Different Degrees of CDing

[Sarah38b]

What are the different degrees of crossdressing? For me, I am the occasional CD but generally only wear undergarments as they can be somewhat concealed. I don't really have any other ladies clothing but I have desires to try some. I have never been fully dressed, but partly and that was an amazing feeling. I don't really have the desire to become a woman but rather to enjoy what women have.

LOVE,
SARAH

[Tristen Cox]

Degrees? Omg lots and lots of them. From pantyholics to TG. The list would be interesting if one could been drawn up for us.


*hugs*
Tristen
http://www.geocities.com/tristencx/icons/doll.gif

[sherri]

It's a slippery slope Sarah.

[Sarah38b]

I hope somebody can come up with a list of the various degrees of CDing. I am most certain most of you here dress regularly and fully and probably only very few here dress once in a while. I'm not sure where I fit in at...Some of us feel its a very private thing to keep to themselves such as I and there are some who want to want to be known. It just seems to lead to countless complications in this crazy world.

LOVE,
SARAH

[Georgette]

D*&#n this is a tough question, I dress fully about three or four times a week, I don't know what degree that would be. Some times I get dressed in the morning and stay all day, other times I don't dress until evening and usually that is when we are going out for the evening (I love to dance wether in FEMME or drab) so we hit one of the clubs about 2 a week. That's my degree if you want percentage it is abut 50/50 I would say. :)

[ballet]

yes I understand what you are saying,I have always wanted to be a girl even as a 7 year old,but with my family and friends I am still a guy.So for me I need to express my feminity and I do this by wearing feminine clothe such as silk panties and somtimes stocking and suspenders.But I cant really do the full monty,although I would love to . :p

[wilma]

except for the unfortunate times I have to go out to work I'm dressed most of the time.as soon as I get home its into my girly clothes. LOL Wilma

[Wendy me]

degrees of cding...........sometimes i am a ameture.......pantys and such
some times semi pro bra ,panty ,silp skirt boluse, and sometimes like a full blown pro
dress to kill from head to toe.............something like that??????????????

[nikky]

im not really sure where i fit in either sarah. i have only been dressed in full a few times to remember. however i always enjoy pedicures and panties and such, ya know things you can conceal a bit. :) i dont really want to be a woman but i feel they get to have all the fun.

love ya

[SexyStephanie]

I dress a few times a week and usually only panties and bra or something of that ilk. More when time and opportunity permits.

Stephie

[Jen_TGCD]

I found this when I was still trying to get my head together about what this crossdressing thing was all about. It was very comforting and I have used it as a guide for about ten years now. Hope it helps to answer some of your questions. If not... we will try to help more if you ask. Take care and good luck, Sarah!


Check out this link for the full version of the article below.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/cathytg/anima.htm



:) :) :)

Jung's Anima Theory and How it Relates to Crossdressing

Summary

An idealized (but not universal) history the crossdresser can be outlined as follows:

Each boy has traits that society considers feminine. When a boy displays these traits, they meet with disapproval. The boy represses these feminine traits, which become the anima.

The boy develops a normal male persona (mask),and enters the world. He goes to school and follows a career. The urge to actualize his repressed female potentials manifests itself in dreams and fantasy.

At midlife, he experiences unhappiness due to the unrealistic and limiting nature of his masculine persona. At this time he may feel a strong, even overpowering interest in wearing women's clothes, or of being a woman in fantasy. This urge is natural and healthy: it is because his completeness as a person requires expressing the potentials he has repressed.

Lacking societal cues that validate or guide his impulses, he experiences confusion. The world says crossdressing is wrong, but his 'heart' says it is right. Guilt, shame, moral concerns, and his own overly idealized view of masculinity constrain his crossdressing. He also asks questions like "Am I gay" and "Should I change my sex?"

The stage of confusion can last years and decades. The crossdresser may dress often, delve into the culture of crossdressing, or even take female hormones. Or he may remain highly closeted. But the hallmark of this phase is that he remains confused and highly ambivalent, uncertain how to proceed.

This seems a terminal point for many. However, the theories of Jung and others imply that this is not the proper end point, but merely arrested development.

If the crossdressing urge is really adaptive--a response by the organism to remove barriers that have effectively repressed half of the man's potentials--we can speculate that further developmental stages are possible:

The crossdresser recognizes the positive, healing meaning of crossdressing. At this point, crossdressing becomes supported, rather than rejected, by the ego; he may then pursue crossdressing as a constructive activity, now freed from previous moral constraints. But, by the same token, recognition of the positive meaning of the urges also brings an appreciation of sensible limits.

The crossdresser gradually experiences his "inner female." As he does, he finds parts that are of fundamental importance, and realizes that these transcend labels of 'male' or 'female'. He also learns to distinguish the positive, profound parts of the anima (spirituality, love, beauty, etc.) from the trivial (promiscuity, vanity, etc.).

For a while the crossdresser experiences his male and female personalities as distinct. Eventually he allows parts of the female into his ordinary male personality. This stage gradually merges with the next.

The inclusion of the female effects a change in the male personality, producing a new personality that is better than either alone. The female empowers and transforms the male. This stage is ongoing. The new self continues to grow--presumably in the direction of greater spirituality and service to others.

It is consistent with the anima theory that the urge to crossdress may diminish during these later stages. The crossdresser now understands that it was not the clothing or being a woman that he sought--these merely symbolized the deeper aspects of his personality he sought to express. Once he experiences and expresses these aspects directly, female clothing itself has less meaning and importance.

[Holly]

Jen,

That's some pretty heavy stuff! It's going to take me a little time to digest this. Some interesting thoughts.

[windycissy]

Jung, schmung! Too heavy for me too, and I'm a brunette...

I started sneaking on different items of girl's clothing, and eventually accumulated an entire wardrobe. For a long time I was content to dress in the privacy of my apartment, until one day I got my chops up and went out. My life changed forever that day. Now I only dress when I am going to go out, it bores me to tears to sit around alone in a dress when there is a big world out there to explore as a woman. The next phase will be meeting someone while dressed - I guess another CD'er would be best...

Windy

[Jen_TGCD]

:D <... laughing ...>>>>>>>>>>> :p

Windy and Holly...

:rolleyes: I always get chastised for posting that!!! But... it really is light reading... not the "heavy" psycho babble stuff. For me... reading that article changed my life. Everything finally made sense. So...... I tend to pass it on. http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

[orchard]

I dress in full, clothing, hair(long..thank god) and mannerism, as often as possible. between fatigue, and male social engagements, this works out to about half a week. When I have the steam, I dress every night after work.
I don't know if there are levels, except in yourself.
This is shaky ground, and their really isn't a definetion for the "spectrum" of cding or tv.

[Ashleigh]

Jen, et al, it is this writing (there is much more to it) that swung my wife around to accepting my situation and supporting me (as far as she can - and she is still working on her mind set to support me more). She wanted objective articles from persons other than crossdressers (since they were obviously biased). This happened 3 months ago and the support is getting better albeit slowly. But that is okay. Heck, last night she surprised me and while we were at the store, she actually said "let's go to your section now" (my section? - she did not say it with disdain either) where we ended up in the lingerie area. She was trying to find me another bra (40 B/Cs that are heavily padded are very hard to find) and did purchase for me 2 more pair of thigh highs. I mentioned nothing of needing these before.

This article is not that deep - just has a lot of information backed by copious research.

Life is good.

[Helana]

Sarah

There are measurements out there used by shrinks which usually rank us 1 to 5. It goes something like 1 is a mostly a clothes fetish, 2 is occasional crossdressing partly or whole image, 3 is regular crossdressing, usually complete image, 4 is full time crossdressing often leading to "secondary" transsexualism, 5 is primary transsexualism ie those who lived as a girl in their teenage years and needed a sex-change as soon as they were legally/financially able to get it.

I think we have the entire range of CDing here in our membership. I would be at no. 3 at the moment but may go to 4 later, who knows? Not even me. ;)

Jen - that is a good article and I mostly agree that is a common path many of us travel down. I would say I am near the end of my journey around this section-
"For a while the crossdresser experiences his male and female personalities as distinct. Eventually he allows parts of the female into his ordinary male personality. This stage gradually merges with the next."

Personally I dont buy into the genetic gene or hormone wash theory, I believe CDing stems from our early childhood and how our minds interpreted society's gender roles and rules so I am comfortable with Jung's Anima Theory.

[ChristineRenee]

:D <... laughing ...>>>>>>>>>>> :p

Windy and Holly...

:rolleyes: I always get chastised for posting that!!! But... it really is light reading... not the "heavy" psycho babble stuff. For me... reading that article changed my life. Everything finally made sense. So...... I tend to pass it on. http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gifThank you Jen for passing this link on. I am going to make sure my wife reads it. This should be required reading for anyone who is a CD and their SO so they can better understand themself and how they relate to others. I agree with the anima theory. In my experience, everything has been incrementally progressive. I started CD'ing at 12. A sexual thrill at first. As I got older it became a stress reducing activity, and then identifying with the lack of completeness in my male persona. Threapists have told me that I need to integrate the female with the male, hence why I have two distinct personas the male, "Roy", and the female, Christine. I looked at is an inner conflict to control the overall person (i.e. the vessel or ship) and the internal struggle over who was going to be captain of it, "Roy" or Christine. "Roy" had always been the captain, or at least that's what I had thought for many years, with Christine lurking in the background. Now I believe that, internally, Christine has always been in control and actually "created" the persona, the male persona, that is, that people "see" as "Roy". Christine has never taken over in the past because she was acutely aware that society was not accepting of her, i.e., a genetic male exhibiting female traits and habits.

The desire now is to have Christine basically be the persona that I really am, with "Roy"'s male characteristics intergrated into her rather than the other way around. In other words. the inner female is the dominant persona and created the male persona that is projected to the world..."the Lie"... in other words.

This is where I am at now. I do HRT to alter the outside to coincide more with who I actually am on the inside. I do not plan, nor do I feel the need, to go all the way to the "final frontier", so to speak, that is sex reassignment surgery, or SRS. Now I guess it is being known more as gender reassignment surgery, or GRS. I think that completing HRT and with the more complete knowledge I have of myself and who I actually am, that being a TG will be a complete enough transition for me. I just don't see where SRS or GRS would make a significant change or improvement beyond what I have already experienced. That, coupled with being 53 years old, to go all the way just doesn't make viable sense. I would still be a guy in a dress to the majority of the general public anyway. For me, the key has been the total understanding of self and the journey from when I first started this at 12, to the present.

Once again, thank you Jen for disseminating this info. You are performing a real public service here by doing so, and thanks everyone for letting me describe my situation as it now exists to all of you here on the forum.


Love to all,
Christine Renee

[iseiai no okama]

i like to dress fully and "realistically"...i would like to dress more often than i do as well..

[DanaJ]

Sarah
There are measurements out there used by shrinks which usually rank us 1 to 5. It goes something like 1 is a mostly a clothes fetish, 2 is occasional crossdressing partly or whole image, 3 is regular crossdressing, usually complete image, 4 is full time crossdressing often leading to "secondary" transsexualism, 5 is primary transsexualism ie those who lived as a girl in their teenage years and needed a sex-change as soon as they were legally/financially able to get it.
Helana - I think this is a great scale! Whereas there might be some small graduations between the numbers, I think overall this scale captures the CD spectrum well.

I myself am a number 2. I only dress about once per week or 2 weeks, but when I do it is the whole works - nails, full makeup, jewelry, dress, shoes, foundation garments.

In my opinion, I would guess this forum is about 50% number 1 (clothes fetishists) here. I am not saying there is anything wrong with this, I have just noticed that many ONLY talk about clothes, sometimes in great detail. And on the other end, there are probably less than 10% here that are number 5.

DanaJ

[ChristineRenee]

Sarah

There are measurements out there used by shrinks which usually rank us 1 to 5. It goes something like 1 is a mostly a clothes fetish, 2 is occasional crossdressing partly or whole image, 3 is regular crossdressing, usually complete image, 4 is full time crossdressing often leading to "secondary" transsexualism, 5 is primary transsexualism ie those who lived as a girl in their teenage years and needed a sex-change as soon as they were legally/financially able to get it.

I think we have the entire range of CDing here in our membership. I would be at no. 3 at the moment but may go to 4 later, who knows? Not even me. ;)

Jen - that is a good article and I mostly agree that is a common path many of us travel down. I would say I am near the end of my journey around this section-
"For a while the crossdresser experiences his male and female personalities as distinct. Eventually he allows parts of the female into his ordinary male personality. This stage gradually merges with the next."

Personally I dont buy into the genetic gene or hormone wash theory, I believe CDing stems from our early childhood and how our minds interpreted society's gender roles and rules so I am comfortable with Jung's Anima Theory.I asked my therapist about this "number list" and what she would rank me as...she just shook her head, smiled and said that number hadn't been invented yet!:confused: :)

[racheal]

Myself, it's bras and panties every day. When at home, I dress up in just about anything in my wardrobe. When out in public, still everything underneath - working on that 'coming out' thing though. :) Today, where I am working from home (oh no - that dreaded 'w' word that pays teh bills), I am in a egg shell white silk Chinese long nighty with a black satin komono and heels. I'll try to take a picture when I get the chance in between calls. :)

[miss_x_elvira]

this is always a contentious issue with me, i don't really fit into any degree, but thats just me i guess

for starters I like to wear as much chick clothes as often as i can, not necessarily fully dressed, but thats not that often and i don't really mind if i can't. For example earlier in the month i had a whole week or more to myself and spent everyday in my chick clothes for as long as i could, unless i went out or someone came round. I loved every minute of it, but there are times when i can't even be bothered. Now with people around the most i might do is wear panties once or more more a week, my corset every second night and maybe a little some thing else if i feel like it. Usually i'm lucky if i get enough time to myself to get fully dressed once a week and take any opportunity i can. The other thing i like to do when i'm out on my own is to wear my chick jeans and tops, under normal tops, which i've started to do anytime cause i'm getting sick of hiding.

With that said here comes the confusing part. Although i have a good body for crossdressing and can look really good i have no desire to look or be passable or do it all the time, even though i could. I mean i go to all the trouble of body shaping and staying as thin as possible but i don't care for other things like make up or hair removal. Maybe i might do it one day but at the moment i have no care for it. I feel as if i am both, liking and expressing both my male and female traits, and depending on my mood and situation one or the other will dominate at times. I also figure if i was to go to all the trouble of being passable i may as well have a sex change, but i know i am not feminie enough and like too many of my male traits to do it.

So what degree does that make me

[sherri]

I always pay close attention to what Jen has to say, about anything. Smart lady.

[Priscilla1018]

I don't know about degrees of dressing but I like really sexy panties under His clothes. Does anyone know where I can get a 54 B bra?

Priscilla1018

[Helana]

this is always a contentious issue with me, i don't really fit into any degree, but thats just me i guess

for starters I like to wear as much chick clothes as often as i can, not necessarily fully dressed, but thats not that often and i don't really mind if i can't. For example earlier in the month i had a whole week or more to myself and spent everyday in my chick clothes for as long as i could, unless i went out or someone came round. I loved every minute of it, but there are times when i can't even be bothered. Now with people around the most i might do is wear panties once or more more a week, my corset every second night and maybe a little some thing else if i feel like it. Usually i'm lucky if i get enough time to myself to get fully dressed once a week and take any opportunity i can. The other thing i like to do when i'm out on my own is to wear my chick jeans and tops, under normal tops, which i've started to do anytime cause i'm getting sick of hiding.

With that said here comes the confusing part. Although i have a good body for crossdressing and can look really good i have no desire to look or be passable or do it all the time, even though i could. I mean i go to all the trouble of body shaping and staying as thin as possible but i don't care for other things like make up or hair removal. Maybe i might do it one day but at the moment i have no care for it. I feel as if i am both, liking and expressing both my male and female traits, and depending on my mood and situation one or the other will dominate at times. I also figure if i was to go to all the trouble of being passable i may as well have a sex change, but i know i am not feminie enough and like too many of my male traits to do it.

So what degree does that make me

Elvira,

I can relate entirely to your points. I think it is normal for all of us to have surges and pauses in our crossdressing. I am 35 and at this stage of my development, I don't actually need to crossdress to be in touch with my feminine self. So quite often I slumber about in drab for a couple of weeks with no desire to crossdress then I will open up my wardrobe, see all the beautiful clothes then kick myself for having been a telly couch potato for the last weeks when I could have been having fun. Then I will get in the mood to dress every day again.

As for not bothering to go public or be passable - I would say that is pretty normal too. If you are comfortable being by yourself then you don't really feel a need to go out - after all trying to be passable means spending a lot of time preparing and it can be a bother. CDing is fun, so deciding just to stay indoors removes all the stress and hassle of going outside. For many years I stayed indoors, not because I was afraid to go outside, but I really did not see the point as I was already having fun by myself.

Although I did eventually start going outside, it was more for the change of scenery than the excitement of passing - although the first few times I was nervous. Still I prefer just to stay indoors most of the time simply because that is my own personal lifestyle.

[crispy]

definitely a number one (full time underwear clothes fetishist) with breasts.

................................... 1 + 4/4 (part transsexual) = 2. :confused:
nahh! it adds up but it doesn't make sense

[LindaTS]

How does every day sound? Every morning I get dressed and usually stay that way. I hope this isn't too often. Giggle giggle