Does crossdressing impact your personality?

[Sabine7]

I will appreciate your opinion on this matter.
From my perspective I can only say yes, definitely yes.
I guess crossdressing is a top of an iceberg and the whole thing has much more solid background.
The more time I spent on the female side the more is my mind feminized. The changes seem to be cumulative and permanent.
There are multiple examples.
I became less aggressive, more tolerant, willing hear what the other person has to say.
At home, I became happy to take more responsibility when doing chores.
Basically, I am more passive now, I don't discuss too much with my wife but rather to share ideas and not negotiate and to follow her will or instructions.
What is even more interesting all this is giving me pleasure and accomplishment. The same refers to our sexual life.
When having everyday contacts with women I try to behave like be a member of the same tribe not trying to dominate as a regular hunting man would do.
On the contrary, I used to watch how they are dressed, what kind of shoes, hairdo, makeup and a nail varnish they have, etc.
When seeing a woman with a corpulent body I happens very often to me recently to feel nostalgic - why not me!
On the other side I do not pretend to compete with other men. It is of no value to me and seems to be completely fruitless and boring.
Last but not least, I find the female companion more interesting than male.
Sabine

[FeliCD]

I consider myself a bit of a loner, I can be social with both genders when I need to be though. I think the one advantage of having a fem side is that I am very familiar with things that most typical (Alpha?) males do not have any interest in. This puts me in a place where I can easily carry a conversation with both males and females about various things. Males- The outdoors, hunting, home improvements, vehicles, etc.. Females- Fashion, makeup, shapewear, shopping , home decor , cleaning, cooking. For example-my wife was having a conversation with a female friend in front of me once, and the woman was talking about the challenge of getting in and out of a lifted truck with heels on and she looked at me before starting the discussion and said, ?you won?t be able to relate to this, but?.? and looked back at her cutting me out of the conversation. I soo wanted to jump in and say I know the feeling of wearing heels all too well, the struggle is real! but I didn?t. So , there?s that balance that needs to be struck so as not to out myself. I think women can sense something a bit ?different? about me.
I think my wife and I can discuss and relate to many more things in detail because of my softer fem side. But I also can easily ?man-up? when the typically male things need to be addressed.

[Sabine7]

Hi FeliCD,
yes, I have a very different feeling about this. There are many advantages of exploring the "forbidden" land of femininity. For sure, I became much more sensitive and tolerant to different aspects of life.
There are also some funny situation. Recently, I was hearing to my wife talking to my adult daughter. They both agreed that this is completely senseless and impossible to walk on high heels.

[CharlotteCD]

100% it has impacted my personality.

I grew up believing what I was doing was wrong, and was unacceptable to the world. I therefore had a very shy personality and when bullying started I was targeted for "being gay", which was a mistaken judgement - I was actually just more feminine than I was masculine.

As an adult this continued with my ex-wife in that she made me feel ashamed and my personality was definitely put in a locked box and not allowed out.

Now with my current partner I am free and open to do what I want, and my crossdressing definitely changed my personality. I am happier that I am not hiding a secret - it is out in the open and accepted. I am happier that I get to speak with my partner about clothes, and what would look good on her/me etc.

My personality however doesn't change when I put on clothes - I am me whether I am dressed male, female or naked.

[docrobbysherry]

Changing my clothes doesn't change who I am. I'm always ME!

Do I look at women differently now? Yes.

Do I look at the world differently when I'm out dressed? Probably.

But, I'm still just ME!

[kimdl93]

Hmmmm, impact on personality. I do not think it changes, but my personality has definitely been shaped by growing up and an adult life as a cross dresser. On the positive side, I think (perhaps at long last) I have learned to be less judgmental of myself and by extension somewhat less judgmental of others (somewhat). On the downside, a life time of feeling embarrassment, guilt, shame, hiding, and dishonesty have taken their toll. I doubt that all that damage can ever be repaired.

[audreyinalbany]

what Doc said...my personality doesn't change when I'm dressed female. Not because of crossdressing, per se, but because of therapy I've become much more self-aware and spend more time and energy thinking about my reactions to situations and why I react the way I do and how to manage those behaviors.

[Debs]

Doesnt change my personality, but sure does change my mannnerisms. The way I walk, hold my hands, sit, talk soft , and many more i probably dont realise Im doing

[BrendaPDX]

I am more tolerant of others "choices" and won't take part in teasing or hazing others.

[DianeT]

I don't feel any different personality when dressed, I just enjoy it like I can enjoy other experiences. And as a "regular hunting man" I have never felt the need to dominate women, sorry. I'm afraid your post is choke full of gender stereotypes. People are more complex than that. The "Men are from Mars, Women from Venus" book in my opinion is just good enough to wedge a furniture.

[NatalieMN]

I think my personality is different though I believe the differences between boy and girl me are narrowing. I used to be more cognizant of the differences but as time goes on, it seems like it is blending together more and more. And I don't think it is as much as finding I can be feminine so I don't need to be as aggressive in boy mode (or whatever word makes sense). Instead, I think things are coming full circle in that I don't feel that I really need to be that different in girl mode.

So, I think the answer is "yes" but I am not sure how much longer that will last. Eventually I feel like my personality will be the same in both modes as I become more confident to be in girl mode.

[alwayshave]

I'm not sure if my personality has changed. But, I am definitely more empathetic.

[Brynna M]

The act of crossdressing doesn't change my personality. I don't like different things or pursue different hobbies. But I'm also a 100% closeted dressers so there is no interactions to test social behaviors. Being a cross dresser certainly has an effect on my personality dressed or not. But what hobby/interest/facet/compulsion wouldn,t? I thing I'm less concerned with always looking manly in my male dressed life and I maybe have little bit more empathy for communities targeted by bigotry. (Though I'll never truly understand that experience as I can and do always hide in male dressed life.)

[Sabine7]

Thank you for your interesting feedback. I don't know what first in my case: crossdressing or some kind built-in inclination to femininity. A classical what was first, egg or chicken paradox. I guess crossdressing is just a part or result of my gender identification issue that has been evolving since childhood. It's just reaching the moment now that I am not willing to deny the problem any longer. I have accepted and want to enjoy my real nature even if this is going to happen on a cost of humiliation or rejection of my manhood. Female virtues, perspective and way of life seem to be more attractive and better addressing me. No question about this feeling even if this against a common sense and rational arguments. So the change of my personality is apparent but it is not clear to me whether it is a real change or it was just allowed to come to the surface being hidden and unaware so far.

[SaraLin]

Does crossdressing impact my personality?
Um, no.

I think it's rather the reverse.
My personality, who I am, my need to be genuine to myself, are what lead me to choose how I dress.
My clothes are an outward expression of the person within.

[Jessica Secret]

Definitely does - as Jess I'm confident, outgoing, very flirtatious, really sensitive and a loving girlfriend to my great boyfriend. In male mode I'm your basic guy lol.

[sometimes_miss]

It's the time when 'not crossdressing' which affects my thoughts and behavior. Growing up, believing that I was supposed to be a girl, I gradually adapted my thought processes, feelings and behaviors to prepare for the day when god came back and made me into the girl I was supposed to be. But in the meantime, I carefully observed how males were supposed to behave, and learned how to 'act' like a typical masculine man whenever I was out in the world, to prevent the abuse that was typical of how people treat feminine males. So it's the male persona which I act as, which is the change in me that the world gets to see. I'm only the normal me when I'm home, dressed as a girl.

[audreyinalbany]

it doesn't seem to affect my personality that I'm aware of

[Claire Dee]

When I am able to feed that side of myself and not ignore it, I find that my whole everyday self feels better and more complete. I feel like an overall better person.

[NaughtyMichelle]

Definitely. Always been kind of take-charge, somewhat macho. Dressing relaxes me and I enjoy the "girly" role when out. Not just the look, but the correct mannerisms too.

[Lexine]

I carefully considered the difference between personality and mannerisms, but I'd say yes to both of these, most certainly.

Being genderfluid, I do recognize that I associate certain ideas and such with specific genders. I wish that weren't the case as I was brought up in this manner, but it is what it is. In terms of mannerisms, it's just natural that I also conform to the language of being female. I learned a lot by osmosis and observation while I'm out.

But perhaps one of the most important aspects of being female to me is to check my male entitlement at the door before heading in, as reminded by my therapist. Women generally don't take up a lot of space in both their mannerisms and the area surrounding them, as an example, so I'm hyper aware that if I do step too far outside my space, I need to reign it in. Again, this example is not applicable to everyone, perhaps. But to me personally, it's super important.

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

I have no fem side, I'm just a guy. The clothes I like to wear are just clothes, they don't magically change me into something I'm not.

As to the idea that dressing can make a guy less aggressive, maybe you need to address your aggressive tendencies. We have a transman at work who's convinced that to be a man he has to be a dick. He's not very popular because of that, not because he's trans.

[JustineFallow]

A former girlfriend said that I become cuter and flirtier when Justine comes out to play. I certainly feel more relaxed. There's a low-level stimulation happening when, and only when, I'm doing the full makeover: makeup and hair as well as clothes and being body-shaved.

[Jasmine23]

Growing up as a crossdresser definitely had an impact on my personality, I never felt like one of the boys, I was shy and always feared others would find out about my secret. My personality traits are more associated with women; empathic, submissive, sensitive. I have always felt more comfortable around women and I think women feel more comfortable around me than other men, as I do get included in girly chats . When I dress up, my mannerisms become more feminine and while I haven't gone out in public I can definitely imagine my personality would become more feminine. If I wasn't a crossdresser I think I would probably have been more assertive

[AllieBellema]

I definitely smile more when I dress up. It's not that I lost my smile in male mode, it's just that I never found it. But, when I put on one of my ball gowns and I look at myself in the mirror and see how pretty I am in female mode, I can't help but smile!