More than you know!

[sbay06]

So, I read a surprising statistic based off of a gender study done in Australia. The statistic said that between 2% to 5% of all men crossdress. That means that possibly 1 of every 20 men have the desire to crossdress and do so publicly or privately. I just found this statistic quite eye opening and sort of comforting in a weird way. It also made me feel a bit discouraged that society doesn't readily accept something that so many men struggle with, that so many men think is a problem which needs to be fixed. I wish I could rally every guy I know and see if any of them are in the same boat as me and then validate in them that their desires to express and to look a certain way transcend the societal pressures and gender roles that are pushed on us daily. Our biology doesn't dictate our fashion choices or our hobbies. I am happy that so many gender topics are being discussed publicly though (despite all the rash talk and decisions being made). It shows me that societal change is possible and that people are starting to realize gender isn't as black and white as they thought.

[Brandy Mathews]

I think that it is even more then that. You have to remember that most men will not admit to it.
Hugs,
Bree

[LelaK]

I don't admit to crossdressing except to people I expect are accepting.

[Robin414]

Great post Sbay...I don't 'cross dress' or do 'drag' WETF that is...I'm just ME, deal with it...cuz I'll fight ya 😠 !

[MissTee]

I've never crossdressed and have never wanted to . . . . {cough, cough}

[heatherdress]

If 5% is an accurate estimate of men who admit to crossdressing, I suspect there are even more men who don't admit that they crossdress or who would like to try crossdressing if they could.

[Beverley Sims]

How many men do you know that dress up in women's clothing?

Men just don't do that, especially those bronzed Aussies that wear Speedos and fight great white sharks. :-)

[Sheila11]

I don't crossdress. I just dress up for Halloween.
(And Easter , Christmas, ground hog day, boxing day, and Tuesday's.)

[sometimes_miss]

There are no studies that will be entirely accurate simply because so many of us are in the closet. The studies that we know of (other than Kinsey) are all of people who willingly volunteer their information, or worse, those who are already in some type of psychological care. That is not an accurate cross section of any society.

[CynthiaD]

No, I don't crossdress either. This thing I'm wearing is just an ankle-length tee shirt. And what about the breastforms, wig, lipstick, jewelry and high heels you say? Well, I'll get back to you on that!

[MissDanielle]

Is it really crossdressing if that's the gender you feel you are inside?

[deirdre travesty]

Ahh ha
Would you please give us a ref to the study you are quoting from.
Sounds extra interesting to us dwelling in the great southland.
How many of my fellow fellas aren't really fellas?
Well , less boring fellas anyway.

[sbay06]

Here is the link to the article I read. It looks like it is actually a study done in the United States, but the Gender Centre of Australia is citing this study in this article.

http://www.gendercentre.org.au/resou...nformation.htm

Here is a link to the actual study: It's really interesting. While those numbers aren't cold hard values, they are great estimates according to this study. I've posted the excerpt of the article done at the bottom for you.

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conw...revalence.html

Comparison of results with other
rough projections of the prevalence of TG conditions:

Another form of sanity check can be done on these numbers. We can determine if they are consistent with rough projections of the prevalence of related gender conditions, and with expected ratios of the prevalence of those conditions.

In the United States there are varying estimates of the prevalence of crossdressing. Most conservative estimates are in the range of 2% to 5% of all adult males engage in routine crossdressing (1:50 to 1:20). These are people who crossdress part-time either privately at home, or in private CD clubs, and who find great satisfaction in this practice. In a majority of these cases there is mainly a male fetishistic motivation for the crossdressing. However, in a moderate fraction (1/3rd?) it mainly provides an outlet for mild to moderate to strong transgender feelings.

Some fraction of the "transgender" crossdressers moving through this community will go on to "transition", and take on a full-time social role as women. Of these, some will complete a "TG transition" (without SRS), obtain new ID's, and live as women afterwards. A smaller group will complete a "TS transition" by also having SRS. In the United States those who complete a TS transition can in most states take on full legal status as women (updating their birth certificates, being able to marry men, adopt children, etc).

Long experience in the large crossdressers' clubs appears to indicate that at least 1/10th to1/20th of all crossdressers will eventually complete a full-time transition. Of those who do transition, a smaller fraction, perhaps 1/3rd of them, go on to a complete TS transition (including SRS). These numbers are what you hear if you simply ask crossdressers who are long experienced in these clubs. These rough numbers are also supported by the rough ratios of TG's and postopTS's to CD's in the major website listings of "transgender" people on sites such as Susana Marques TV/CD/TS/TG Directory [5], URNotAlone [6] and Fiona's Fantasyland [7]. Many thousands of (CD + TG +TS) girls are listed on those sites, and you can see the rough ratios by directly scanning those listings. While there are clearly many "self-labeling" problems in such sites, there is no reason to suspect that the self-labeled ratios are skewed very far from those actually encountered in the larger (non-"website") population.

These numbers provide another way to project some estimate expected prevalence of TS transitions, namely by starting at the top and working down. For example, if there only 1:50 adult males were CD's, and if only 1:20 of them transitioned, then we'd expect 1:1000 (TG + TS) transitions. This would predict a very conservative estimate of about 1:3000 for the prevalence of smaller number of TS transitions, which is of the same order of magnitude as we have calculated from the number of surgeries being performed. And of course, this estimate would be much higher if the prevalence of CD's and the fraction of CD's who transitioned were higher than the lower (conservative) values given.

There is yet another way to look at this: Most transgender activist groups in the U.S. estimate that about 1% to 2% of all people have strong transgender feelings and need outlets for expressing those feelings. Many of these people "act out" either by part-time crossdressing (and become the "transgender fraction" of crossdressers), or by adopting a full-time "gender variant" (neither male nor female) persona. Of these people, perhaps 1/3rd or so have more intense "transsexual" feelings and really would prefer to be in the other gender if they could find a way to do that. These numbers suggest some "intrinsic" prevalence of the "inner experience" of being "transgender" or "transsexual", namely for the prevalence of "strong cross-gender feelings" and for "intensely, desperately cross-gender longings" on the order of 1:50 and 1:150 respectively.

However, only a small fraction of such people could accomplish a TG or TS transition, even in the most accommodating of societies. Nevertheless, even if only 1/3rd to 1/5th of those people could transition, this would lead to a projected prevalence of TG transitions at about 1/150 and of TS transitions at about 1:500. In other words, those appear to be likely lower bounds on the "intrinsic" prevalence of such transitions if we started with young people right now and went forward into a time that is much more open to and supportive of such transitions than the past decades.

By cross-comparing all the above data and calculations, and exploiting the rough estimates of ratios of various conditions, we can construct the following table of rough projections of prevalences:

Of course, all these are very rough numbers. They are still subject to definitional and "labeling" problems. Nevertheless, this table is suggestive of what the numbers might be and how the numbers would likely cross-compare from category to category. Note that the rough numbers we get "bottom-up" by counting surgeries in order to calculate an improved lower bound on TS transitioners in the U.S. (1:2500) are seen to be consistent with rough "top-down" derivations from the estimates of crossdresser groups and activist groups in the U.S. that there are roughly 1% to 2% of people who are TG, and perhaps 2% to 5% of males who engage in frequent (private/club) crossdressing. Thus this table "hangs together" in a common-sense way, and is suggestive of where to focus further research to refine these numbers.

The resulting matrix of projections of prevalences will vary greatly from country to country and culture to culture, since each culture differentially suppresses crossdressing vs transgender expressions, and different labels and categories would need to be included in different countries. In many countries there are traditionalized "third sex" social options to which many TG and TS people naturally migrate, whereas those same people were they to live in the U.S. might instead choose to complete a TG or TS transition here. Then too, the ratio of TS vs TG transitions varies greatly from country to country. In many countries where incomes are low and where social constraints are high, very few transgender people can ever afford SRS. In such countries, TG transition is usually the only available option. It would be very useful if researchers could gradually build and cross-compare the overall matrices of prevalences of transgender conditions among more and more countries. Such culture-by-culture prevalences matrices might help us better understand the underlying commonalities of innate conditions that lead to varying transgender personas as a function of one's culture of socialization.

[MissDanielle]

Thanks for sharing that!

It truly shows that a lot of us are out there, even if many are in the closet. I have very strong feelings to the point that I identify as female, even if I can't present as such due to my living conditions for a few months. I've only met with a therapist once and am going back in a a week for another session. I'm making plans to move so that I can start my transition shortly.

[Teresa]

Sbay,
The statistics don't surprise me at all , being men shouldn't exclude us from expressing ourselves for whatever reason . Societies misconceptions are hard to deal with , if men don't fit the stereotype they must be gay or want to change sex. To many people CDing is that black and white and don't understand the shades of grey.

I find the figure comforting, I see it from this perspective, if you are in a group of people you won't be the only one wandering if someone is going to notice your bra straps !

[CarlaWestin]

I don't crossdress either. I'm just a little more focused on my appearance when I'm in other than drab clothes. Where does naked except earrings fall?

[DTelia]

The number is probably about right...but could be higher. It doesn't account for men that are just curious, or playing around, etc. And some have already mentioned that there are many more who wouldn't ever admit it, even in a blind study...but if stats are done right they often make those assumptions in the margin of error.

Since I was well aware of my own tendencies, I was more aware of other men, watching what i was watching. For example, I love watching a women do her hair, or another woman's hair. Yes, there's a very feminine beauty to this as well, and some men are probably just struck at a woman's beauty as she pulls back/up her hair, arches her shoulders...thus her back, often highlighting her breast and figure. My wife had no idea she was doing this, until I explained it to her.

However, a lot of guys watch women do this, and I think I can sometimes tell when they are looking at the women because they also want to do the same thing.

Does that make sense? My two cents.

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Sbay, Only when the Government makes Crosdressers register will we have an accurate count. ~~......

[crobeson96]

I don't crossdress either. I'm just a little more focused on my appearance when I'm in other than drab clothes. Where does naked except earrings fall?

I think 'naked with earrings' counts as a 'thumbs-up' :^) If you feel 'her', it counts.

[Krisi]

Anybody can make up statistics to bolster their particular point of view. The only way to know accurately what percentage of men crossdress would be to set up hidden cameras in their homes. Most people won't admit to something as personal as crossdressing.

And then you have to define "crossdressing". Is wearing panties once a week crossdressing or do you have to wear women's blouses and skirts?

[sbay06]

This post was not meant to start an argument as to the number of crossdressers out there. I just though it was interesting and thought it could encourage those who are feeling like me: isolated. I am an analytical. So having a statistic, even if it's more based on speculation, is comforting to me.

[Sky]

I agree, sbay. Engineers like to say that statistics can be used to disprove gravity. But as long as the reader is careful they may be helpful.

[Cheryl T]

I remember someone saying a while ago.... Gender is between the ears and Sex is between the legs.
I can see that a good percentage of the population are CD, TG, or TS. It just makes sense that there is variation in the world.

[MarciManseau]

I don't crossdress either. I'm just a little more focused on my appearance when I'm in other than drab clothes. Where does naked except earrings fall?

I think that falls in the very sexy class And I'm the class teacher!

[sometimes_miss]

For example, I love watching a women do her hair, or another woman's hair. Yes, there's a very feminine beauty to this as well, and some men are probably just struck at a woman's beauty as she pulls back/up her hair, arches her shoulders...thus her back, often highlighting her breast and figure. My wife had no idea she was doing this, until I explained it to her. However, a lot of guys watch women do this, and I think I can sometimes tell when they are looking at the women because they also want to do the same thing.

I love watching women. I spend way too much time watching girls doing their make up, hair and outfit of the day tutorials on youtube. It's like being a fly on the wall of their rooms, almost like I guess being a voyeur, but in this case, they're intentionally showing themselves off for all to see. And, of course, it brings on the feelings of do I want the girl, and or do I want to be that girl? Almost always, the answer is, both.

I really believe that there's something genetically connected, that causes endorphin release in men when we look at women that we are attracted to, whether we interact with them or not. Looking at women just makes me feel good.