So what did you think of CD/TS before you realized you are one too?

[Nicole Erin]

I guess most of us didn't really know this straight out of the womb.
Of course I dressed a bit most of my life, but it was a guilty pleasure I didn't like to think about unless it was at attention.

Before I had this thought - "What would it be like to dress totally as a woman?" [about the time I was 22 or 23] I thought -

CD'ing was like some ultimate expression of being gay. [I was way wrong most of us are straight]

Some CD's were HAWT [even tho I could not admit this even to myself. This reality messed with my mind badly back then]

CD's could not be normal looking men if they looked that feminine even with makeup. [Yet we are as normal looking as any man.]

That since at the time all I wore was lingerie and hose, I was NOT CD.

Back then, I was a man's man. To even hear about a CD or TS was a threat to my masculinity. Now *I* am a threat to such for others

I guess I had a lot of mixed feelings. On one hand I thought it was wack, but on the other hand, I thought [God help me] that Ru Paul or Boy Geroge was pretty. [Quit laughing!]

It is like we fear the very things we are...

So what opinions or misconceptions did you have?

[TGMarla]

I didn't know about them until I was one!



Burp!

[darla_g]

i never really thought about this up to my first experience at 13. after that i never had any negative feelings if that what you were getting at.

i stopped for a long time at 13 and it probably made my teen years easier. i hate to think if i was balancing the whole puberty thing the same time i was trying to dress.

when i got back into i had no reservations about joining THEM

[Michelle 51]

Since i was always attracted to womens cloths there never was a time i didn,t want to dress

[Cai]

(sorry to butt in here, but it seemed a relevant question)

I'm in the same boat as Marla - I wasn't even aware TS people existed, especially not FtM trans men. I knew MtF crossdressers existed, and I didn't have a problem with the idea. It's the same opinion I hold now - it doesn't hurt me, and they enjoy it, so why not?

[SandyR]

I guess for me. Since trying on my moms pantyhose at age 12, I felt so bad......

But these days, I shave my legs everyday, doing laser hair removal on my back and chest. Just got in a new dress, and it fits!

Plus, have the support of my wife. Lifes good.

Life is a big balance act..

Hugs!

SandyR

[Celeste]

I had always thought they were on real high powered drugs,getting into real over the edge sex,and not being very discreet about anything.I know now that I was stereotyping.I do remember reading back then that if you did cd you were not necessarily gay.

[teresa jeen]

i always felt that if it felt good ,was not illegal, and didnt hurt anyone... do you think that at some point we were subjected to having to watch our moms and sis's get dressed it influenced us? im not so sure if the aunts did it for me

[LilSissyStevie]

I thought crossdressers were gay and since I was a crossdresser I must be gay, too. But it was girls that turned me on. I felt like a real freak.

[Susan.]

I knew I was a crossdresser long before I saw other crossdressers. So I've considered myself the gold standard when comparing others. I did think I was alone for the longest time though.

[sissystephanie]

I think I was born wearing a dress! As my mother was ill a lot of the time when I was young, Grandma took care of my sister and I along with a girl cousin. As there were more dresses then boy clothes available for play clothes, I frequently spent my late afternoons as a girl. Yes, I even played with dolls. So I guess I have always been a CD, but not anything more. I was born a man, and always will be a man! Regardless of how much silk and lace I have on!

Sissy/Stephanie

Girl on the outside, man underneath

[Suzy Harrison]

At 12 years old when I started, I thought I was the only person in the world, as I'd never heard of it before. I was worried that if anyone found out I would be put in some mental home or something.

I felt ashamed and guilty for years - but not any more. It's the real me, so I'm happy with it...

[RobertaFermina]

Before I became a crossdresser, is in two phases:
1. before I ever crossdressed. Holloween Outing Phase.
2. before I started crossdressing as a consistent personal habit/expression. Crossdressing Everywhere phase.

1. Before ever CDing, I thought CD's were wierd, and confused, and TS's were lucky if they did not go nuts trying to find their way "home".

2. Before "really" getting deep into CDing, I had helped manage the at-work transition of one of my employees, and gotten my first dress and shoes from her. Having that in my background, I was open to CDers being "just like everyone else", except they were courageous in a way that I well understood. As for TS's, I knew you were all such heroes to claim yourselves when even your own body has betrayed you ! Amazing!



Roberta

[sandra-leigh]

I didn't think about crossdressing very much before I wuz. Cross-dressing did not, in the abstract, bother me, but it was not a part of my life -- it was something that happened in the drag bars in Montreal or the like.

I do remember vaguely considering (in my early 20s) joining the monthly audience-participation Rocky Horror cast, not because of the cross-dressing but as an outlet of expressing sexuality (and maybe, if I was lucky, finding a female bedmate or two), and if that meant putting on a Merry Widow, that didn't bother me. But I didn't do anything at all towards this. It wasn't exactly "shyness" that stopped me, but it would be more than another 20 years before I was able to express any kind of sexuality publicly.

I do remember being disgusted, not so long ago, at "chicks with d*cks", which I had encountered from time to time in pornography, and always with the implication of either outright homosexuality or (commonly) of tricking some guy into homosexuality, pretending to be a woman and deliberately seducing an unknowing guy. I associate the terms "T-girls" and (especially) "********" with this. I still find the male seduction morally disturbing and when I think of it, it negatively colours my ideas about "crossdressing" -- it is a world apart (in my mind) from the dressing I do. The change that I have undergone in this regard is that I have found that I rather like the idea of me having lovely breasts (without giving up any of my body parts). I can read postings on here from people saying things like, "I'm a natural 44D {for whatever reason}" and I think to myself, "Lucky!", not "Oh, Gross!". I don't look at the ******* pictures to get an idea of how I could look: I rarely look at any of them at all; I do study a wide variety of GG pictures for inspiration on what look I would most like (if painless magic existed...)

[Jaquelyn]

Well, since like alot here, I dressed a little when I was young-it was all sexual and kinky, and weird; didn't really know why I did it. Once I was old enough to know about crossdressers, around 16 or so, they seemed almost freakish to me, yet, I was intrigued too; kinda like I always thought about it, but it seemed to strange, or taboo to REALLY do it. It wasn't until a few years ago, that I really began to explore this part of me, and what it means....and that is an ongoing, changing thing. One day I love being a crossdresser, the next, maybe not so much. I guess I'm just moody. LOL

[PameeSue]

Growing up in small town thinking, I used to believe it was a gay thing....and had many other misconceptions too.

Being attracted to girls, I thought that I was specially twisted and alone.
Maybe thats where guilt for me crept in,....tho I'm sure the guilt was more toward rummaging through someones panty drawers and stealing for my selfish pleasures.

I guess CDing was explained further from internet...not alone anymore.

I only knew of one other person that dressed...a teenager, and he was treated with snickers from neighbors and real poor understanding (if any at all), suffering through depressions and endless thearapies.....knowing that, I pushed my secrets deeper into my own closet!....until.....oh thats not for this thread.

[Angie G]

I'm one that had none I never thought I was jay or screwed up It just always felt right to dress And I've always loved doing it
Angie

[jennCD]

I was 10 or 11,.. so all I knew back then was "Hey look, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd look much better as girls!"


jenn

[lovelingerie6]

i never have thought of myself being gay but i have loved to dress in womens clothing as long as i can remember moms was the best and some of the sexiest i ever had

[corrinediane]

Always adored them! Earliest memories of wearing girls clothes was 7 or 8. Sneaking around and hiding in the bathroom and under beds. I just couldn't come out and admit openly that I liked them when I was younger though I dressed as often as I could. I had opportunities through my teens and early twenties to actually come out to others like me but never had the guts. Even now I'm guarded with my opinion. Better to keep quiet then rouse suspicion. It's funny the curves life throws at you. I wouldn't change anything as I am very content with my life but after having a week to be Corrine and having to go back to my other persona I will miss her. Oh, but she will pop in from time to time, just not in all her glory! I can still smell a hint of her perfume.

[Jennaie]

I always have been one so I never was judgmental. Before I dressed I was jealous of them, especially the one's that were so pretty. I lived in LA during my teenage years and saw all that a person could see. Wish I knew then what I know now. Isn't that always the case.

[jessicacn74]

i knew i was a female in a mans body and i am working on bring my true self out yes i am a gay male but one day i well be the woman i always wanted to be at the starte, i have been crossdressing for years and come to find out that i am a woman and i will fix myself to be the woman i want to be....................... jessica e. rains

[docrobbysherry]

I'm 60, and that's what we called "gay" people back then.

Never occurred to me to try on ladies things until about 8 years ago. I never would have believed then, that I could become Sherry 6 years later!
I knew at that time I wasn't gay, but I was pretty sure every other CD was. Not that there was ever anything wrong with that, just that I'm not. So I felt like the oddball of oddballs.

I DID know I was becoming some kind of weird sick pervert, and I'm still working my way around that thot today!
RS

[Angela Burke]

I honestly thought I was the only boy in the world who liked wearing girls clothes until I was about 12/13 yrs old. It never even crossed my mind to ask my mother if there were any other boys like me. This may sound naive but there was no mass media as such when I was growing up, nobody ever referred to crossdressers or transvestites, there was some playground talk about "poofs" but I was never really sure what this meant.
I eventually found out what I was in that font of all knowlege "The Encyclopedia Britannica", I then began researching the subject and it was a great relief to find that there were hundreds maybe thousands of boys just like me. I was a "crossdresser" and I loved (and still do) being one.
My only regret is there was no internet, no sites like this. Why couldn't those boffins have invented the thing about 40 years earlier?

[JoAnnDallas]

Back in the 1950's, a boy wearing girl clothing was a either a "Queer" or a "Sissy". Both could get you beat up, raped, and thrown in jail. Yes back then in many states it was a criminal offense for a man to dress as a woman. Only in the movies was it OK. (Some Like it Hot). I grew up with two older sisters, so with mother there were always a lot of female stuff going on. I learn early that it was easier to sit and pee than to stand, becuase that way I did not get yelled at for leaving the seat up. Both my sisters and my mother were into the social stuff, where the girls dressed up in evening gowns, high heels, makeup, and such. I got wondering what it was like, as my sisters and mother seem to enjoy themselves a lot. So I decide to dress up and see what it was all about. I soon discovered I really enjoyed dressing up as a girl. I never imagioned that it was wrong or that there were others like me that enjoyed dressing as a girl. I ready to tell my mother how I enjoyed dressing as a girl and want to be a girl, when a scandel happen with the assistant Mayor of our town. It was discovered that he like to dress as a woman and got out as a woman. It was in the papers how he was a sick, perverted, evil person and should not only not be in office but should be charged and put in jail. He was thrown out of office and he and his family had to leave town. This scared to living hell out of me and there was no way now I was going to tell my mother or anyone else that I liked to dress as a girl or want to be a girl. So deep into the closet I went. The rest is history.