I went for my first electrolysis appointment yesterday, which is huge for me. I did two laser sessions, but conflicts with my face getting tanned prevented more. As I thought about it, I figured, what the heck, go for it all. So I am, it wasn't painful in the area she treated (on my left side, around the lip and up to the cheek) and I did not have the benefit of any numbing creams. But that's not the point of this thread, although feel free to ask questions.
I'm a CD, and don't have plans to transition. I think about it - I think we all consider it at some point = but I'm happy in my dual personas and like the advantages of both.

You are lying on a bed for a pretty long time, and my tech is around the mid forties and chatty. When we started, she has to ask, for professional reasons, why do I, as a male, want my facial hair gone. She became the third person who know my male persona, to be informed that I was a CD. Now this made her hesitate and I realized she probably does people who are transitioning, but never a CD. As we talked while I was getting hairs killed, she confirmed that she had 10 to 15 trans clients, but that I was her first CD. So, she started exploring, what I am.
She started by saying that the trans people she supports said that CD's just had a "kink" and that it was all sexual for CD's. Whoa, that surprised me. I said that unless you ARE a CD, I don't know how you'd know that, but that my experience said that while yes, there is a sexual part of it, there is predominantly the desire to emulate a woman in some, and that there are gradations of what CD's are driven to do, from fascination with lingerie all the way to full up female presentation, and probably some I missed. I tried to explain that sense of calm that comes with the pink fog (I had to explain that), and gave her my CD background (pretty common, started with mom's stuff at 7, acquired/purged * X, told wife, etc). I could sort of tell that I wasn't getting through. At one point she said, "Have you gone to counselling? Maybe they could help you understand what you want to do ... you said you had a wife and didn't want to transition ... are you being held back?" Stuff like this went back and forth for thirty minutes.

I'm looking forward to more talks with her (she's going to help me cut my wigs, as she's an instructor for cancer patients). It's going to be fun explaining my version of CD'g to her. I see this as another opportunity for outreach for CD's.

Now this is a really small sample, and I do not see it as representative of how the various points on the Spectrum view each other. Still, its interesting to see a muggle's view of CD's as interpreted through the eyes of a related group.
The problem is that humans like to bucketize and label groups of things. Its how we manage complexity. But this thing we do here, I think, defies the ability to do that. We are all unique in how we express it.

At least, that's my theory today. And I'm going out with two CD girlfriends for lunch on Friday! Yay!
https://www.crossdressers.com/forums...lies/happy.gif