Had you never seen a woman...

[Sandin Meknickers]

Where would your motivation to dress/behave feminine come from? This is assuming you accept the binary gender model.

[SometimesKairi]

You could argue that without the stigma of the human reproductive organs, there would be very little need for clothes at all, sparing those in extreme weather situations and then only for protection from the elements.

[carrie001]

Accept the binary model? I'm out.

[Pat]

The theory I like best is that we each have a "gender core." This is the collection of responses that make us happy when we align to our gender. The things we focus on (clothing, postures, etc) are not actually gender. They're learned behaviors and social norms. However if you have a female gender core, then you're happier when you conform to those societal constructs and you'll be unhappier if you don't. It's not settled science yet, but I like the elegance and simplicity of the argument.

[Stacy Darling]

I Think the time has come for you to go into the field and find the answers yourself!

Stacy!

[Fiona123]

I'm with Carrie. I explicitly reject the binary. My motivation comes from my heart.

[Lana Mae]

Unless born blind, you would have to have seen your momma! I do not accept the binary as acceptable! This is a question like but not the same as George Carlins question of "How do you know the refrigerator light goes off when you shut the door?" If no feminine role model then anything is possible. You would wear whatever but would probably be like wearing stripes and plaids! LOL Hugs Lana Mae

[Sandin Meknickers]

The theory I like best is that we each have a "gender core." This is the collection of responses that make us happy with we align to our gender. The things we focus on (clothing, postures, etc) are not actually gender. They're learned behaviors and social norms. However if you have a female gender core, then you're happier when you conform to those societal constructs and you'll be unhappier if you don't. It's not settled science yet, but I like the elegance and simplicity of the argument.

Gender core eh? Not heard of that one before. But at least, other than the sexy bits, it would be a native cause and distinction of gender. All other evidence I see is external and contingent.

I'm gonna look into that, sounds interesting but I'm very dubious...

[Stacy Darling]

Binary?

Model yourself / come out if you are one of us

[Sandin Meknickers]

Lolz @ Stace.

I don't adopt personality labels unless they are accurate. Pretty much told most of my people now. No dramas. Not a very interesting story.
Told my family whislt they were all locked in the car on the motorway haha. We discussed where we were eating about 5 minutes later and some piss was taken. Blah.

I'm still left wondering why I am. I wouldn't change it although if the draw was so intense it interfered with my life or I got upset over what pants to wear or wishing that my family would go out so I can behave differently I might find it useful to have some technique of self control.

[rachael.davis]

If I had never seen a woman I still would have known that I wasn't supposed to be a man.

[Sandin Meknickers]

rachael.davis
That is a beautiful truth.

[Majella St Gerard]

Interesting question. I wish I had an a good answer. I dress to feel good, when I'm dressed I feel pretty, sexy, attractive and confident. People seem to love Gerri and I receive so many compliments and am told how cool, brave and awesome I am for just being myself. It is a big ego boost. But when I'm in Gerard mode I don't get that, I feel old, fat and ugly. Crossdressing just makes me feel better about myself. I'm still me but a more popular alter ego I guess. Like Jim Carrey in The Mask, I become someone else. If that makes sense.

[sometimes_miss]

If I had never seen a woman I still would have known that I wasn't supposed to be a man.

^this. I agree; there's this 'always in the background' feeling that something's just not quite 'right'. It was only through time and observation that I figured out that it was just that I was wearing the wrong clothes and that by changing only that, it went a long way to ease my discomfort. It wasn't until much later that I understood the concept of what I felt that I was, didn't match what I actually was in reality.

[Dana44]

Uh yeah Seen quite a few. LOL how do you think we know how to be like one.

[kimdl93]

I try to limit speculations to hypotheses that are at least remotely conceivable. Closest you might come would be a blind person raised from birth in a men's prison camp.

I doubt that even in such an environment a person would necessarily mirror only the behaviors exhibited by males.

[Confucius]

Your binary gender precept is highly subjective. In Native American culture 4 or 5 genders were recognized, (masculine males, feminine males, masculine females, and feminine females, and the fifth being transgenders). Feminine males were valuable members of the tribe, and were honored for having "two-spirits". The two spirit persons often crossdressed and adopted feminine roles. They were considered more spiritual, more sensitive, more artistic, more compassionate, and were often given the role of the medical provider, the person who cared for the sick and disabled. Twos spirit persons also served as arbitrators, and one two-spirit person (We-wha) from the Zuni tribe served as their ambassador to Washington D.C. https://indiancountrymedianetwork.co...-five-genders/

Assuming a binary gender there are still reasons to dress feminine, and that is because of epigenetics. The default gender expression is feminine and if some gene expressions are surpressed causing androgen insensitivity then we should expect to find thing increased feminine expression.

[Sandin Meknickers]

I fully get the not right feeling. Not wanting to be or not believing yourself a "man" is different to wanting to be or believing yourself a woman.

I know you could find womens clothes nice to touch and wear due to materials etc.
But behaviours? "Gender" Mimicry is an often used tool in nature so that in itself is not particularly bizarre. But again it comes back to motivation which is interesting.

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Confucious: Binary gender is definitely not my idea lol.

Kim: where is the control in that experiment lol? I would expect them to exhibit a variety of atypical behaviours of prisoners. As they are blind, i would struggle to believe they are stimulated to react in anyway to the presence of a female at all. You'd probably see lots of men "feminised" in that environment, but I'd expect to see very similar divisions of behaviours and social heirarchies flourish in a prison full of blind women. So even being exposed to behaviours etc. I still wouldn't necassarily expect a complete will to the other.

[Teresa]

Sandin,
If you're born with a female trait it's irrelevant if you've seen a woman or not, you're partly wired like it. The motivation came from a part of the brain I knew nothing about at the age of 8-9, why I needed to wear the clothes and what was driving me was a mystery, then it all happened and locked in my brain, the connection with girls, their clothes, my male side all intertwined with my sexual needs. I have lived with the conflict eversince.
I actually don't feel I act feminine , to me it's not an act I'm still me but dressed as I prefer to be . No one at my social group acts any differently , they don't camp it up or change their voice . I really don't thing about the labels when I'm out, I just feel comfortable and right ,I find the less you think about it the more people relate to you .

I can't help agreeing with Stacy, you need to get out and find these answers for yourself, many of these questions are academic and detached from the real World. I feel you need to start to decide exactly what your CDing means to you and decide what road you are going to take, the forum will be here to help and guide you , your questions will then relate to how you want your life to pan out .

[Leslie Langford]

Where would your motivation to dress/behave feminine come from? This is assuming you accept the binary gender model.

This is analogous to one of those metaphysical "If a tree falls in the forest but no one is around to hear it fall, does it still make a sound?" questions.

I dunno...then again, if I had been born without arms or hands, would I still consider myself to be either left-handed or right-handed?

[SometimesKairi]

Leslie Langford.
The correct answer

We don't know because that hasn't happened.

[mechamoose]

Dressing feminine are behaving feminine are not quite the same thing. Related? Sure.

I'm not going to go into all the reasons I could as to why, other than one is appearance and one is behavior. Eddie Izzard dresses in female clothing, but I don't recall ever seeing him in a context where I would consider him acting feminine. Ru Paul dressed AS a female, but I doubt he ever considered himself actually female. Look at him now. Behaving feminine can happen without the presentation aspect as well.

As far as what feminine behavior is, that varies depending on what culture you live in

Any measurement you would like to make for anything has a scale, and that scale is dependent on what you are comparing it to. If there is no scale, measurements mean nothing.

I only consider myself to be 'feminine', because that is the scale I'm forced to use to describe it. Without that scale, I'm just me.

<3

- MM

[Sandin Meknickers]

OK so a physiological change from nothing observable without instrumentation. Other than proximity. And we know how that effects behaviour...

[kimdl93]

Sandi, you're right...very hard to come up with a control. Maybe an better approach would be to raise a generation of test tube babies each in solitary confinement with the options for feeding, nurturing and educating. Begins to sound like the Matrix!

[docrobbysherry]

Isn't this a bit like asking if we believe in angels if we've never seen them?