Normality!

[Valerie Nicole]

Food: Ask most any long-time vegetarian. (If you ask why they are vegetarian, you might not be given an answer, but if you ask whether being vegetarian is important to the person, you probably will.)

Houses: One of my uncles, upon retirement, now spends at least 5 months a year traveling in his RV. An RV is a kind of house, but for those who take more than the occasional trip, the lifestyle is also part of their personality. Wonder the world, meet people, see new things, enjoy nature: it isn't the life for everyone, but for some it is part of their personality.

Cars: Ah? Then why did anyone think it was worth making a documentary about the GM EV1 (Sony Pictures, "Who Killed The Electric Car?") And from what I hear, some of the clubs for owners of high-end cars are more than a little snobbish. Never met someone who swore up and down that there was no way they were ever going to buy no G*d d*mmed foreign car?

So you're saying that a vegetarian who lives in an RV and refuses to drive a foreign car is nothing more than a vegetarian who lives in an RV and refuses to drive a foreign car? That's their whole identity? Those are the most important aspects of their personality?

Actually, you bring out a good point. Crossdressing is no more fundamental than any other part of a personality. I like chicken wings, root beer, videogames, dogs, computers, horror novels, some fantasy books, Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, rock music, and anything that makes me laugh. Each of these is a part of who I am, and like these, crossdressing is a part of me. But it is not all of me, or the most important part of me.

So even if you feel strongly about the food you eat, house you live in, or car you drive, it does not (or maybe I should say should not) comprise your entire identity, and neither does (or should) crossdressing.

To Shannen: Yes, I've been around children. And I'm not sure what age you're talking about here, but children are sponges when they come into the world, and from the moment the doctor says "It's a boy" or "It's a girl" the parents start treating that child as a boy or a girl. As it grows up, it will learn its gender norms and will come to believe that they are natural, even though they have really just been taught from an early age, just as their parents will believe they are natural even though they are learned, just as their parents will believe they are natural even though they are learned. And so on, and so on.