Believable theories on Cross-dressing

[Ashleigh]

I hope this is allowed on this forum section. If not, I apologize in advance.

I mentioned in one of my other posts that I would find this and post it when I found it. It is two of the more believable theories on why we have a deep desire to cross-dress. This would also explain why children, very young ones, have the female tendencies we did when we were 4,5,6, and so on.

How many have read this before and how many think it is viable? I am thinking that they are as probable as any so far. I can buy these theories over some of the others out there. I just wish there could be a definitive reason.

What are your thoughts?

http://www.geocities.com/senorita_cd/theories.htm


A

[Rita B]

Ashley, I have taken the time to scan the articles. I would like to go back and read them again but more slowly. I find all these theories interesting. The scientific community would just love to come up with an answer that they could easily put under a "microscope" and say, aha, here it is. I am sure that there are valid points in all these studies.

I tend to more closely explore the environmental factors. In today's society where divorce is rampant, and there are so many one parent households, the woman has become the role model for both the boys as well as for the girls. Even in families with both parents, there are so many instances where fathers total abdicate their responsibilities to be acceptable role models for their sons.

I remember my mother talking to one of her lady friends who happened to be divorced and she admitted to allowing her 10 year old son to sleep with her from time to time. I knew I grew up in a matriarchal society. I was much more in the company of women than men all my life. I was adopted when I was 2 and I am sure that my mother wanted a girl.

It is so easy to to admire our mothers and desire to be like them in many ways. I am enclosing a pic Would love to talk to you more about this subject.


Regards

Rita

[Ashleigh]

Hi Rita,

I have had a belief that children at age 4,5,6 do not, at least when I was a child of that age, have sexual drives anything like a 12 year old on up. In fact, that is the last thing they want to deal with. When I was 5, I wasn't dressing to satisfy a sexual thing. It felt wonderful and right. I can't explain it even to this day. I has a two parent home, both parents highly educated and stable in the community. No one in my family has a criminal record at all. My home life was a (at that time) typical one. I have no sisters, only brothers. When I was very young, I remember being teased by my father mostly as well as my brothers about liking girl things. They have no idea about my dressing.

I just need to know.

A

[Stephacuse]

i read both of these and both sound like good theories. I'm not sure about the DNA one but i do agree that it is a need and not a hobby as most who once start it can only stop for a certain amount of time......perhaps crossdressing is more addictive and hard to quit then nicotine and most drugs?

[Rita B]

Ashley,

I apologize. I have been trying to get my pic withing the 97kB allowed with some difficulty.

The picture tells a story about what a mother thought of her little boy


Rita

[Joy Carter]

Rita. Mothers dressed their son's up all the time between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I have a pic of my great uncle in a dress about age three. He was born about 1890.
I don't think it's is a cause in all cases. If it was then allot of men would have been cross dressers fifty years ago.

[Kate Simmons]

The two theories notwithstanding, it would seem we have the ability to go above and beyond the so called "normal" binary gender classification system. We have a distinct advantage if we view it as a gift and blessing rather than a curse and something that controls us. This puts us in a position to be an improved human being in many ways. Like any gift, however, how it is used depends a lot on the person who has it. It depends on us.

[Toyah]

I put it down to Aliens transporting my mother to a panty ship, why because that's as good a guess as to why I do it as this kinda scientific guess coz that's all it is to be honest not even a good one. when they say its wired in but hey in some not until 40 or so you know its hogwash

[Stephenie S]

I gave up trying to answer the question of WHY many years ago. Does it matter? Not to me.

I have said again and again, trying to figure out why is a very masculine trait. Just relax and enjoy it, dear. It's not going to go away no matter how much you analize it.

Lovies,
Stephenie

[Rita B]

Rita Mothers dressed their son's up all the time between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I have a pic of my great uncle in a dress about age three. He was born about 1890.
I don't think it's is a cause in all cases. If it was then allot of men would have been cross dressers fifty years ago.

Joy, there were a lot of crossdressers then, I don't remember who the royal figure was who tried to escape from the mobs by dressing as a woman. It might have been of the czars. Heck the men dressed more frilly in satins and lace than the women.

Rita

[Rita B]

The two theories notwithstanding, it would seem we have the ability to go above and beyond the so called "normal" binary gender classification system. We have a distinct advantage if we view it as a gift and blessing rather than a curse and something that controls us. This puts us in a position to be an improved human being in many ways. Like any gift, however, how it is used depends a lot on the person who has it. It depends on us.

Salandra, you are the guru of crossdressers. Must confess, there have been times in my life when I considered it a terrible curse with severe consequences which I do not wish to discuss here in the forum. As Frank Sinatra used to sing, " I have been up and down and round and round and I know a thing" You know my situation but I am being positive about it and it's about time. Yes, we are darn special people. How many non crossdressers do you know that could pull off what we do? I know that I would have enjoyed living my life as a woman. It just was meant to be. So we make the most of it. You are a dear person

Rita

[Rita B]

Ashley,

There will come a day when the why is not going to be as important to you as what you choose to do about it. I am old enough to tell you this. It will not go away. . The earlier in your life that you accept this and if you are in a relationship come to a compromise with a partner, the happier I think you will be. Put yourself in a position where you control it rather than have it control you. You pick the when, where, and how. You just cannot deny this energy that is within you, believe me. Enjoy who you are. It can be a gift!

Rita

[TxKimberly]

My mother tells me she was on birth control when I was concieved - surprise!
I often wondered if this had anything to do with it.
Kim

[Bernadina]

I'm at a loss as to why we need a theory at all.

A theory implies that transgenderism in any form is unnatural.

After all, and unless I'm greatly mistaken, we all, each and everyone of us, without exception, are the product of a male and female set of parents.

Which means we are all part male and part female whether we like it or not.

Just because a lot of politicians, sociologists, scientists, and theologians work hard to pretend that transgenderisn is abnormal, and force society to accept their flawed views, its just not true.

Transgenderism is a natural part of nature and does need any theories to explain nor does it need fixing.

[Eva Diva]

There is no explanation of the "stuttering gene" theory, so I guess we are just to assume that genetics has something to do with crossdressing.


A bigger problem is the writers "the creator wants this to happen" theory. If that is true - God messing around with the dice - then there's no point to considering causes. If God wants males to be a little female, then surely God can decide that thisparticular male should be a lot female. End of story.

[Ashleigh]

Cute pic!

A

Ashley,

I apologize. I have been trying to get my pic withing the 97kB allowed with some difficulty.

The picture tells a story about what a mother thought of her little boy


Rita

[Ashleigh]

Don't get me wrong. I am just an analytical person who needs to know the why's of everything. I don't just take things on face value or because someone said something. I agree with you and the others who suggest to accept it, which I have - totally. I love it in fact. It would just be nice to know what is behind it. I do not deny the "energy" (good word for it) or that it is a special thing. The one thing I do like is my sensitivity. My wife said she was attracted to it when she first met me many many moons ago.

The people in my community are fairly hard - even the females. It is a weakness in their minds to show emotion. Heck, at the risk of destroying myself here on this forum, I have a hard time getting through movies like Mr. Holland's Opus, Seabisquit, and those like them. They are well written masterpieces. They are sensitive movies and I tear up. Heck, when I was young my father took me to see Lobo, and to this day I can't watch it without tearing up. He made merciless fun of me back then and would do so now. I like my softer feminine side. I consider it a strength. What makes me sick are those guys who go around saying "hit in the gut as hard as you can"... and spitting, and....

In fact, I put females on such a high pedestal, that I know we guys could never reach their level. In my humble opinion, they are superior to us in so many ways and I have said so.

So, yes, we have a "gift" as it was called, that I would think that real females would love. Too bad all too many don't.

I appreciate all of your inputs.

A

Ashley,

There will come a day when the why is not going to be as important to you as what you choose to do about it. I am old enough to tell you this. It will not go away. . The earlier in your life that you accept this and if you are in a relationship come to a compromise with a partner, the happier I think you will be. Put yourself in a position where you control it rather than have it control you. You pick the when, where, and how. You just cannot deny this energy that is within you, believe me. Enjoy who you are. It can be a gift!

Rita

[marie354]

I guess that theories are OK for some that really have a need to explain what we do in some kind of scientific way, but I don't think that any have been proven one way or another.
This subject comes up every once in a while, and from what I've read, there are as many theories as there are crossdressers. Who knows for sure why.
I used to try to figure it out... Doing the "paper chase" thing, looking for answers.
I wore my sisters baby cloths for about the first 6 months of my life. Was I old enough to realize that I was male and the clothes weren't? Probably not.
How do you know that the color "red" isn't "blue"? Because we were taught that it was.

Answers? I don't need them any more. I searched for them long enough. I accept myself for who I am, who I have always been, even when I tried to deny it.

[Satrana]

I'm at a loss as to why we need a theory at all.

A theory implies that transgenderism in any form is unnatural.

After all, and unless I'm greatly mistaken, we all, each and everyone of us, without exception, are the product of a male and female set of parents.

Which means we are all part male and part female whether we like it or not.

Just because a lot of politicians, sociologists, scientists, and theologians work hard to pretend that transgenderisn is abnormal, and force society to accept their flawed views, its just not true.

Transgenderism is a natural part of nature and does need any theories to explain nor does it need fixing.

Exactly

Just because we differ from SOCIAL norms does not mean we need a theory to explain ourselves. If tomorrow society accepted crossdressing then nobody would need to develop extravagent theories to explain a normal behaviour, would they? Shouldn't we instead be developing theories to explain why society has made crossdressing taboo?

Crossdressers are completely normal people. We don't do anything which differs from others' behavior. Just because we are borrowing from women does not suddenly transform the behavior from normal to abnormal.

Everyone is transgendered, that is the normal state of human existance. It is society which conditions us to believe in a binary system so we are artificially adhering to an arrangement which does not reflect the normal spread of human personality and behavior.

Do left handers spend all their time developing theories about why they differ from the majority. Do they think to themselves "GOSH WHAT WENT WRONG? IS IT MY DNA?, HORMONES?, DRUGS MY MOTHER TOOK WHILE PREGNANT?".

The fact is nothing went wrong. Life is about diversity, it does not follow strict rules, each animal is an individual and behaves correspondingly. Are we so scared to think of ourselves as a separate, distinct individuals that we have to believe in SOMETHING WENT WRONG theories?

Diversity is normal, get used to it!

[Andi]

Theories, schmeories!!! I hope no one ever figures it out. I don't want to be "cured", I like it like it is.

[Caroline]

Much of the social-sciences are replete with theories that are simply a variation of the nature/nurture debate, and few of them have much general application to any specific individual case. In other words, what makes me a cross-dresser is unlikely to have much relevance, if any, to what makes you one, therefore extrapolating my perceived grounds for doing so as an explanation or theory why others cross-dress is simply a meaningless exercise in futility. (It is also important to note the word 'perceived' in the previous sentence, since what appears to be the case may not, in fact, be so.)

Neither do either of these two theories put forward address the issue that the original poster claimed, viz:

<blockquote>This would also explain why children, very young ones, have the female tendencies we did when we were 4,5,6, and so on.</blockquote>

In the first place, neither theory defines what is meant by a 'female tendency', far less do they explain how these develop - the corollary is also true regarding 'male tendencies'. Secondly, for a theory to be a valid scientific theory rather than just an untested hypothesis, the research should not just concern itself with proving its case, but with disproving it, as it is the failure to disprove it - by the original researchers, peer-reviewers, and subsequent researchers - which give true credibility to the conclusions, yet neither of these theories appears to concern itself with this important aspect. The ineluctable conclusion, therefore, is that the claims are little more than unsubstantiated hypotheses; one might as well say that all male-to-female crossdressers are such because they hate their fathers and want to differentiate themselves from him - in fact, I'm sure one could readily knock up some so-called 'research' to substantiate that claim too.

I appreciate that the original poster wishes to understand why they cross-dress, but the reasons are more likely to be found in one's own unique background - genetically and socially - than in the experiences of others.

[Sheri 4242]

Don't get me wrong. I am just an analytical person who needs to know the why's of everything. I don't just take things on face value or because someone said something. I agree with . . . others who suggest to accept it, which I have - totally. I love it in fact. It would just be nice to know what is behind it.

I have had a belief that children at age 4,5,6 do not, at least when I was a child of that age, have sexual drives anything like a 12 year old on up . . . (w)hen I was 5, I wasn't dressing to satisfy a sexual thing. It felt wonderful and right. I can't explain it even to this day. I has a two parent home, both parents highly educated and stable in the community. No one in my family has a criminal record at all. My home life was a (at that time) typical one. I have no sisters, only brothers.

Ashleigh,

I'm much the same as you -- an analytical person. I also agree that "self-acceptance" of being a CD is a good thing. I have accepted it, and, in fact, I love who and what I am! This wasn't always the case, but today I am firmly established in this belief!!!

The research I conduct on causation, and my participation in discussions on this site regarding causation and terminology, is NOT aimed at someday being able to "cure" it. I am -- purely, plainly, and simply -- (a.) a person with an intense curiosity as to what might cause something (and my curiosity and research are not exclusive to crossdressing), and (b.) I hold that it is not "labeling" to have a consistent agreement regarding terms and definitions so that we can all "be on the same page," so to speak, when discussing things. Those that get so upset when we, for example, attempt to clarify the term "transgender" often reject such b/c, so they say, they dislike or reject being "labeled." There is another thread right now -- and which seems to be on-going -- that discusses TG definition. I am of the opinion that, to be able to discuss things with clarity, there must exist basic, standard definitions.

((( BTW: current medical thought, theory, and opinions regarding anybody with gender identity issues, inclusive of CDing -- note: I am carefully avoiding use of the TG term here, since it is being debated so heatedly elsewhere -- is not aimed at "curing," but is aimed at promoting self-acceptance and adaptation! The most recent medical experts state that it is far better to help people accept and adapt than to dissuade them from their identity! )))

In response to your inquiry, the "hormone bath" is not a theory -- it actually happens. That being the case, it is not a far reach to believe that, given human biology/physiology, there could be "malfunctions," and that these, in turn, could effect one's developing brain, and thus effect gender identity -- from transsexualism on one end of the spectrum, to mtf heterosexual CDing on the other end.

You have brought up (without calling it such) another theory that has been discussed a great deal, and that very simply is "nurture." Your own childhood experiences seem to point out that this isn't viable -- there are too many of us who came from typical homes (and no sisters that dressed us up, etc.). You have also pointed out that many of us started dressing (or wanted to dress) long before we could attach a sexual component to the dressing. That's why I dislike it when some in the mental health field call CDing a fetish. I understand that some CD's dress for fetishtic reasons, but not all of us!!!

The Hormone Bath makes perfect sense to me b/c of the possible effects of an abnormal hormone bath on the developing brain!!! In a few recent, albeit small, studies, it has been found that TGs had a certain part of their brain -- the BST or "bed nucleus of stria terminalis" -- that was the size of a GG's!!! As one text puts it, a GG's BST is smaller than that of a GM, and in the few studies to-date, the BST of those identified as TG has been the same size of a GG's.

Well, that's my input. I'll end by stating that I am glad that current medical approaches are not aimed at curation, but rather at acceptance and adaptation. To me, that says that science is beginning to say maybe we aren't abnormal at all!!!

Barbara

[Caroline]

Barbara 4242 said:

"In response to your inquiry, the "hormone bath" is not a theory -- it actually happens. That being the case, it is not a far reach to believe that, given human biology/physiology, there could be "malfunctions," and that these, in turn, could effect one's developing brain, and thus effect gender identity -- from transsexualism on one end of the spectrum, to mtf heterosexual CDing on the other end."

It is true that the hormone bath is not a theory but a fact, however, the remainder of that statement is, as yet, an unsubstantiated hypothesis.

[Sheri 4242]

Barbara 4242 said:
"In response to your inquiry, the "hormone bath" is not a theory -- it actually happens. That being the case, it is not a far reach to believe that, given human biology/physiology, there could be "malfunctions," and that these, in turn, could effect one's developing brain, and thus effect gender identity -- from transsexualism on one end of the spectrum, to mtf heterosexual CDing on the other end."

It is true that the hormone bath is not a theory but a fact, however, the remainder of that statement is, as yet, an unsubstantiated hypothesis.

I thought I made it very clear that this is theory -- that since we know there is a hormone bath, that it wasn't a far reach to believe that, given how the body has malfunctions, it is entirely possible that a malfunction during the hormone bath "could effect one's developing brain." I didn't state this potential effect on the developing brain was fact, but rather a plausible hypothesis. I happen to personally believe it is more than likely, but I never stated it as anything but reasonably hypothetical.

[Kelsy]

[SIZE="3"]I think it was something they put in the water Nature - hormonal bath , female tendencies - then Nurture - something in ones up bringing that kicks it off.

Jennifer[/SIZE]