Hi all,
Okay I will apologize in advance to the mods/admins and whoever for posting yet another topic along this lines. However it seems to be a big point of interest and since I did not want to hijack Katey's thread . . . not to mention she accused me of being quiet so the gauntlet has been retrieved Lady Katherine . . . so I thought I would start a new thread along these lines to state my belief on this and encourage dialogue on the subject. I am going to discuss the two sides "Nurture" and "Nature" with competing views. I will apologize to our FtM brothers who may read this post. I am keeping the example MtF for ease of explanation but it would be the same for you, only in the opposite gender direction
Again this is my own take on things and to honest even the scientific literature is all over the place. However, after reading quite extensively on this subject, this is the stance I tend to believe in as it explains so much about me. I invite all to provide their input/experience . . . but's let be civil and not transcend into name calling please.
Nurture
It has been posited in various journals within the behavioral realm that rearing (how one is socialized) will determine for the most part how a person interacts with the world around them. So if we look at gender identity, we all tend to be socialized along our birth sex (boys as boys / girls as girls). We interact with others of our gender and engage in gender typical play/past-times/relationships and so on. However, for some reason some of us tend to move toward the other gender. Early behavioral understanding tried to demonstrate that TG folks must have been raised/reared in a gender atypical way . . . think boys raised in an all female home with no men to role model becoming more effeminate or a girl raised with brothers being a tomboy. However this belief was put to rest some time ago and its disfavor can be evidenced here in that many who are raised/socialized along their birth gender still grow up to have gender identity issues.
Now this is not to say that behavior cannot account for some aspects of dressing. Some work has been done on fetish dressing in that young men who experience early sexual arousal either through gender role play or use of female items of clothing can in essence spend an inordinate amount of time "chasing the dragon" sort to speak in order to recapture that first orgasm. This may lead to more dressing behavior (upping the dressing ante sort to speak) leading to full on dressing in order to be sexually aroused. I am not saying this is the sole reason but some behavioral studies do point to that link . . . though I believe there is still more there . . . explained below.
Nature
What we are talking about here is "biology" plain and simple. A lot of time is spent espousing the "genetic" theory . . . we are who we are because of our genes. I for one cannot commit to the "gene theory" anymore than I can commit to the "behavior theory". Here is my reasoning. If this could simply be explained by genetics (passed along the family line in whatever genetic delivery system) there would be a prevalence of cross dressing men/women in your family line. Genetics by nature lead to manifestations of certain traits (hair colour, eye colour, phenotypes) and certain conditions (hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and various other diseases/disorders) which tend to run in families. If this were so for being TG, then there would be a history of it in the family line. It might skip a generation but it would be close at hand (i.e., not a distant relation). Now many here might say "Well perhaps they hid it well?" Seriously? . . . As we all know, this thing does not stay secret for long and I am sure you would have heard the hushed stories about "Uncle Dave" or "Grandpa" who had a proclivity for ladies things.
Now not to deny the "nature" aspect it's day in court I do hold to some of the studies currently looking at the effect of prenatal hormones on the development of the human brain. Studies have shown that the human brain differentiates early in development both structurally and functionally in a sexually dimorphic way. Researchers have demonstrate that there are clear structural sex differences in the central nucleus of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc) - a part of the hypothalamus. This difference between men and women is related to size and the number of somatostatin immunoreactive neurons. Studies have shown that those suffering from gender identity issues tend to have BSTc which are more typical of the opposite gender. Okay someone is going to jump and say "Yes but Isha, I am a cross dresser plain and simple. I know I am a man so I don't have gender identity issues" . . . Well, I suppose that could be true but let me ask you to suspend disbelief for a second and follow me down this garden path . . .
. . . We can all agree we are an eclectic bunch. There are fetish dressers, some who just like to dress up (makes you feel good) then put it away, others like to dress up and go out, others prefer to live life presenting female for some proportion of time while others will live life as a woman 24/7 and never transition (no SRS) and others will go the whole distance (SRS). To be honest, IMHO no matter which way you skin this cat we all have an innate need to present on some level as a woman. Be it just wearing some aspect of women's clothing (for what ever reason / sexual/ feeling good) or presenting to the Vanilla world as female. You may be able to say "I am truly male" (or not) but IMHO you are splitting hairs . . . you like to dress/present as the opposite gender in some form or another for whatever reason so your gender identity is not as black and white as you think. Soooo (and stay with me ) . . .
. . . If we hold to the hormone wash theory above it is plausible that some of us may have BSTc more typical of women (MtF) and as such the gender identity issues may be more prevalent. This may cause some to have an overwhelming urge to present female in public (express the inner girl to the world), partake in body modification to be seen as more female (e.g., laser hair removal, BAS, HRT) and use clothing and make-up to approximate the target gender. In this circumstance the person may identify female only (TG/TS) or still have a strong pull to his/her male identity (TG/CD) with no desire to transition but the urge to be seen as female is still very strong because the Girl Lizard Brain (GLB ) is very vocal and wants coexistence with the male identity. For those who dress on occasion (could be in the privacy of your home or in public) to relieve stress, just feel good or for sexual satisfaction but you can then pack it away for longer periods of time until the urge hits again, it is probable that your BSTc may be more typically male but with a slight pull to the female hence you gender identity is more male than female. This would afford you the opportunity to explore the "inner girl" when needed but then go back to being "Joe Dude" for most of your life. So it is probable that those who progress up to and including transition, their BSTc may be more female and hence the male identity slips away over time or the male identity remains but has to time share with the female identity which would explain the urge to dress and present female from time to time (vocal Girl Lizard Brain). Those who dress on occasion for whatever reason may still be time sharing with the "inner girl" but she has limited windows of occupancy whereas the "outer boy" holds the lion share (Not so vocal Girl Lizard Brain). This might explain why some can just dress and go back to being guy without ever giving the inner girl a second though and some may go back to being "guy" but the inner girl is still there, jumping up and down while waiting for her time share and her shouts for recognition become pervasive in your thoughts.
Now this is not biology telling to wear women's clothing, use make-up, take on female gestures or engage in what you believe to be stereotypical female pastimes (housecleaning, cooking, shopping) it is biology telling you . . . "Umm, you do realize that you have some girl in you up in the lizard part of your brain". Once you realize that (at whatever point in your life) you take the necessary steps to present as female or your version of what female means to you and in whatever manner you wish it to be (fetish, feeling good, normal gal about town).
So that is my take on things as it explains so much about me. I was raised in an all female home but I had very strong "uber-masculine" role models who initiated me in the way of guy past times. However, I can recall still liking my sister's and cousin's dresses when young but never acted on it (girl part of my lizard brain . . . saying hello). I went on to socialize male (guy friends, guy past times) joined the military and engage in Alpha Male employment, go married (twice), pro-created and with the exception of one time at the age of 17 never dressed en femme until last year (32 years later). Behaviorally I may have been supressing my "girl lizard brain" but she was still there and when she did arrive it was a force of nature to the point where I present female about 40% of my time) . . . I have a vocal Girl Lizard Brain. Now behaviorally I was raised male and socialized male. I do not have any male relatives of whom I have heard whispered stories about so the hormone wash and development of the girl lizard brain makes intuitive sense to me . . . but this my belief.
Hugs