Ranges Of Behavior:
Within the TV/TS Community, there is a wide range of behavior. Doctor Harry Benjamin (as a pioneer in gender related problems in the early 1960's) designed a scale of behavior as a guide to treatment for the TV and TS. Its six positions represent the dressing and emotional preferences of his patients.
(0) Is the so called "straight" person who has no interest in becoming an actual crossdresser.
(1) Represents the person who is thinking of becoming a crossdresser or may have been one. There is no actual crossdressing, but the person is inclined in that direction.
(2) Is considered to be a "fetishist" who may wear an item or two of clothing from the opposite sex as a means of sexual arousal.
(3) Is considered by Doctor Benjamin to be the "true transvestite." However, there seem to be four distinct variations within that category.
(3A) Is the situational crossdresser who does not really get involved in cross-gender behavior of any type except for an occasion where he is required to wear clothing of the opposite sex for some specific reason. He does not have a compulsion to crossdress.
(3B) Is the partial transvestite. He has gone beyond the realm of fetishism but does not completely crossdress. This person does not generally appear in public as a crossdresser.
(3C) Is the occasional transvestite who does dress completely and does appear in public. However, the person appears to need some sort of sanctioned event to do so, such as Halloween, Mardi Gras, or a costume party.
(3D) Is the person who dresses as completely as possible and as often as possible, depending on the situation and personal lifestyle. This person appears in public.
(4) Is considered to be the "low-intensity or occasional transsexual." This person has an intermittent strong desire, or a constant low desire for gender reassignment surgery.
(5) Is considered to be the "moderate intensity transsexual."
(6) Is the "high intensity transsexual" who desperately seeks gender reassignment surgery. He may be suicidal if prospects for reassignment therapy do not appear promising.
(7) Has been added beyond Doctor Benjamin's scale to represent the post-operative transsexual who has completed gender reassignment surgery and is living as a member of the opposite sex. Many male to female transsexuals refer to themselves as "New Women" or "New Men."
I am 3-a