What is your "textbook" difference between TS & CD ?

[kwebb]

There is alot in the news lately about TS.

Hypothetically, if you had to write a definition for ,say, Webster's dictionary to clarify the difference in the two conditions or states of being , how would you word it?

Do you think it is just a matter of being on some sort of gender continum or scale between the two, with each at differing extremes, or is it two completely different things, like apples and oranges?

[TracyDeluxe]

T
Do you think it is just a matter of being on some sort of gender continum or scale between the two, with each at differing extremes,

Yes, in my opinion.

[Kathleengurl]

Labels: used for convenience and very often in laziness to learn the facts about the topic. And since these topics aren't mainstream (gasoline, sports, financial, etc) the related vocabulary isn't quite done baking --it may never be.

But here's my 2c:
CD == someone (typicaly genetic male) who likes to dress like a woman. But harbors little or no desire to BE a woman.. so no clear plans for HRT or SRS.
--though 'she' may want to be every thing up to that point.

TS == someone (typicaly genetic male) who not only dresses like a woman.. but also identifies (more than the CD) with the female psyche. She's often thinking or planning HRT, SRS and every possible thing to make her more female.

Also.. I think CD's and TS's alike.. walk all over these defining lines throughout the course of their lives. Remember.. lables are a snapshot.. of ignorance trying to capture something worth way way more than word. --not that all lables == ignorance.. they can be helpful. just be careful w/ 'em.
-k-

[kwebb]

So, Kathleengurl, there is no clear cut way to define this w/o making some broad, sweeping generalizations (that almost always never work).

Each individual simply is who they are, point blank, devoid of all so-called labels. Its when we try to start putting folks into these neat boxes we see they don't always neatly fit.

[livy_m_b]

You ask what I think and how I would define it - if you self identify as ts, you're ts; if you self identify as cd, you're cd. If you change your mind that's okay. Most of the time, I'm ts; occasionally I think I'm just cd. (No slight intended by the word "just"!) Left to my own language, I would say something like "I would have preferred to be a woman in every way."

[MarinaTwelve200]

Strictly speaking, a TS, is a "Transsexual"---A person that effectively has the "brain" of and identifies with their oposite bio sex.

CD is cross dressing---The ACT of dressing in the clothing of the opposite biosex---it can also be a person who cross dresses---for whatever reason

There are several primary reasons people crossdress--- in several UNRELATED social/sexual or psychological conditions, Cross Dressing is the only shared symptom. Some CD are "gay" some are TS, most are Hetro males who may CD to escape "identity" issues or come to terms with them, still others who find sexual pleasure in CD and still others with an SM bent that involves CD as well.

To simply term a person a "CD" therefore means very little, considering the spectrum of reasons for cross dressing.
TS, on the other hand, is a specific condition where CDing is common. The terms are not interchangable as one describes a "condition" of a person and the other describes an ACT common to many different conditions.


LABELS---If there were no labels it would be intellectually impossible to to isolate individual elements and similar populations in complex social, biological and psychological systems. If you didnt call a Lion a LION or a worm a WORM, for example, one could never study or get a clear set of biological data for either---If we termed them all simply ANIMALS---
The problem with LABELS comes when the criteria for classification is inherently flawed or the label is misapplied---the fact that THIS DOES happen, should be no reason to refrain from ever using them---What else do we have to differentate discrete elements in a group for individual study?

[Kathleengurl]

kweb: agreed!

but even us gyrls use (need even) lables.. they keep conversations short.. the trick.. is to do so w/o an agenda.. without malice and with care.
-k-

[Yes I am]

Transsexuals want to change their sex, transvestites want to change their clothes.

[Cathy Anderson]

Do you think it is just a matter of being on some sort of gender continum or scale between the two, with each at differing extremes, or is it two completely different things, like apples and oranges?
Some of both--that is, among CDs I think you find both types.

Some CDs are fetishistic, do it for a sexual turn-on, and don't seriously have any wish to be female. Other CDs have a desire to be female, which might be considered a mild form of transexualism

Likely there are other varieties of CD as well.

Cathy