hello,
a while ago (2009) I had a website about men wearing pantyhose and crossdressing.
I analysed when, why and how we started. This was not any sort of controlled survey but the data was mostly gathered from members' posts on this and other web based groups.
I though I would share the information again here. I had done the research to try to understand my own crossdressing, which started with tights (pantyhose) when I was young.
I hope you find the info interesting. I paste the conclusions below and will post more details in other pasts.
luv J
Age
The most common age for starting to cross-dress or wear tights is 12 years old (10 % and 17% respectively).
The cross dressing men seem to start wearing female clothing at a younger age than the pantyhose wearers - 49 % had started before they were 9 years old compared with 39% of the pantyhose wearers.
Who's clothing.
The majority of men first wore their mothers' pantyhose, whereas a larger proportion of cross-dressers started by wearing their sisters' clothes. About 11 percent of men first wore their wives' or girlfriends' hosiery, whereas only about 5 percent of cross-dressers started wearing the partners clothing.
Reason for starting.
Men often were attracted to wearing pantyhose by the feel of the fabric and general curiosity about the garment. Others started when they started to notice women in a sexual way, several remember noticing their schoolteacher wearing them. Six percent started as part of "bedroom games" with the female partner. Some started out of practical reasons - for sport, outdoor work or to relieve aching legs.
Cross-dressing men often wished to be female or dress as a female. Others were dressed in girls' clothing by parents, childminders, female relatives or friends. Some started as a result of having to dress as a female for an event such as a play of halloween (a much stronger tradition in the USA than the UK). A few started following a stressful event or even some sort of abuse.
What did they wear first?
I have assumed that men who wear pantyhose did not start wearing other women's clothing first.
Cross-dressing men mostly started wearing underwear, rather than the garments that give an outward appearance of being female. A minority were influenced such things by makeup, hairstyles or even playing with a doll. Some of the answers are dependent on the current fashions when the man started - tights only became available in the mid-1960s so men starting before then would not have worn them; legwarmers were an 1980s fashion.
p.s. a recent medical issue has made me realise that I should share this again, I hope you don't mind.