I would have to lean towards nurture. I personally never really had a male figure to look up to so over time I accepted it as the norm. I didn't come to terms with it until I left the military. I also have to agree that not every one who was raised this way would have the same outcome. Every one is unique in their own way.
I agree with Nicole.
I guess it depends on how you define nature, if it is in the DNA, or if some event triggers a preference for feminine clothes in the brain, at an early or not so early age. Not saying that the CDing is or continues to be a fetish for everyone, but if we do just look at any other preference for unusual things, I don't think people are born with genes that regulate a preference for latex, or bondage, or feet, or any other strong preference that people can have.
I think that nature is only at the root when a person is transsexual or some form of intersex perhaps. There is a real need to look and live as a woman (for MtFs) in order to match internal gender identity, and it is accompanied by a strong distaste for looking and living as a male. If someone identifies as a male and does not hate their penis but just has an intense attraction to the clothes or to wanting to look like a beautiful woman, then I think this is mostly nurture - an internal need brought on by some type of accidental imprinting, and not necessarily a need brought on by something external if for example their mothers or their sisters dressed them as children ... although this is possible too. But then again maybe some people have personalities that are more susceptible to the influence of one-time accidental events, or events that occurred several times. If the personality causes a person to be easily influenced by things or events, then I supposed this would be nature, although not necessarily for the CDing. If this makes sense.
To the CDers who always felt different than other boys, unless you are TS and don't know it yet, I know some men who are not CDers, are not gay, but who don't have the same interests as other men. One such friend is an historian. He is the least macho man that I've ever met! It happens without necessarily predicting a preference for the CDing, just as there are women who are very sports-minded and competitive and who hated all the ultra girly stuff during childhood ... and they still have a solid preference for presenting as a female.
As always, this is just an opinion.
Reine
No idea why, just found a dress in the closet when I was about 4 or 5. Put it on and have been doing it ever since.
I really don't have much of an personal opinion on the issue. I will say though, I once asked my therapist, long before I completed transition and SRS, whether being TS was nature or nurture. She told me that most probably that Nature paves the way for Nurture to do what it does and that it is more a synergistic union of the two to create the influence that pushes the person.
I know that for me, I knew from age of four that I was being treated in a way that was different than the other girls in my family. I knew that I was supposed to be the same as they were with respect to clothing and habitus and social expectations. At age seven, I ran away from home because I refused to dress as a boy at the start of the second grade. Needless to say, it was running away that got my family to realize that I was different and was sincere in my insistence that I was a girl and needed to dress the part. After that, Life was pretty much accommodating my needs. I had SRS then at an early age.
I think there's a middle ground.
I recall a news story about a man who had feminine feelings about himself. He was 50 something, I believe, when he went for an ultrasound of his intestine. And, while the article was not specifid, he apparantly had internal girl parts, in addition to his external boy parts. In effect the man was intersexed. Depending on your view, he was either suffering from "estrogen poisoning", or natural HRT.
So, how do we identify a boy from aq girl? Baby pops out, and the doctor identifies what kind of external parts are visible, and you get an M or an F on your birth certificate.
But all embreyos start out female, and then boys are washed in Testosterone, and the girl parts atrophy and the boy parts develop. But what if there was a little mix up in the T wash? What if it was too late, or too early, or not enough, and part of the brain was F and the other part was M. Ther's no way current medicine can test the brain to see if it is F or M, but just being mixed might pre-dispose a child to be transgendered.
What if puberty started late because the T was late increasing. Since the brain is still growing, couldn't that amke the brain part F and part M?
So, are these events nature? Maybe or maybe not.
Last edited by Sometimes Steffi; 09-22-2013 at 09:02 PM.
Hi, I'm Steffi and I'm a crossdresser... And I accept and celebrate both sides of me. Or, maybe I'm gender fluid.
My crossdressing just came about one day, perhaps a combination of nature AND nurture. I had no knowledge of crossdressing, or what it might mean, or if others were doing it – I just DID it. However, I didn’t underdress until later. I did the overdressing first, and then moved inwards, gradually becoming more and more like a traditional transvestite. One fine day I was complete. I looked in the mirror, smiled, and wondered why I hadn’t started sooner...Originally Posted by Dani0948
I think most of us are just "born with it" and there's something in our lives that triggers our crossdressing. For me, when I was little I always liked girls clothes cause I thought they looked pretty; even as young as age 6 or so I would feel this way. Eventually in my teens or so, I had a chance to try on my sisters clothes and really liked it and it all started there. From that point on, I guess I nurtured the habit and became the cd I am today!
I've always wondered why I wanted to dress and look like a girl. The first time I did I was like 7 or so, way before I became sexual, so I feel I didn't do it for sexual reasons even though I did later in life.
I'm now in my 50's and just recently realized I will want to do this all my life and just except it.
I think it occurs at birth.
However...I do not think it is genetic as my mother, father, grandparents, children, and grandchildren are not cds as far as I can tell.
^My ex wife. Her predilection for all things male was one of the hints that MAYBE she might understand my case of the reverse. Sadly, nope. Guys who like girl stuff were still considered somewhat insane by her.
Some causes of crossdressing you've probably never even considered: My TG biography at:http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/...=1#post1490560
There's an addendum at post # 82 on that thread, too. It's about a ten minute read.
Why don't we understand our desire to dress, behave and feel like a girl? Because from childhood, boys are told that the worst possible thing we can be, is a sissy. This feeling is so ingrained into our psyche, that we will suppress any thoughts that connect us to being or wanting to be feminine, even to the point of creating separate personalities to assign those female feelings into.
I think there's an underlying nature, but nurture can trigger it, bring it out more, or repress it.
I've finally mastered the art of making salads. My favorite is a delicious Mediterranean salad.
I'd say genetics in my case ?
for me was about 6 years old wearing my mothers nylons and getting caught by her! - I have no idea how this started all I can remember is putting them on and feeling pleasure (not sexual) - please don't tell dad I begged but she did, they had a good laugh
from then I always was thinking 24/7 about being a girl , being jealous of the girls at school wanting to be like them , all the while dressing at home wrecking several pairs of nylons , mom never said a word but deep down I knew she knew! then she had heels OMG how good were they??? lol
one day taking dad to work in winter I noticed he had nylons on under his trousers (excuse was that it kept his legs warm from the cold) hmmmmm I never really thought much of that until later in life ......maybe he was (he's been departed for 17 years now) like I am? This is where I think the genetics kick in?
Of course one day (about 12 now)I was climbing up a post at our house and got for the first time that AMAZING rush in my pants, wow I thought this is awesome and I began to associate dressing with this activity
I used to have a button shirt I would tie up below breast line and stuff with my socks and go to sleep like that more often than not with nylons on (had a lock on bedroom door!)
One day after waking and going back to sleep mom came in my now unlocked door and for some reason lifted the sheets up to see what I was wearing- but!! I had already taken them off before going back to sleep! PHEW!!! Deep down to this day I know she knows I dress or have dressed in the past but not sure if she thinks I still do
I'm 50 now and happily married with a wife who knows and encourages me to be me within reason, i have been out dressed with her to a few places and all gone well
Just doesn't happen often enough I feel as though I need to be dressed every day
Sorry for gibbering on and off subject at the end
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