We are not crossdressers.....and we get fed up of being told we are

[Rachel Morley]

Oh my gosh Sandra, you are getting some feedback in one of your threads now or what? To me, this is a somewhat touchy subject so I am going to tread really gently here and just share an opinion I have about the way I think about this. IMHO (yes I am saying this as humbly as I can) if you consider "crossdressing" as wearing clothes that are designed for and manufactured in styles that are meant for that gender's body shape then I do think the person, either male or female, (in its literal term) is crossdressing if they wear the opposite gender's clothes. So when Sandra says:

Ok we have some threads on here about why it’s ok for women to wear trousers/pants and say that we are crossdressing. Well we are not. Basically we just wear the clothes that are designed for us.

I couldn't agree more with her. She is dead on correct. Clothes that are made for women even if they are an ordinary t-shirt and pants/jeans etc, then the women IMO aren't crossdressing because they're (according my definition) wearing clothes that are designed for them. i.e. women wearing women's clothes.

But, I gotta tell ya I really like these two comments here:

I agree very much. Male crossdressers are being singled out because societal prejudice forces many to emulate women because we dont feel right being seen as a man in a dress. Remove the prejudice and stigma and we would end up with new generations of men naturally integrating feminine clothing into their presentation just as women do with men's fashion.

Either all men and women are crossdressing and none of us are. I dont like how people want to distance women's use of male clothing and claim it is something completely different. It isn't, it the just the prejudice that creates the gap and resulting differing behaviors.

I said it already, but I will say it again! If you wear any clothing made for the opposite sex, you are crossdressing. That is true whether you are male or female! And the reason for wearing the clothes makes no difference! Yes, some women do wear mens pants and shirts. They are crossdressing, but they get away with it because the public is used to that.

These comments make total sense to me if you consider crossdressing purely from the "clothes only" standpoint. Admittedly though, there is for a lot of folks on here (me included) where something else is going on, it's not only a fashion freedom statement for people like me (however, I do wear obvious girly clothes but still present as a guy all the time ) but when we've previously talked in other threads about what was the definition of "crossdressing" no one said you had to feel a certain way or not feel a certain way to be a crossdresser. If I remember correctly most people talked about wearing clothes that were designed for the opposite gender being the defining factor. So in that sense, IMO both men and women can and do crossdress but it's socially acceptable for one and not the other.

Now before I get lampooned, I do recognize that when a guy crossdresses it's almost certainly different for him (how he feels when he's doing it) than when a woman crossdresses (wears clothes that are designed for a man) but that's not the point I wanted to demonstrate. I was talking about the fact that "technically speaking" women can and do crossdress, but it's accepted in society as not being a problem, and I'm ok with that, I just wish that in this particular case, what was good for the goose was also good for the gander! Just my :2c: