how did the internet effect crossdressing

[Natalie_393]

Around 10 to 15 years ago , everybody wasn't on the internet yet and we didn't have this site and many others like it, This is a first where 1000's of crossdessers around the world get to contact each other for answers or just a another crossdressing friend you can talk to, was crossdressing different before the internet? I'm 25 I didn't really get into dressing up until when I was 16 by then I was looking for answers and others like me.The internet was there, but it wasn't around up until the late 90's, how is the internet making crossdressing more known.

[BiancaEstrella]

Around 10 to 15 years ago , everybody wasn't on the internet yet and we didn't have this site and many others like it, This is a first where 1000's of crossdessers around the world get to contact each other for answers or just a another crossdressing friend you can talk to, was crossdressing different before the internet? I'm 25 I didn't really get into dressing up until when I was 16 by then I was looking for answers and others like me.The internet was there, but it wasn't around up until the late 90's, how is the internet making crossdressing more known.

It's done a few things:

1) This, and sites like it, as a resource to discuss amongst others
2) Positive vessels to show that most crossdressers DON'T fit the Jerry Springer stereotype
3) It can help with dating, since you can put that right at the forefront, and thus begin filtering out people who consider it a dealbreaker
4) Shopping is exponentially easier

Just to name three. Of course, the signal-to-noise ration still needs improving; there are many anonymous people who use the barrier of a computer screen to hurl invectives our way.

I can't much answer for the pre-internet era and how it actually was then -- I don't know, was there like a crossdressers pen pal service?

[ColleenW]

How has it changed things?

Well I think that a lot of us started out thinking that we were alone, at least I did and it was quite a shock to find so many others out there for support. One of the best things is no longer having to experiment, if I have a question about makeup or waxing, bra fitting, etc. I can come here and get answers and recommendations. It helps to see what others are doing too; it's great for ideas. Just to name a few.

[Vickie_CDTV]

I got online around 1996, so I was around at the dawn of CDing online. But, I started getting involved with the TG community shortly before, so I remember some of the way it was just before.

One way the internet changed things is that it was very hard to find resources, support groups, etc. The main way people found others and the TG community at large was through print magazines and newsletters (often only available at dirty book stores.) Sometimes there were talk shows that covered TG topics (thank you Donahue) and gave out contact information.

Ironically, many of those popular TG magazines some of us remember from those days (like LadyLike and Tapestry) are now out of business since everything is now online.

One other thing is shopping. It is so much easier with the option to shop online than deal with the embarrassment some feel shopping in person. One can also find things that are hard to find (such as womans shoes over a size 11) so much easier, and shopping online is so much faster than shopping through catalogs.

[Patty B.]

It is like night and day, little to no information available, even in a college library, only clinical studies, cases. Very little useful info, and if you live in a rural area, it was and still can be restrictive. Used to suspect I was not alone, but now I know, I definately not the only crossdresser. Just the amount of info and help that is available is a real benefit to the internet. I'll never know what life would have been with the internet, but I'm sure glad its here now.

[Sarah_GG]

Hopefully you mean how did the internet affect crossdressing, because if the internet was responsible for effecting crossdressing... well?!

The internet is a valuable learning resource for crossdressers and their loved ones. You do have to be selective though. When I first googled 'crossdressers' I came up with all sorts of bizarre sites - some porn, some anti-CD, some supportive and some not.

The internet must be applauded, at the very least, for allowing crossdressers to feel that they're not alone. And that there is a wide world of support, opinion and help out there.

sorry

[AKAMichelle]

Before the internet I didn't understand what I was and why. 2 years ago I finally started exploring and found this site and several groups which opened my eyes to the whole thing.

My life would have been much different if I had known all of this years ago.

[kimdl93]

The internet has certainly made it easier to become part of the network of CDers and been a great resource for information on every imaginable subject we might be interested in exploring. The downside, beyond the privacy issue, would probably be the substitution of an on-line existence for a real life existence. Its easier sometimes to find a sympathetic listener here than out there, but I'm concerned that its all to easy to become isolated from people.

[Jorja]

I first started crossdressing back in the early 70's. I had met a group of crossdressers at a club and really hit it off with them. One thing led to another and soon I was asking them for help with my own look and style. As Patty B. said, there was little to no information available. I guess we made it up as we went. Too bad we didn't write it down and publish a book. We could have cashed in when the internet arrived. We were too busy having fun.

[Christine Andrews]

For me, the Internet made crossdressing infinitely more accessible in terms of providing information in a supportive and annonymous context. It has enabled people to learn about crossdressing in manner which reduces shame and/or any embarrassment an individual may feel (some of both in my own case).

It has allowed businesses in the niche of the transgender segment of the market to develop and grow and reach a greater market - you don't have to rely on hear say or local knowledge to discover them, now you simply use any search engine of preference and you have list of options. This also empowers us, giving us choices and access to products which general high street brands may not carry.

If you wish to maintain anonymity you don't have to shop out of town, many onlne stores ship in discreet packaging and one can always order under an alias if you feel it necessary.

The internet has given crossdressers a invaluable commercial environment but far more important and beneficial is the support of the social aspect. For me personally, this website has been a rock and the many members have provided incredible feedback and advice whether to my (rare) threads or to community in response to other users queries. This ability to seek and receive advice and guidance in a setting of anonymity (or familiarity as users become more well known), with different perspectives and experiences, from around the world is a great boon.

Whilst there are drawbacks with the internet including the question of true anonymity, web security, the potential for abuse and individuals misrepresenting themselves for their own amusement - the benefits of the internet upon crossdressing far outweigh the negative.

For me personally, the internet has had the effect of empowering not just crossdressers but all trangender individuals from anywhere on the gender spectrum.

[BRANDYJ]

It has opened a world of information about what until the Internet was so hard to find. Very few books had ever been written about the topic. So how was anyone faced with needing or wanting to know if they were alone, ever find any good information.
The Internet is the best Information highway to ever come along. But we have to be careful of exactly what information we read since as someone said, it's not all good. So much is porn or anti crossdressing due to asinine religious beliefs base don mis quotes of the Bible.

[Tina B.]

Change, you want to talk change huh? Well I started dressing back in the mid 50's when just a small child. I knew I was a one of a kind, a freak of nature, until I saw Christine Jorgenson on the cover of Life magazine. For you young ones, she was the first American sex change, at lest the first one we heard of. I kept that mag as long as I could and read her story over and over. In my twenty's when I first heard of a Transvestite, it sounded like me, so I looked it up in my old Websters dictionary, and the word did not exist, at lest not to my dictionary. I broke the word up, Trans-vest-tite and figured it out for myself
Trans-to cross over, vest, and article of clothing, tite seem to suggest an action I figured, and that was all I could find, until I got the nerve to start going to "Adult Book Stores" Those always seemed so seeded, and things like Chicks With D#%ks, was never what I was looking for. And you all know what we have now! Down side to the net, hard to maintain your privacy if you put to much out there, but if you do put it out there, having thousands of people to talk with from all over the world, it's all well worth the risk.
Tina B.

[Katheryn]

Around 10 to 15 years ago , everybody wasn't on the internet yet and we didn't have this site and many others like it, This is a first where 1000's of crossdessers around the world get to contact each other for answers or just a another crossdressing friend you can talk to, was crossdressing different before the internet? I'm 25 I didn't really get into dressing up until when I was 16 by then I was looking for answers and others like me.The internet was there, but it wasn't around up until the late 90's, how is the internet making crossdressing more known.

I was going to break up your quote and reply to parts of it, but decided, instead, to answer it as a whole, as it applies to me.

Pre-internet, there were local BBS's, and, while not as widely used as site on the internet, due to having to place a long distance call to log on, they did offer me the first outlet to others who had non-societally acceptable differences, gay, bisexual, trans people, etc. who had previously all been in the closet had an outlet, suddenly, to others like themselves, me included. A door opened to a whole new world of others like me. This meant, to me, that I wasn't alone, that there were others out there like me, and that I wasn't necessarily going to be stoned to death for wearing women's clothes.

It was the folks I met on those BBS's long ago that gave me the understanding and courage to come out to the friends and family to whom I revealed my "horrible secret". Found out it wasn't so horrible after all.

Since that time, the internet has broadened that feeling and helped me to understand that there's many different people out there who run the gamut from crossdressers to post op transexuals, and that everyone's path is valid for them, but not everyone. There are T* people of every background and every group, politically, religiously, etc.

That's how the internet has affected me and my dressing, now, for your actual question, I'm not so sure it's affected society as a whole, since most people won't come to a site like this or be exposed in their net surfing to the reality of crossdressing or transexuality. It has probably helped some crossdressers educate loved ones to the reality by refering them to the site, family or SO's. But mainstream society not so much, IMHO.

Kate

[stefanie]

i remember when the internet was first launched..... and well good ol' dial up aol too.

I recall on of my very first queries was about transgenderism. There were not chat or groups at the time......but Just to find out more was an inspiration itself.... that i wasn't alone and that it seemed there were more of us than I ever would have thought.

what really surprised me though was the amount of admirers and the diversity in the transgendered community itself.....

[Gerrijerry]

internet? what is the internet?

[erica12b]

up tell the net ,i thought i was mostly alone there where some storys in the paper and on tv but i did not think there where very many cds out there,but there are, just not around my area, i also now know its ok to dress and have started to except myself

[NV Susan]

[SIZE="4"]OMG, good question. I've been cross dressing a long time, way before computers. Besides the benefit of shopping online I think the biggest thing this has done for me is to let me know how many of us are out here!!
[/SIZE]

[HundredWings]

It's done both good and bad things:

On the one hand, it connects people with a similar interest, even one that most wouldn't call 'normal'. In addition, it shows that crossdressing isn't this terrible, horrible thing.

On the other, there's an abysmal signal-to-noise ratio in terms of wholesome crossdressing resources like this one and the fetish/porn/etc resources that aren't inherently bad but tend to crowd it out for crossdressers and aspiring crossdressers that aren't really looking for it.

[Jessica Who]

To me, the biggest thing is the sense of community. I can easily recall those times during childhood when I felt all alone in this world. I would get glimpses of men in drag from movies and television, but it was always an obvious joke.

The Internet gives us a safe haven with great forums like these and allows for better communication and friendships that would have otherwise not been possible.

[NicolaD]

I can trace back my desire to CD to when I was still in Junior School, and wishing I was dressed as a school girl. That was way back in the early 70's before anyone had even heard of Home Computers let alone the Internet

Back then after been caught a few times by my parents and been told that what I was doing was evil and a sin. I was one very confused and mixed up boy, just didn't understand what I was or why I needed to CD.

I like many around that time, thought I was unique and alone. And the desire to CD must be wrong and sinful. I only wish we had the Internet back then, when I was younger, it would have helped a great deal.

For me my saving grace came late one night, when I saw a television advert for the Beaumont Society transvestite support group . After sometime I got up the courage to phone them. And that’s when I learnt alot about myself and about transvestism, and that I was not alone and far from unique.
I was certainly far more relaxed and comfortable with myself knowing that I was a transvestite and that my desires were actually natural to many.

I believe that sites like this serve a great good, with the information and support that it has to offer. I just wish I had access to it 30 years ago. Just glad I made contact with that Beaumont Society support group.

[KatieV]

If there had been an internet forty years ago I'd be a different girl today; I was born too late. I cetainly would have gone farther, faster, and probably would have experimented with hormones. And my mother would have probably supported me, too, had she seen that it was so prevelant.

[tanya1976]

As well as being a invaluable source of information it does afford one the chance to interact with other people like myself from behind the safety of a computer screen. Although I'm sure I will have to step out from behind the glass sooner or later!

[Charleen]

B/I, it was the dark ages! Like alot have said, I thought I was alone and a freak. I've known since I was a child I had the wrong equipment.
The depression I suffered most of my life as well as the guilt and shame was mind boggling!
I found this site. Now I am embracing who I am.
I'm not going to play what if. The internet wasn't around when I was growing up, but who knows what would have happened?

[Starling]

If there had been an internet forty years ago I'd be a different girl today...

Me too, Kay, for sure.

Lallie

[JaytoJillian]

1. I realized that I was not alone.

2. I realized that you can learn how to do just about anything.