the wrong equipment.:sad:
The depression I suffered most of my life as well as the guilt and shame was mind boggling!
I found this site.:D Now I am embracing who I am.:battingeyelashes:
I'm not going to play what if. The internet wasn't around when I was growing up, but who knows what would have happened?

[JaytoJillian]

1. I realized that I was not alone.

2. I realized that you can learn how to do just about anything.

[Kaz]

Lallie, your right, I don't have to maintain a darkroom since the Digital era of photography, but I did find a down side to the net, I goggled the word transgendered, and they came up with 4,490,000 sites, unfortunately I figure over 4,000,000 of them are probably pornographic, not that that bothers me, but for SO's and family trying to learn more about us, they have no way to know which has relevance and which doesn't. And even if you do know, there is just so much trash out there to dig through to find the gems, such as this site.
But all things considered, for us, I believe these are the "Good old Days".
Tina B.

Tina, you are right, but this applies to just about anything... google 'heterosexual' and the same thing happens!

The internet has tyotally opened up my acceptance of Kaz and so is positive. But the amount of information out there and the software that is being developed to find things and make connections is scary indeed!

[Starling]

If there had been an internet forty years ago I'd be a different girl today...

Me too, Kay, for sure.

:) Lallie