Can you relate to my peculiar sexuality ?

[Alex!]

Actually, gender and sexual attraction are, in fact, different. How one interprets this information is something else entirely. I am attracted to women. If a man looks like a woman and I don't know it until I find out the hard way (a la "Crying Game"), the show is off. This does not change the fact that I am attracted to women. Deception, whether intentional or not, is exactly that - deception.

Now, hormones do play a role in gender identity, apparently. The genitals release hormones at various levels, so when these are removed and/or radically adjusted for gender reassignment (which is a horrible term used to describe the surgery), elements of one's identity change. I am not an organic chemist, so I cannot go any further here.

In any case, my gender and sexual orientation are not in flux or otherwise a mystery to me. When I was younger and confused about my crossdressing, this was because I was too unsophisticated to understand my own behavior (read youth-induced ignorance). Now, I understand what crossdressing is to me. I certainly cannot apply this understanding across the full spectrum of crossdressers, however.

Some folks have a problem understanding why a heterosexual man would choose to dress like an attractive woman and not want to actually be a woman or not want to be with men. Humans are a diverse lot. I know its fun to think about such things, but I can assure you that the answers are so diverse that the process borders on irrelevant beyond a good debate over cocktails.

Crossdressing for me is an art form. Some do it well and others do it poorly. But this is a preferance thing; some like realism and others abstract. So when I see other crossdressers who do the craft justice, I see it as competition; or rather, a motivation for me to improve my look and manner when en femme. On a related note, sometimes I see an attractive GG and I say: "Damn, she's hawt!" at the same time I say "I really love that outfit..." Seeing crossdressing as a form of art explains why I do not really identify with the fetish crowd or those on a transgender journey.

I also agree with others that sex should not complicated. It is primal and basic. Gender, however, is quite complicated, especially since a good deal of this particular part of our identity is defined by society. This is not a bad thing, necessarily. It is a human thing.