CD...."a hobby"?

[Diana Bain]

Just curious. There are those of you out there who describe your crossdressing as "a hobby." How did this hobby start?...friend down the street did it..saw what you thought was a crossdresser and decided to give it a try (I'm not trying to be a smartass.) With all that we go through as CD's (both the good and unfortunately the very bad for some) , if find it interesting that some would call it a hobby.

[VictoriaPaul]

I don't think its a hobby. Its more like a compulsion. I first got interested in trying it at age 9, when I considered dressing up as a Roman soldier (with the pleated miniskirt) for halloween. I didn't end up doing that. It really started for me when I was 13 1/2.

At that age, my parents bought me some super stretchy jersey a-shirts. I wasn't thrilled, but when I tried them on, I realized it was skin-tight and covered my butt like a mini-dress. I then tried it in privacy, and felt compelled to try the other jerseys as skirts. I had 6 pairs total, and used 3 on my legs and 3 on my upper body. The upper jerseys were long enough to cover the "skirt" jerseys' arm holes, making it all look like a long, white, jersey dress.

This pseudo-dress reached my upper calves or bellow my knees. I loved feeling nothing between my legs. I sat down and looked in the mirror, thinking "this feels SOO right"

I then tried wearing some of my boxers as mini-skirts (my mom never wore skirts or dresses, so I didn't have much to try).

I loved how these "skirts" made me feel sexually excited AND feel very comfortable at the same time.

At that time I had no idea what sexual excitement was. I didn't have my first orgasm until half a year later, so I thought I needed to go pee. Nothing came out though.

I kept doing this until I figured out how to orgasm, and have incorporated crossdressing into "the deed" ever since.

I don't think its purely sexual though, since I would get a tramendous feeling of relief simply from the act of putting on a skirt or dress. The longer the skirt was, the greater the relief.

This is why I'm not sure if I'm just a CD or a TS.

[Julie Denier]

I think for me, it's a compulsion that became like a hobby, if that makes any sense. Started with trying on my mom's heels as a kid, progressing to other garments as a teen, but no full-on, head-to-toe dressing until my late 30s about three years ago. I think my history as a model builder (HO trains) gives me an advanced attention to detail, thus fueling my desire to improve my makeup, hair, padding, etc. Models emulate the prototype, and as a crossdresser, I guess I'm a life-size model of a woman :D

[maxjohnson]

I don't think it is a hobby or even a lifestyle, its just something I do and it help define me. When I was young I thought it was just a fetish thing, but overtime it seemed more natural.

[Karren H]

Like a combination of a hobby and a sport.... lots of collecting things... and practicing for the big "game"!

[Stephanie47]

Hobby? I build plastic military models. I have may be more than 100 built. I have another 75 or so unbuilt. I use to actively collect coins until a United Airlines baggage handler stole my collection. I collect stamps until I lost interest. Cross dressing a hobby?

I will admit to some compulsive disorder to a part of it. How else do I explain more than 400 slips? I have severely curtailed buying more slips in the same manner that I curtail buying more military models for my stash.

Hobby? Right now I am full en femme, sans makeup. I am doing the chores around the house en femme. I feel great. If I collected slips and did not wear any of them, then I'd say I collected lingerie. This is more than a passing fad to take up my spare/free time. I suspect if my wife were to pass away tomorrow, I'd be wearing my hobby 24/7 except when required to dress as a man.

I think I'll switch over to eBay and look for a good price for that MRC H-34 US Marine helicopter in 1/48 scale to go along with the Marine CH-46 I bought last week.

[Lorileah]

In many cases, I believe, when someone here uses the word "hobby" it is just a place holder for a word they cannot define. The majority of people here in the forum don't do this like building scale models, or rebuilding classic cars or painting. They do it because they have an inner need to do it. I often tell people if I were going to do something just for fun, why would I choose something where you are stigmatized, put down, laughed at, even put physically at risk?? Why would I choose to join a minority when I can easily be the one who has all the perks?

If I were to choose a hobby I think I would choose one where it made my life easier....not more difficult

[~Joanne~]

I agree with Lorileah 100% on this one. I don't, and have never, considered this a hobby. Though sometimes I have as much fun as I would with a hobby, it just isn't.

[michelleddg]

First and foremost, it's embedded in my DNA, a life long compulsion. However, given that, yes, it's a hobby too! I spend lots of time on this and other sites, and on youtube, gathering tips and techniques to help me with my look and to fight the ravages of time. I seek out fun new experiences e.g., professional makeovers, boudoir photo shoots, that both feed my inner girlie and stretch myself. I'm comfortable that compulsion and hobby peacefully co-exist and are mutually supportive. Hugs, Michelle

[4mymichelle]

I agree with Lorileah 100% on this one. I don't, and have never, considered this a hobby. Though sometimes I have as much fun as I would with a hobby, it just isn't.

I also share the thoughts of Lorileah and Joanne. The term hobby just does not apply to how I feel about crossdressing. As many others have done, I have collected stamps, coins, cards, and model trains in the past. Now those activities are what are classified as hobbies. The desire and need to crossdress just does not fit in the category. In addition there is such a wide range of levels that each person may be at, some are happy with just the way something feels, for others full transformations. There definitely not just a hobby.

[Jaymees22]

Why not call it a "hobby". Sort of a weird, sometimes secret hobby that only a lucky few of us participate in. We attempt to build pretty women out of the parts we were given, which is challenging and ultimately satisfying when and if we succeed. Jaymee

[mikiSJ]

Thank you Diane for bringing this up.

Hobby? I have hobbies. I like to make fine furniture. I like to take and manipulate fine image.

I have a lifestyle that includes dressing and presenting as a woman. Hobby, NO! Compulsion, NO!

[AllieSF]

I sometimes call it a hobby, other times a lifestyle, other times it is something that I like to do. It is like the rest of the labels and like Lorileah said, it is not always easy to accurately put a name to. I like labels because it gets me orientated to where someone is, who they might be and lets me bring past experience into a conversation or how I listen to what others might say. Keeping an open mind helps to understand. So, today it may be a hobby or not.

[Princess Chantal]

Yes it is definitely a hobby for me!!!!
My first experience of crossdressing could be attributed to my curious young wandering mind at age 9 or 10ish. I was very fascinated with pantyhose and wondered why the female gender wore them.
When I was in my early twenties, my girlfriend at the time dressed me up for a Halloween party in which a crossdresser was hosting. My wondering about on the net shortly afterwards brought me to the kink/fetish/bdsm sides of crossdressing. Shortly after joining the Masquerade crossdressing social group and becoming more engaged to the tg community, I had started treating my crossdressing with gender being the more of the focus. After going a couple years treating it as possibly a gender related lifestyle, I came to more of a clear picture that my crossdressing in that way did not bring a true smile to my face. Therefore, by having crossdressing as a hobby or as an interest put me into a happy place somewhat like all the rest of my hobbies.....

[Lynn Marie]

I particularly like Jaymee's comment. "We attempt to build pretty women out of the parts we were given" I think that is so cool, I wish I would have said it!

[Ina Girdle]

I am guilty!! Sorry, the last thing I wanted to do was start a firestorm. I described my cross-dressing as a hobby, when in fact it is a HUGE mystery and I am trying to come to terms with it after 54 years. My first memories of CD'ing was when I was very young, maybe 6 years old, I remember being fascinated with my mother's lingerie, specifically a girdle, I would put it on and have to hold it up because it was way too big for me, (not now for sure!). Other moments of joy were to get my hands on the Sears and Eaton's (Canadian Iconic Retailer) Catalogs and spend hours going through pages of girdles and bras and picking out my favorite ones on each page and learning about all the types and names of the pretty underwear, (yea pretty freaky when you put it on paper). I am finding that I am rather typical of men of my age who finally decide after years of denial & guilt that I don't want to feel this way anymore, life is to short and I want to explore my inner femme, with my wife's consent and support.

I could have used another term like passion, desire, urge, intense interest. I did not mean to make light of it or offend any of you. I guess you are right, you choose a hobby, I certainly did not choose to be like this, I'm just trying to make the best of it.

I Really enjoy the chance to digitally talk with all of you.
Ina

[Cheryl Ann Owens]

For myself I can't call it a hobby. I have hobbies but dressing fulfills a special need for me and that is to feel what is my inner self.

Cheryl

[Erica Marie]

Not a hobby for me. It is more of a way to express who I am, or should I say who I should be.

[Diana Bain]

I am guilty!! Sorry, the last thing I wanted to do was start a firestorm. I did not mean to make light of it or offend any of you. I guess you are right, you choose a hobby,
Ina

Ina, your fine. My post is more a question than a judgment. I to remember rushing to get my hands on a Sears catalog in the early '70's...I did the same thing

[Princess Chantal]

Geez I should have read more of the posts in this thread (other than the original) before wasting my time typing out my post. I should have known that this thread was going to go the way of many other threads that people ignore the question only to simply state that "it's either not or is a hobby to them".
Great question by the way Diana, could have been an interesting discussion

[Beverley Sims]

I think I call it a hobby in preference to a perversion.
Nobody gave me the Idea.
I did it all by myself.
When I look back what I was doing at seven years of age I must have been a little pervert.

[Rachelakld]

I call it a hobby because like models, oil painting, electric gizmos, I can put it down for a week.
Like a hobby, if I see a new dress, new X-Wing, oil paint, I can chose if I should buy it or not.
Where it differs for me, while most hobbies I can walk away for a year or so, this one has to be more regular.
How did it start, I saw some cool V8 cars which I liked so eventually I got one.
I also saw how cool girls have it, so I wanted to experience what they experience (plus my sister had a "girls" bike when I was 4, and I wanted to ride it - but I was the wrong sex)

[Wildaboutheels]

It's a hobby because I am in "full control" 100% of the time and I have never felt bad or guilty about it. As best I remember, I "discovered" it at about 9 or 10.

[Vanessa5]

I can't call it a hobby. I enjoy all aspects of dressing. I have really miss my time as Vanessa when I can't dress. When I do my other "hobbies" I can walk away for months or even years. Not so with crossdressing. I can't go even a month without dressing for at least a day. It is more like I have to do it to relax and relieve stress (like other hobbies).

[rachaelsloane]

It probably was a hobby before I started going out but now it is way beyond that. I have friends that only know me as Rachael and way too many clothes.

[marlenesexton]

I call it a hobby. I am compelled to do it, more so sometimes than others, and I definitely have desires to experience life from the other side and have had thoughts of transitioning. But none of that is strong and it comes and goes, mostly goes. I find the clothing and the feelings sexually arousing in addition to satisfying my feminine side. I guess the difference for me is that it's not a lifestyle, so I call it a hobby. But the compulsion is there for sure. I started doing this at five and I've had periods when I was quite serious about it. I agree, hobby is a word we use due to a lack of a proper term. I think we be compared to bisexuals on the sexuality scale. We like being men and we like being women. Some of us like one more than the other and we tend to move back and forth. All I know is that when I look at a woman part of me wants her and part of me wants to be her.

By the way, some hobbies are just as compelling as this. I'm not trying to minimize how we all feel, but many people have the same passion and the same undefined urges to do other things. Photography, music, hiking, you name it. It defines them. Again, I'm not sure there is a word for stuff like this and maybe were getting tied up in the definition of hobby.

[sheilagirl]

Great Question!
I dress, en femme, everyday before I re-dress en drab, and go to work. Is that weird? Maybe. I love it though. After a couple of cups of coffee and the paper, I hit the shower and do my morning routine which includes lots of great music playing and maybe even candles burning. Shaving, moisturizing and makeup. Then it's lingerie and jewelry and dresses or skirts or slacks. I turn it into sort of a little fashion show for myself. Since I began living alone, I probably devote about an hour a day to this and have, for the last couple of years, . It really does set the tone of the day, in a positive way for me. If you look at the definition, this probably does qualify as a compulsion but soooooo what?! Sometimes things just need to play themselves out. What started decades ago for me as a young, curious boy who enjoyed watching my mother get dressed and seeing all the different layers of panties, slips, garter belts and stockings that were involved, It seems I fell under the spell of the "Pink Fog" at an early age. "Falling In Love" with all the ladies in church and admiring their fitted dresses and suits and black hose and high-heels was what kept me captivated while I knelt in the pew during those loooong hours of Mass. As I matured, my dressing-up became more sexual and what a great time it was and is, for the most part. Now it just seems natural for me. Call it what you like, it makes me feel complete and it continues to get better! Hang On!

[VictoriaPaul]

Marlene, you sound almost exactly like me (except for the part about transitioning).

When I see a beautiful woman in the street, if she's dressed in a nice skirt or dress, part of me wants her and part of me wants to BE her. I'm also the same in regards to CD'ing being BOTH sexual and emotionally relaxing/relieving.

[mikiSJ]

Keeping an open mind helps to understand. So, today it may be a hobby or not.

...and one of the better open minds I have met, either in drab or femme!


I have friends that only know me as Rachael and way too many clothes.

But, you do Rachel so well and you can never have too many clothes!

[TeresaCD]

I call it a hobby because like models, oil painting, electric gizmos, I can put it down for a week.
Where it differs for me, while most hobbies I can walk away for a year or so, this one has to be more regular.

I agree with Rachel here 'hobby' meaning not full time, but in a sense deeper than that, in that stopping seems unimaginable..

[MissTee]

Hobby only in the sense that I don't do it full time, thus I don't have another word to use. Something inside me compels me to dress. Doing so gives me a sense of inner peace that I can get from nothing else. That said, I don't spend time analyzing why. I'd rather ponder a shoe sale than my CD-ing. It is, therefore I do.

[CherylFlint]

No "hobby". I think of it as two people in one body.
One likes girls, the other guys.
One dresses as a guy, the other dresses in, well, dresses.
Twice the fun.

[MaudeB]

It's not a hobby at all for me, it's Therapy... Whenever a have a bad day, coming home (I live alone), I mostly let out some of the steam because in that state I don't want to get dress... 15 minutes after breathing more and more calmly, I get in the process of getting dressed, taking a very long time to put only hoses, forms, bra and silk gown. That's as far as my taste for CD has always taken mr and I don't plan to evolve to another step. While dressing, I separate specific events that irrated me and for each item I put on, I take the time to chose and after I put it on, I scrap from my mind the part I was tinking about... After forms and bras (15 of them) comes the release of the whole day, the gown. Then, I'm feminine up to the point I want and I can to truelly relax...

Yeah, I'm obsessive in buying hoses and bras. But then, these are my only investements in this lifestyle: forms are for the long term so are gowns... Trust me, try this way of dressing up, one "choosen" item at a time, trading this for a bad part of your day.

It can even work with good parts, for these, you get the right to choose something "special" !

Works for me !

[Frédérique]

There are those of you out there who describe your crossdressing as "a hobby." How did this hobby start? With all that we go through as CD's (both the good and unfortunately the very bad for some) , if find it interesting that some would call it a hobby.

I don’t describe my crossdressing as a hobby, but I’ll respond anyway… :straightface:

A hobby is a pastime, or something you enjoy doing in your spare time – since I do “it” during my regular time, I can’t call it a hobby. A hobby is something you like to do and regard with pride – I like to crossdress, but pride has nothing to do with it. A hobby is something that has nothing to do with the rest of your life – again, this is NOT applicable. A hobby is a thing that nobody except for you cares about – since I can’t really tell anyone about my crossdressing, nor do I wish to, this may apply, but I know that there are people who care about crossdressing like I do, namely other crossdressers. Do stamp collectors care about other stamp collectors? I think not…
:hmph:


I think I call it a hobby in preference to a perversion. When I look back what I was doing at seven years of age I must have been a little pervert.

OK, how (or why) did you begin to be a pervert? :idontknow:

Pervert = deviant = freak = weirdo = nonconformist = interesting person… :clap:

[NicoleScott]

First and foremost, it's embedded in my DNA.......

Wow. I wasn't aware that scientists have identified the crossdressing gene.

[Christine.Lolita]

Exactly. I completely get what you are saying. I dress because it is a need deep inside.

[Lexine]

I consider it an option. No longer am I limited in presenting myself as a man, and I'm now able to command the respect women get and be a lot stronger because of it.

[Tina B.]

I started dressing about 63 years ago, in that time I have had many hobbies over those years, Archery, model building, model railroading, The list goes on and on. With each sooner or later, I get bored with it, and move on to something else for a few years, and then do it again. In sixty three years having tried to give up the hobby of cross dressing, I've never been able to kick it yet, and it's the only hobby I've ever had that I can't give up.
For me, it's not a hobby, it's not a life style, it's just a part of who I am.

[Juliea661]

Hi Diana, is breathing a hobby...?
No, not hardly.
So I suppose my CDing is not either.
Like breathing, my femmine expression comes naturally to me, and is part of my essence at a very deep level.
Like not breathing, I think I would become ill if I were not able to be and express this part of me called Jules....
Hugs, Jules

[Beverley Sims]

Frédérique asks the following question in a previous post.

OK, how (or why) did you begin to be a pervert?
Wrong phrasing of the question here....
I think I have always been perverse.

It should be when did you consider you were a pervert?
Well never really, I just knew I was different and girls liked me and my funny ways, that is all that mattered to me.


Pervert = deviant = freak = weirdo = nonconformist = interesting person…
I am certainly deviant, I will tell you what you want to believe.

Freak, no, not distorted in any way at all.

Weirdo, my sense of humor is completely my own.
Nobody gets it....

Non conformist? You betcha!
Look at some of my replies on this forum.
Just because I don't get it half the time.

Interesting person.
All depends if you like the perverted, weird deviant that has a twisted sense of humor.
I am always telling people here if they want to mix successfully at parties they have to make themselves interesting.

Ok, Frédérique next question please.

If you have read this far I may have fully explained it by now.
Also there is a certain amount of weirdness in my offbeat reply. :)

[Rachel Morley]

Is it hobby?......hummm....this is maybe a good way of putting it when you are trying to explain CDing to someone when you aren't quite sure what they're reaction might be ... or perhaps this is the term I'd expect someone to say back to me when they don't really understand what CDing is for me.

You see, for me, I'd have to say it's a bit more serious than a hobby but not quite an obsession. A hobby is what I used to tell myself it was before I accepted what it really actually is for me. It effects me emotionally too much to be a hobby, I'd have to say that for me it's an integral part of who I am. I know I can't be happy without incorporating it into my everyday life.

[kimdl93]

I can't answer for hobbyists, but I can accept the notion. I mean, some people collect Disney paraphernalia or action figures, and I don't fully know why or how one would start.

My story is so much the typical one...early childhood attraction to all things feminine, followed by years of denial and repression.

[Farrah]

It was a hobby (one that I totally loved) for me. Now that I haven't dressed in about 4 years, its more of a dream now! :(

[S. Lisa Smith]

Like a combination of a hobby and a sport.... lots of collecting things... and practicing for the big "game"!

BINGO!!! I agree completely!!

[NathalieX66]

No hobby for me.
I love being a guy/I love being a girl.....don't know why, it just is.

My hobby seems squarely on aquiring guitars, particularly a wine red Gibson Les Paul that George Harrison owned. That will be my Christmas bonus.
'

[Veronica27]

My primary hobby is model railroading. I have several secondary ones, including crossdressing. If a hobby is just something we do in our spare time, then my life is also a hobby as spare time is what retirement is all about. If the fact that crossdressing is a social taboo and we would not endure the difficulties for "merely a hobby" then I would have to say the same thing about model railroading. While not as deeply ingrained a taboo as crossdressing, none-the-less there is an element of ridicule faced by model railroaders by those unwilling to accept the notion of grown men still "playing" with trains. As I reached adolescence, way back in the early 1950's, I kept my desire for model railroading as secret as my crossdressing among certain people to avoid their insults.

I can no more readily explain or even understand the reasons why I am a model railroader than I can why I crossdress. Unlike crossdressing, it has been a passion dating back beyond my earliest memories, and also unlike crossdressing I have never been able to endure lengthy periods without thinking about it or reading about it. This is my first post here in many months, and I have yet to do any crossdressing so far in 2013. I have just had no interest in doing so, but I sense it is slowly returning. If model railroading is a hobby to me, then certainly crossdressing is as well.

Like many aspects of this unusual diversion, we are all different in our needs and approaches to it. Just as some think they are transgendered while others feel they are crossdressers or some other descriptor, some of us consider it to be a hobby while others do not. I think there may be some correlation between hobby/crossdresser and between non-hobby/transgendered.

Veronica