are they the same?

[Missy]

what is the difference form crossdressers and transvestites or are they the same?

[Marianne]

Depends on who you ask.

The terminology is confusing.

'Cross-dresser' is commonly taken to mean someone who prefers a different gender role and expresses it by wearing clothing usually associated with the opposite gender.

'Transvestite' is more associated with a male who both changes gender roles and sexual preferences or is associated with a 'fetish'.

Cross-dresser is a more polite term, transvestite is a tad more 'derogatory'.

The 'fun' part is that even cross-dressers and transvestites ( or my personal preference, 'TG, for Transgendered'), can disagree on what the terms mean.

[DonnaT]

I agree, depends on who you ask. For example in the UK it is transvestite, and they hardly ever use the term crossdresser.

Crossdresser is an American term and was coined by the founder of Tri-Ess (Victoria Prince) in order to differentiate from transexual and transvestite because transvestite was starting to be used in a derogatory manner to indicate that the person was also homosexual. Look in the dictionary and you'll see the term homosexuality in the definition. So instead of fighting the labeling, Victoria founded Tri-ess for straight, heterosexual, crossdressers.

[Sweet Susan]

It is commonly misunderstood that cds and tvs are the same thing. Cds are men who want to dress as women with no particular sexual motivation. Tvs are men who dress as women for sexual gratification. That's my definition, and I'm sticking to it.

[DonnaT]

Crossdressing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing

Transvestism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transvestism

[Paula A]

I believe it was in the early 1900s when Magnus Hirshfield first coined the term Transvestite, Trans meaning to cross over and vesite from the latin term for clothes.

It was later changed to Crossdresser in the 1960s. They are different terms for the same thing.

For a male who dresses in female clothing and relates to being female, like a (feminine male) the term is Transgenderd (cross gendered) a boy of girl with the other gender atributes (personality wise) and has no desire to transistion to the other biological sex.

Transexuals are men (and women) born with in-correct body parts. For example, ("I'm a girl why do I have a penis?") and desire/need to transition in order to the correct the birth defect by having the incorrect sexc organs and have their biological sex in-line with their correct gender.

By the way;
Sex - relating to the biological sex of a person
Gender - Relates to the mind set or personality traits of the individual.

So there is my two cents worth.

[ronna]

So which one are U, Sweet Susan?

[Brandy_Marie]

Transexuals are men (and women) born with in-correct body parts. For example, ("I'm a girl why do I have a penis?") and desire/need to transition in order to the correct the birth defect by having the incorrect sexc organs and have their biological sex in-line with their correct gender.


Interesting, that's the first time I've ever seen that definition of Transexual. Where did you find that one?

To expound upon DonnaT's information from earlier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transgender-related_topics

I know I learned a few things.

Brandy Marie Devereaux

[ronna]

UK, US, we both speak english, right? Trans means cross and vest means clothing, so it's not hard to see where the terms came from. It all comes down to dressing in the opposite gender's clothes, for whatever reason.