dunb question

[Babbs]

I am a crossdresser. Therefor I am also a transvestite. Does that also mean I am Transgender? I thought transgender related to a trans sexual. Someone please set me straight.

Thanks
Babbs

[Susie Mack]

Hi, Babbs,

If you look up at the stickies in this forum, you will see a header labeled, "Some Common, Trans-Related Definitions". I think you may find the answers to some of your questions there.

Good luck!

Susie

[CherylFlint]

NOT a dumb question, really. I, like you, am a CD and enjoy role playing as a woman, so I'm also a transvestite.
But I have NEVER given it a passing thought about doing other than dressing and role playing, and I've been a CD for 30+ years.
I must say, however, that my reasons for dressing has always remained the same: the satisfaction of relaxing that only by dressing gives me.
I've never had so much fun in my life, and I really enjoy the transition: shower and a really close shave, and layering on one item at a time, and then, after I'm all dressed and the make-up on, I put-on the crown (wig) and check myself out in the full length mirror.
I've had plans on going out at times but if, for whatever reason, I'm not satisfied with my "look", I'll just stay at home and try again some other day.
With me it's ATTITUDE. I've got to feel like a women before I have any hope or chance to "pass".
Enjoy being a CD, I sure as heck do. Never had so much fun.

[Tammy Lynn Tx]

Cheryl, you forgot the adreniline rush of after you finish your makeup someone knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell.
I have been dressing about 50 years (off/0n) and still get the rush when that happens. A Dr. once told me that If i dressed for sexual enjoyment then I was a transvestite otherwise I was just a crossdresser. I have met quite a few "ladies" over the years and most of us are like you, both, as I am.

[LeslieWelsn]

The difference between crossdresser and transvestite may be more in one's own head than the outward appearance or performance. As a crossdresser I find great satisfaction and a bit of a thrill in the roll play that occurs when I'm dressed and out in public. My first big time in public was a Show that was very CD friendly. The next time was at the Twin Cities Pride Weekend celebration so I've actually had some very supportive settings for the first full-out outings. It is a great confidence builder so now, the next times will be easier.

Don't worry about the name for it. Just enjoy it.

Leslie W.

[Jaylyn]

I do consider myself a CD who enjoys the feelings I get from being dressed to the max. Just walking across the room and hearing the click of my heels or putting on that extra coat of red lipstick can turn me on also, so by your definition I'm a transvestite also. I don't think of myself a transgender though. Like Cheryl I have never really thought much about it but just enjoy relaxing and enjoying the time spent dressed.

[Zylia]

To answer the actual question (it's also in the sticky as Susie mentioned): cross-dresser and transvestite are synonymous, although cross-dresser is the preferred term for many people. It's completely arbitrary at this point to consider CD and TV different 'categories'.

Transgender is an adjective to describe a diverse group of people who cross society's gender norms. Cross-dressers as well as transsexual people fall under that umbrella. A lot of media use the word transgender exclusively for transsexual people, which is not patently false, but it's like using the word fruit when you talk about apples.

As a side note, some cross-dressers who only dress 'for the clothes' and/or for sexual gratification don't consider themselves transgender because they don't experience a body and gender incongruence. They consider that incongruence a prerequisite for using that label. Some transmen and transwomen don't consider themselves transgender because their gender identity and birth gender match and the body they were born in is just a birth defect.

Ultimately it's just semantics and many people here prefer the soup over the soup labels.

[Marcelle]

Hi Babbs,

Zylia summed it up well . . . chicken noodle soup anyone

Hugs

Isha

[Lynn Marie]

I've always liked the term crossdresser. It just seemed so easy to understand and doesn't imply anything other than an infatuation with women's clothing. But recently I've come to the realization that I'm transgender even if only a little bit! There's something in me that gets excited when I'm dressed. Even though I don't really care for the terms transvestite and transsexual, I'm forced to admit that I do fit under the transgender umbrella pretty well! And I like it here.

[Katey888]

Babbs - personally, I blame the scientists... or the psychologists... at least one of those bunches of clever people should have done a little more to understand why we do what we do...

Zylia's is a good summary... I'd just add one little thing to her concluding point, that it's not just semantic - it might also be taxonomic... and I believe it has a lot to do with motivation too. Whether or not we (CDers) all can be classed as TG is debatable, but I believe it to be accurate to a point.

The simple truth for me is that whatever our overt reasons for dressing (fun, comfort, sexual, expression etc.) only the purely sexual can be set outside the TG 'class' as a fetish that may just be associated with other aspects of dressing.

If your motivation and fulfilment is derived from any of:

• dressing and looking like;
• behaving like;
• being taken for;
• going out as;
• socialising and interacting as;

- your opposite birth gender, then that for me means you have some degree of gender dysphoria and is therefore TG. It may be small or significant, but anyone who breaches society's cultural stigma to satisfy this need, is doing so for a deeper reason than the one they may use as overt justification.

I wouldn't worry about it - whatever we all are; however we all relate to each other whether CD, TV, TS, TG, GQ... we are one, big, weird community in the minds of the muggles.

Katey x

[Zylia]

That's a great addition, Katey. Also the perfect explanation as to why many cross-dressers should be considered transgender. I don't know if all transgender cross-dressers experience the discomfort associated with the gender dysphoria diagnosis (certainly not the levels of discomfort that would warrant medical treatment), but there obviously is a gender incongruence.

[Ressie]

Thanks Zylia. It's hard to remember that 'transgender' is an adjective, not a noun. The basic definition I have is 'identified with a gender other than the biological one". So, being an adjective, it's reallty a word that describes an attribute, a modifier of a noun. No matter how the word is defined, it is an adjective. I agree that it's confusing.

[Judy]

There was a time when I thought a CD was a disc with music on it!

But seriously folks, I believe that CD and TV have the same definition.

So which ever you are, have fun doing it!

[Tracy Hazel Lee]

I'm pretty sure I read the same thing some where... The words that combine to create the word trans-vestite, loosely translated, mean the exact same thing (trans = beyond or across, + vestitus = clothing or dressed... something to that effect). But the way the words are commonly used, one would think they actually have different meanings. So, because of that perceived difference, I still prefer to use to term crossdresser.

[Isabella Ross]

I am a crossdresser. Therefore, I am transgendered. Don't think it needs to be more complicated than that.

[Teresa]

Babbs,
I'm going to sound like an old record player but transvestite is latin, trans =to cross, vestite=clothes/garb, so we get crossdress, in the literal translation no mention of gender or sexual content.
To be a crossdresser simply means you wear clothes of the opposite sex, not you want to change sex !

Reine has suggested that I'm a Transvestic Autogynerphiliac, which I understand is not uncommon ! ( Where the term crossdreaming comes from I'm not sure, but my dressing feels real enough and not just in my imagination !)

[bridget thronton]

Labels seem to result in loss of information (sort of like trying to categorize your being by just listing your height or weight) if a label causing you stress ignore it.

[Kris Avery]

One thing I have certainly learned from reading the mountains of information available here is that everyone is different.

I feel no different when dressed from a viewpoint of observing my personal attraction to men or women. I'm only attracted to women (namely only to my SO) -----no matter what.
If she sees me checking out other females - it's always about the clothes. Either they are really nice and stick out - or more often than not in "people of Wal-Mart" style - really bad.
It's never about the body wearing the clothes.

However, I enjoy it, and as someone who identifies female, dressing and light modifications of my body resolve a low-level tension that I feel between the female mind and the male body.
With this thought, I can see if this were 1000's of times more intense - why some would take steps to heavily modify their body to match their mind.

[Cheryl Ann Owens]

The word "transvestite" sounds so clynical and archaic. I and probably others deplore a word coined by a psychologist decades ago to confine us in a category or to label us. I think it's time to get rid of labels. We are as different as there is a population of us exploring cross-gender appearance and behavior.

Cheryl

[Underdressed]

You can call me anything you like, But I am still ME.

[transbetty]

To my knowledge trans mean "crossing lines", so yes.

I think CD / TV / TS are ok within community and actually sometimes makes things easier.

[donnalee]

Here, we begin to tread in the extremely murky waters between denotation and connotation. TV & CD literally denote the same thing, but TV has a negative connotation, mostly by it's use to denigrate people; CD has a near neutral one, primarily because it's been used less by the media.
Transgender is a word used by this site to designate all of it's members with the exception of GGs who are not (minus FTM, who are considered TS).
Whew - yes I know it's complicated.
The definitions are good for this site and save explanation (if we had to explain ourselves, very few could do it truthfully, not so much that we don't want to; mostly because we don't know), plus, while everyone is sympathetic, we've all heard it before.
Of course, you are free to call yourself whatever you like.

[Jenny Elwood]

I'm going to sound like an old record player...

So Teresa you are not a CD!

[Lori Kurtz]

I've always considered the terms "crossdresser" and "transvestite" as synonymous. I prefer "crossdresser," though, because "transvestite" sounds more like a disease. "Crossdresser," on the other hand, sounds more like something one does rather than something one is. And I do think that crossdressing has something to do with identity, and is more than just an activity. Transsexual, of course, generally means a person who identifies with the gender that contradicts his or her physical sex organs. I think of "transgender" as a wide spectrum that includes all of the above.

That said, I know that some people disagree with me about those things. And as I read over my first paragraph, I see that I'm not even in full agreement with myself. I love having a place where people can come and discuss these things openly. Regardless of what definitions we use, I think it's important for us to shed the negative feelings we might have about our identities and practices, and make the most of who we are.

[MsVal]

I note that classification is confusing and difficult by those who have had decades of first hand experience. Consider the confusion of those that are new to the realization that they or a loved one exhibits this behavior. The innocent, though sincere discussion of classification certainly contributes to their confusion. Therefore, I think it would be wise to state that classification is still emerging. Until it is fully mature, one would be wise to accept that there are diverse and conflicting terms for the same things and to focus on the behavior rather than the definition.

As for me, I am a man who chooses to dress and behave as a woman to provide temporary relief from a form of gender incongruence as mentioned by Zylia, above.