Why men to women?

[julie marie1]

When the term crossdresser is used immediately what comes to mind is a man dressed in women's clothes. I don't have a problem with this since I find it to be a very enjoyable activity. But I do wonder why an equal number of women are not interested in passing as men

[Donnagirl]

Many do but it's just so much more acceptable for them. I'm working on 'permission' at work, but a girl who I work with wears men's shirts, a mans suit even male shoes... No permission, no one cares...

[Sandra]

You would be surprised they are about but they don't do it for passing they transition which as we know is totally different than passing. We had a lot of FtMs here on this site and still have a few that post, but they didn't get the support like the MtF do.

[PaulaQ]

Women can wear most men's clothes without issue. It is a social assymetry from feminism. There are plenty of gender variant females and FtMs, including drag kings and trans men.

They are simply invisible until they put in a huge effort at presentation, or undergo hormone therapy. This invisibility sounds like it's easier, but has its own special problems.

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Julie Marie, They have been doing that for years and no one really cares.:daydreaming:

[Jenniferathome]

Despite the "it's acceptable for women" sentiment that pervades this site, women do not cross dress en mass. Women wear women's clothes, cut for them.

The he few women that actually cross dress are noticed but it is not as bad as for men cross dressing but it is noticed and they would be perceived as lesbians, in the same way we are perceived as gay. What would be interesting to know is if they identify as gay or male and what are their testosterone levels as compared to the population of women.

[JadeEmber]

If you read Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home: Tragicomic," you'll see someone who is clearly a FtM crossdressser (she doesn't view herself as a transman but as an "unusual woman"). it kind of touches on it, though -- at one point, she imagines being in the Stonewall Riots and wondering whether she had the necessary "three pieces of women's clothing." It's not perceived the same way, even though at a young age she clearly wonders why she was not born male, and felt great distress about puberty.

You can spend a lot of time thinking about it, I suppose. Is it viewed as more frivolous due to the asymmetry of society's views with respect to gender? Butch women aren't typically seen as doing what they do for fun, and practicality isn't seen as frivolous. Crossdressers who go beyond fun might be considered somewhat something else at least in terms of how society tends to view crossdressers. I've heard that people who follow through with transition tend to be about equal in number. However, in any forums of this sort, there definitely is a bias towards MtF.

[PaulaQ]

Despite the "it's acceptable for women" sentiment that pervades this site, women do not cross dress en mass. Women wear women's clothes, cut for them.

The he few women that actually cross dress are noticed but it is not as bad as for men cross dressing but it is noticed and they would be perceived as lesbians, in the same way we are perceived as gay. What would be interesting to know is if they identify as gay or male and what are their testosterone levels as compared to the population of women.

As someone with a great deal of exposure and familiarity with the FtM community, very nearly everything in this post is incorrect. There are PLENTY of gender variant (masculine) women. Their masculinity is simply ignored, erased under "she's a tomboy," the notion women can wear anything, "they are feminine versions of men's clothes," etc. The degree of gender variance is hard to gauge because it's erased by all the women who aren't gender variant at all who wear pants, for example. There are plenty of women who shop the men's department. Some identify as lesbians, some as men, some as straight girls.

This tends not to be as sexual for them as for MtFs - because when your sexuality is fueled by testosterone, as it is with most MtFs who aren't on HRT, EVERYTHING is about sex! Most FtMs are running on estrogen until they begin HRT.

There are no doubt social components to all this, because clothing for men and women is treated differently by society.

[jamielynn_ca]

Paula hit it on the head. I can tell you at my support group there are trans-men and they feel the need to be masculine/male as much as we feel the need to be feminine/female. We (MTF) have wigs and breast forms to make us look feminine, can you imagine what they (FTM) go through to HIDE breasts? It's called a binder, wrapped around your chest so tight you can hardly breathe. No, they don't have it any easier than we do. The emotions, shame, guilt, self-doubt, hiding, false assumptions (lesbian?) and even public shaming (yes - people DO discriminate against FTM) can be equally devastating.

[PamTG]

That is a good question but I think there might be lots of men that pose or passing as men and we just don't know it. They can easily get a butch haircut and throw on some guy jeans and go out and about and if you are not looking really close it could be a guy, of course if they have breasts that stick out then you will know but I am sure some enjoy taping them down. Good question though.

[sometimes_miss]

Despite the "it's acceptable for women" sentiment that pervades this site, women do not cross dress en mass. Women wear women's clothes, cut for them.

I have to disagree on this also. It's not that they dress to emulate men, per se, though; it's that they CAN wear mens clothes pretty much anytime they want to without being called on it. I have an older sister, by 4 years. Even back in the late sixties and early seventies, as I grew up and started reaching her height (she's six feet tall) she started borrowing my jeans, shirts and jackets until I got too big. But plenty of girls wore guys jeans, lower than their waists and of course tighter than we did, my sis certainly did, but I know she had to go through lots of pairs to find one that fit just right, because they weren't made for womanly figures. Lucky for her, she was very slim, and was able to sort of fit well into very slender mens jeans (I think she wore a 28 waist and 34 inseam hiphugger style, often with her midriff bare). men's shirts too, long sleeve rugbys, polos, flannels & sweats. My leather jackets were fair game as well. I sort of complained, but knowing that I was wearing HER clothes as well made me feel it was only fair. Even today, when winter comes she has no qualms about grabbing my warm thinsulate parka when it's cold and snowing to go out for a smoke.

[Cheryl_Layton]

Society as a whole is more accepting of a woman borrowing her boyfriend's clothes as the woman is generally not intending to hide her femininity.
I watched a programme recently about a Drag King and was quite surprised at how much more difficult it is for them to try and appear as a man. It's much harder to hide breasts and hips than it is for us to pad ourselves out. DKs struggle to change their faces unlike us crossdressers who can paint our faces with lippy & eye shadow and wear wigs and heels etc that adds to our appearance as a female. I really do feel sorry for women trying to appear male has they do seem to have it much tougher which may explain why we don't see as many as male CDers.

[Tracii G]

You can wear whatever you want so why can't they?
9 times out of 10 what you think are mens clothes aren't, they are womens clothes with a male cut or style.
The best answer to the OP is perhaps they don't want to pass as a man.