New Theory on True Cause of Cross-dressing

[Confucius]

Here is a new theory on the true cause of why some men cross-dress. Basically, the field of psychology has not provided an accurate or helpful explanation for the cross-dressing community. This is because the model should not be based on psychology, but neurology.

For the most part cross-dressers are seen as normal, healthy, heterosexual men who gainfully function in society as doctors, pastors, and engineers, just as well as the general population. Their cross-dressing is not a result of childhood trauma as they do not exhibit any signs of being mentally disturbed, nor are they schizophrenic. The sensations they claim they feel from cross-dressing are not a result of a delusion or vivid imagination, rather they are a result of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, which are activated in their cross-dressing experience.

This biological model says that cross-dressers have their brain hard-wired to interpret cross-dressing as actual contact with a female. When they feminize themselves their brain goes into action and releases a host of neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, etc. which produce the sensations of well-being, comfort, pleasure, sexual gratification and bonding. It affects the reward centers of the brain, instant gratification, and thus it mimics the addiction response. It cannot be "cured" because you cannot stop your brain from releasing neurotransmitters.

So exactly how this is small percentage of the male population (approximately 3%) get their brains wired this way??? The answer goes back to synaptogenesis and neural pruning. There are certain critical periods in brain development when your brain creates a myriad of neural connections. In fact, you have the most synaptic connections when you are 12 months old. Then through the learning process, these connections are either reinforced or pruned. There is another critical period of synaptogenesis and pruning during adolescence. (This correlated well with cross-dressers who say that their cross-dressing begin in early childhood (~75%), or during puberty (~25%), Occasionally this process maintains some unusual neural connection between sensory pathways. For instance a person may see colors associated with numbers. Or, a person may experience taste sensations associated with hearing certain words. When a person has a neurological condition where stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway it is called synesthesia.

So, compulsive cross-dressers may be seen as having a form of synesthesia. When 97% of the male population can wear a skirt they feel nothing but humiliation. However, 3% of them will experience actual contact with a female. Their brain will release neurotransmitters and they will experience all the sensations. These are real, not imagined. It is automatic, involuntary, and profoundly affects the person.

Psychology only comes in play when the person tries to cope with his form of synesthesia. He tries to make sense of his experience and may wonder if he feels contact with a female because he is a female. Or, it may be entirely sexual. He may adopt a female alter ego. Or, he may satisfy himself with one or two articles of clothing and not accept himself as female, at all. The entire spectrum of cross-dressing is explained by our personal interpretation of the synesthesia sensations. Because the neurotransmitters are real, and a part of our biology, it means that all the spectrum of cross-dressing is valid. The only persons living outside of reality are those who have this form of synesthesia and then deny this part of their person.

[nhlighthouse]

Very well written and expressed 100% correct. At least my diagnostic results are right on about the feeling of well being, sexual gratitude and comfort!
Thank you great post!...Mykhelle

[Zylia]

Very interesting! For something as scientific as this there's a disturbing lack of sources Can you tell us where you got this from?

[Karren H]

So at age 7 I craved contact with women?

[Julie Gaum]

Very logical presentation --- good post! As Zylia requested, since we don't have the profesional background to evaluate, do you have backup material on this subject? Your hypothesis varies from what's out there but, nevertheless, there are so many unexplained (to date) flaws and unexplained segments of the CD spectrum that you may very well have plugged some holes. Will, hopefully, hear more from you.
Julie

[hazelm]

Very logical

[Zylia]

So at age 7 I craved contact with women?

Well, I can't speak for everyone, but sexual development normally begins at a very young age. Try Wikipedia for a Sexuality 101.

[Jenniferathome]

I don't buy into the synesthesia as an explanation as the connection would be so random that cross dressing could not be the result to explain our numbers. Certainly, cross dressing is neurologically based.

And, as Karen pointed out, as a child, I would have gaged at the idea of "contact" with girls. This part of your explanation falls flat and would only make sense for adults, but you can not be selective in scientific explanations.

[CarlaRenae_arkie]

Interesting post. I still do not understand why I have stronger urges to dress at certain times. I have racked my brain and could not figure anything in my childhood that can explain my desires. This makes as much sense as anything else.

[mary something]

Dear Confucius you've spent a lot of time thinking about this and working on this it seems. There is one flaw to the theory, at least it seems to me. You're talking about things that don't change quickly over time such as our biology, dna, hormones etc. Every person who has ever lived in history has had similar biology, dna, hormones, their brains release oxytocin when they feel pleasure, etc.

The problem is that your theory ONLY fits if considering a culture such as the one we live in, a western postmodern culture with the definition of male social role being what it is today.

Do you think roman men were chemically addicted to wearing togas?

[skirtsuit]

I know this is more about the philosophy of science, but here goes -
The 'theory' that a certain behavior is related differences in 'wiring' and neurotransmitters is only worth something if you can point to specific differences and explain how those differences actually cause the behavior. Otherwise the 'theory' is not even that because it is completely untestable, and therefore not really science as it is practiced. Saying vaguely that 'wiring' and hormones/neurotransmitters is the 'cause' of a behavior is actually a completely meaningless statement and not an explanation of anything because, supposedly, all behavior is caused by brains doing what they do.

Also, and chew on this for a while, there is no 'scientific' proof that your brain is the 'cause' of your mind (self) !

Regards,
SS

[bridget thronton]

Very nice post - much to consider

[Amanda M]

Confucius - what you have posted is accurate. To a degree. You quote statistics without verifiable sources. There are broad generalities - "There are certain condition where your brain generates..." What conditions? When?


You say "Their cross-dressing is not a result of childhood trauma as they do not exhibit any signs of being mentally disturbed, nor are they schizophrenic." What on Earth has schizophrenia to do with childhood trauma? "They do not exhibit any signs of being mentally disturbed..." Source?

Good Heavens, how many posts on this forum alone are the direct result of the angst generated by crossdressing.

Does childhood trauma essentially precede mental disturbance - whatever that is? Just look at the suicide - and attempted suicide - rates among transgendered people, many of whom were crossdressers before they understood their own needs.

Are you seriously suggesting that someone who is genuinely suicidal is not mentally disturbed? Now let me make this crystal clear. There are probably very few people who have not, at some moment, considered suicide as a solution to their pain. It is sad that anyone should reach that level of desperation, but, when they do, I think you would agree that they are acting under severe psychological stress. Unless, of course, you have a credible alternative explanantion.

You tell us that through the learning process, synaptic process is altered. If that is the case, then nurture and environment do have a part to play, do they not?

Synaesthesia is hardly restricted to crossdressers, is it?

Frankly, you offer your opinion - not rigorous, peer reviewed research. To my mind, therefore, while you have the makings of a theory, it would be best debated in more academic circles, rather than being presented here as fact.

What is clear, though is that you have the commitment to finding out. Success on your journey.

[Zylia]

The problem is that your theory ONLY fits if considering a culture such as the one we live in, a western postmodern culture with the definition of male social role being what it is today.

Do you think roman men were chemically addicted to wearing togas?

So what you're saying is we need a couple of babies from Ancient Rome, raise them in our western postmodern society and see if a few of them turn into cross-dressers to test Confusius' theory?

[Chickhe]

As soon as I read your third paragraph, I started to doubt it,, "biological model says that cross-dressers have their brain hard-wired to interpret cross-dressing as actual contact with a female" ...nonsense. However, I don't rule out that synesthesia (which has nothing to do with gender) could play a role. If you know anything about it, it is basically just a unique way your brain indexes thoughts... some people feel emotional connections, for example (although there are hundreds of forms of synesthesia), the numbers three, ten and twenty might feel like they belong with the color orange. The reason, I'll give this some more thought...my young daughter told me she feels temperatures for certain things...so I was learning about synesthesia in the past. It was a curiosity mostly because she is a normal kid. She is overly sensitive to sound and light, I was too as a kid...could be something to it. Where do you learn about this new theory?

[Confucius]

Thanks for your responses. I appreciate all comments and questions. In response to a few questions:

The majority of cross-dressers have their first memories of cross-dressing while they are in their early childhood. This would correspond with the period of synaptic pruning during our early learning processes. The brain would be associating cross-dressing with contact with a female, however it would NOT be sexual. At this juncture you lack the hormones to make cross-dressing a sexual experience. However you still crave contact with a female, and that contact is your mother.

As a baby, I was very clingy. My mother tells me that I insisted on being carried by her, all the time. (I don't recall this,) When I was six months old my mother was pregnant again. This time with my sister. Now my mother always wanted a daughter so when my sister was born, she was pampered. My sister was the center of my mother's attention. (My mother also tells me that she had to carry a baby in each arm, as I still insisted on her attention.) When I was 3-yrs old I developed a type of play, I called it playing "mommy" but all I was doing was raiding my mom's closet. Playing with my mom's clothes made me feel special, and I was fascinated with the fabrics, their colors, and textures. It was not sexual, but it was a sensory experience. (No my mother did not approve of my behavior.)

Synesthesia does not mean random neural connections. The process of neural pruning removes nonsense connections and the learning process reinforces other connections. So in your very early childhood you may have made associations between women's clothing and the contact with a woman, and that may have been the only thing you needed. Some researchers believe that some synesthesia between colors and numbers may have their origin in colored magnetic numbers on the refrigerator.

[Karren H]

Well, I can't speak for everyone, but sexual development normally begins at a very young age. Try Wikipedia for a Sexuality 101.

Maybe now but 55 years ago..... we weren't allowed to know what sex was till we were 15! lol

[mary something]

So what you're saying is we need a couple of babies from Ancient Rome, raise them in our western postmodern society and see if a few of them turn into cross-dressers to test Confusius' theory?

not really. What I'm saying is that a baby in ancient rome isn't that different from a baby in today's times. What is different is cultural perceptions towards the roles of women and men and how to express what that culture considers the ideal personality for each sex. This ideal personality structure differs from culture to culture but it adheres to some of the inherent temperament patterns that stereotypically describe male and female patterns of responding to the environment in which they live.

A culture with a very different view of sex and gender would still have the same people that are considered crossdressers as our modern culture does. They might look and act different though because the culture is different and the "acceptable" behaviors that each person strives to do would probably look different than in another culture like our own.

Any theory to describe cross gender expression should first be checked to see if it applies to any other culture than the one in which one lives to see if it describes a human behavior (a basic need, that when repressed feels like a compulsion to do, eating for a hungry person) or a cultural behavior (behaviors we do to fit into social groups and avoid criticism or embarrassment)

All societies have had individuals that feel the need for some degree of cross gender expression. However each society defines gender and sexuality slightly differently so the data has to be analyzed from the proper perspective to weed out cultural bias.

Imagine a hypothetical Amazonian society where women are expected to be warriors and men nurturers. I would expect in that society that the crossdressers would be the men who tend to fit the idealized version of masculinity that we have been taught to believe is only natural in western culture.
Those guys in the amazonian society would feel ashamed for not fitting into the social role that their society has taught them to aspire to, and would want to express their individual identity as the warriors they are to some degree.

In that society I would expect people would think they were crazy to want to go against nature. When their little boys wanted to play with sticks as weapons the parents would most likely be very ashamed that their children's personalities weren't congruent with the nurturing man stereotype that was considered valuable.

[linda booth]

The only part I don't buy is "contact with a female". I love the clothes - even just looking at them. I love wearing them!

[Confucius]

Thanks Mary Something (I love your picture).

My theory does not only apply to western society. For instance cross-dressers growing up in India have an affinity for saris, and in Japan they may enjoy wearing a silk kimono. In western society a cross-dresser with a childhood in the 1950's may prefer to wear a petticoat. In each case the influences of his childhood have a distinct influence in his cross-dressing. However, in each case their brain continues to make the association between feminizing themselves and contact with a female. Their brain releases the neurotransmitters for contact with a female. In early childhood these neurotransmitter would be identified with contact with their mother, and once you reach puberty and have the appropriate hormones, then contact with a female means a sexual experience. Then later in life, when your testosterone levels diminish the sensations is more about comfort and less about sex.

There is even more... The way the brain works - doing the same sensory experience over, and over, and over, causes your brain to fatigue and you release less dopamine. So many cross-dressers feel a need to escalate their cross-dressing. At that point the urges are being driven by dopamine. It's just like the Coolidge Effect. For more information on neurotransmitters and the sensory effects on sex please see this link:
http://www.reuniting.info/science/sex_in_the_brain

[Lorileah]

ok people first: This is what they call a hypothesis. It will lead to theory and then either confirmation or discredit....this can take years. It may never be proven or disproven. So let's keep our knickers smooth here OK?

Next, why is it when someone mentions the opposite gender so many here immediately jump to sex? Being 7 (I don't give a damn who or what you say you were then) you knew the opposite sex. In our generation the difference was enhanced by society (clothing, games, toys) so the chasm is wider. When the op says @ age 7...and you all jump and say "NO! I hated girls then!" you are reciting what you were told by peers to say. You noticed that girls wore things that you didn't. It doesn't mean you were thinking of schtuping anyone. So get over that

Here is how I see the OP. We are born (and we are hard wired prior to that). We don't know where we will go or what will interest us but as time goes by we refine the neuro system to fit what we are and need. As the OP says we "prune" away dead wood so good growth can occur. What is trimmed away is part societal (you don't go around invading neighbors) and part is what we feel and enjoy.

Men in Rome liking Togas? Really? You went there as if to say "Hey Romans who wore togas had to be latent crossdressers"? Using the "things back in 0 AD were like so and nothing has changed in our biology shows an inherent lack of understanding evolution. While most evolutionary changes take thousands and millions of years, there have been a lot in the last even century. Talk to the people in England and ask how high the door frame is on a castle built in 1439. Look at the armor, if you are 15 years old and not started your puberty yet you may fit but those behemoth knights you have in Warcraft team? They would have been 5'6".

Take the OP for what it is, a new and novel way to maybe help explain why...nothing more. If it is true, then we will have an easier path to melding in. If it proven true, it will also be a path for some to try and "cure" use by rewiring (see Clockwork Orange).

[Zylia]

A culture with a very different view of sex and gender would still have the same people that are considered crossdressers as our modern culture does.

Are you sure? What's your source? Are these cultures really all that different in that case? Are you implying that there's a single cause for all forms of cross gender expression, e.g. (fetishistic) cross-dressing and transsexualism ? How do you see the difference between those two in a society that doesn't have the psychological and medical expertise our western society has? Not saying you're wrong, just wondering.

[Beverley Sims]

Almost scientific mumbo jumbo, well written and a good score for English comprehension.
What are the sources of your diatribe, or is it all your own work ?

[teri g]

Verifiable science aside, this theory rings true for me. I fall squarely in the middle of the bell curve as it pertains to both my history and my current activities, yet the only thing that comes close to explaining my path to crossdressing would be neurological in nature. Who in their right mind would choose a life of torment, discrimination, secrecy, conflicted self-image etc., all for what, the choice to wear socially unacceptable clothing?

[samanthasolo]

I can certainly buy a lot of this theory! One thing that is for sure is that for every aspect of any individuals crossdressing regardless to what extent theory seems very relevant. Everyone has a lot of questions as to why. Some answers apply to some and others do not. We all come to an acceptance of ourself, we might hide in denial, seek approval and acceptance of others, HRT, SRS, suicide and so on! No matter what road we as individuals chose we really come up with the path we chose as a means to our own end, something we can live with or not! UNDERSTANDING never really enters the picture on a scientific level. This of course is my opinion, I know what works for me from day to day without really knowing or understanding the why's specifically for me!

I would venture to say that the point in time that there became a distinction between what a male or female was wearing as clothing and it became gender specific. That is when crossdressing began. I can also appreciate Zylia's youthful, well informed, question the answers approach to this subject right up to and including the sense of humor. We do all know that when all else fails if you don't have a sense of humor you might be pretty much left with nothing. Ok, maybe a pair of panties Lol! I would not go as far as to resort to WIKI as a source for true and viable info though.

I do believe ithis is an excellent thread Confucius! Thanks for making us put our thinking caps on!