Question for All CDs: Relating to the study my girl is still working on

[Samantha Girl]

Hiya gals, As many of you may remember my girl Cat has been working on a study of cross dressing and of course many of you took part. We both continue to be very thankful for all of your participation. Couldn't appreciate it more! Thank you again from both me and Cat

So Cat has another question for us. If you participated before, it would be wonderful if you could answer this one question more for us and the study. Thank you again in advance Even if you didn't get a chance before to participate, feel free to answer this question now if you so desire. If you do not feel comfortable, we totally understand.

And again, I will let you know when the project is finally finished and possibly published. As always, no names are used (I cut and paste the answers and print them for her without your names) and your anonymity will be completely respected.

QUESTION:

If you were speaking with someone, a stranger, who knew nothing about you being a cross dresser and the topic came up of cross dressing. What would be the ONE thing you would want them to know about cross dressers.


Obviously you wouldn't necessarily out yourself, but what would you tell them? What is the one thing you think people need to know about us?

[Barbara Dugan]

I would tell them that we were born this way

[Steph.TS]

what I would want them to know is it's not 'weird'/it's more common than people think, but I wouldn't say that out of fear that the stranger could figure out I was a Crossdresser, I think I'd speak on the statistics that show that the majority of Crossdressers are straight. something simple and is fairly well known.

[brandi]

That we're not all gay and in fact there are alot of married crossdressers that come from all walks of life.

Brandi

[Sophie86]

QUESTION:

If you were speaking with someone, a stranger, who knew nothing about you being a cross dresser and the topic came up of cross dressing. What would be the ONE thing you would want them to know about cross dressers.

It would depend on how it came up in the conversation whether I could work this in without outing myself, but there would be two things I would try to put across: 1) that not all crossdressers are gay; and 2) that it's harmless.

[Mistybtm]

I would tell them that we were born this way

I agree and would say the same thing It is who I am it is a part of me.

[VtVicky]

I think there are few people outside our group that realize the variety of crossdressers. I think I would say something about the different kinds, and try to distinguish between the transgendered, the transvestites, and the recreational/fetish corssdressers.

[Chickhe]

It would be 'do not believe what you think'. The problem is, most people, including myself, were conditioned to think negatively about CDing...what we continue to see in the media perpetuates the myths. It would be to make them understand CDing is a fun activity and is something many otherwise typical people do.

[nvlady]

CD's are born that way, they can no more change it than they can change their eye color, and it's much better than being born a child molester.

[Bernadina]

Many CD'ers are well educated and have a high level of disposable income. They provide considerable financial support to the female fashion and related in industries. From my experience, most CDer's have more clothes, shoes and makeup than the majority of women.

[Asako]

I would state a point that they will find the reasons why people CD are as diverse as the people themselves despite the "basic reasons" being grouped into a small handful of labels. Nothing in this world is "black and white".

[Jenny Gurl]

We are born this way, which means it is not a choice for a CD, and it is not learned behavior. I wish there were a large research done to find a specific dna strand or gene that shows you are a CD. Maybe a lot of pain and heart ache could be avoided if we knew from birth. A lot of self doubt would be gone. Imagine if your parent told you at a young age that you were born with a condition called CD and it is not a big deal, what a wonderful world it would be.

[Satrana]

Hmmmm....the problem is you cannot discuss crossdressing by only mentioning one thing. There are several onerous misconceptions out there that all need to be knocked down before someone can get a realistic idea of what a CDer is. All these misconceptions are of equal importance. Miss out one and you will fail to convey the right idea.

[Josey]

I agree with the majoity of posts thus far. There are stats that support the fact CDing is widely spread throughout the WORLD. Therefore, it is behavior common but not publized.

[Sedona]

That most of are straight, it's largely not a gay thing.

[Gillian]

I think I would like to convey the same as many others have said, it is a born instinct and that in the majority most are normally hetrosexual in behaviour, and that they are not freaks of nature

[Karinsamatha]

We are born this way, which means it is not a choice for a CD, and it is not learned behavior. I wish there were a large research done to find a specific dna strand or gene that shows you are a CD. Maybe a lot of pain and heart ache could be avoided if we knew from birth. A lot of self doubt would be gone. Imagine if your parent told you at a young age that you were born with a condition called CD and it is not a big deal, what a wonderful world it would be.

I do agree with what you said, and what others have said. This is not a "learned" behavior, the actions are ie putting on make up, and the walk. The desire to dress in clothes that society says are inappropriate for a man - that is there from the beginning.

[DonniDarkness]

If you were speaking with someone, a stranger, who knew nothing about you being a cross dresser and the topic came up of cross dressing. What would be the ONE thing you would want them to know about cross dressers.

Quite simply ..... "Oh yeah man, I've had friends throughout my life who are crossdressers and they are just regular people too"

Basically people have a tendency to listen better and not put up the walls of bigotry in a conversation when they know its something that relates to you about someone you know as a friend. People in general are more prone to listening when a conversation has a depth of meaning on a personal level....And to set the stage for positive crossdressing discussions

[JenniferR771]

Crossdresser starts at about puberty.
If fact, we met a lady clerk at a consignment shop. I told her we were crossdressers. She asked, "How long have you been doing it?"

Actually perhaps it starts at birth, or perhaps well before puberty. I remember being fascinated by boys dressed as girls during our fourth grade school festival.

[AKAMichelle]

I think there would be several things that I would try to say and they are listed in order:

1. We are born this way
2. We are not gay. Most Cd'ers are actually hetero
3. There are far more of us than they think. Most cd'ers live their lives in the closet and come from varied career paths.

But since you are going to limit me to one answer which I cheated on, it has to be #1 above.

[Anne Elizabeth]

through my personal growth and self realization I now understand that crossdressing is not a perversion or learned behavior but we are born with the proclivities to want to be women on the inside and are just trying to make our outsides match our insides.

[SherriePall]

Just one thing? Probably that many of us are not gay. There are other things I could also mention, but others have covered them. I would say that many of us are heterosexual because that is a very common misunderstanding, even among the gay community.

[Tamsin]

If you were speaking with someone, a stranger, who knew nothing about you being a cross dresser and the topic came up of cross dressing. What would be the ONE thing you would want them to know about cross dressers.

That dressing in the manner of the opposite sex is only considered cross dressing for half the population: it is considered quite usual if a woman dresses as a man.

[Sarah Doepner]

I would probably hem and haw a little before I said anything to a stranger. Then I'd probably say something like, "Be careful because stereotypes and a broad brush can hide a lot of very important aspects of complex human behavior. Question everything you've been told and go to more than one knowledgeable source before you think you have it figured out." That may generate more questions, which is what is intended.

It's the same thing I'd say to a stranger about teenagers, muslims, crayons, thigh-high stockings and just about anything else.

Okay, to answer the question as posed, I'd probably say it's not learned behavior, but something that seems to come naturally to some people.

[Vickie_CDTV]

That CDs are everyday folks, and that we *ARE NOT* what they see on Jerry Springer etc.