Quote Originally Posted by AmandaM View Post
I don't consider my crossdressing to be just a fetish. I consider it an internal female identity. So, I think the diaper guy is way different.
Quote Originally Posted by msginaadoll View Post
Amanda, that was just what i was getting at in my post. "You" dont think that your dressing is a fetish. However others are not so quick to come to the same judgement. The man in the diapers may have seen himself in a different way than I viewed him.
This is very much an eye opener for me as well. Thanks for bringing it up!

I always thought of infantilism as a fetish, but that's because I associated it with behaviors that are done in private, strictly for sexual gratification, although I don't know much about it. It never occurred to me that someone might actually identify that way and find (at least at times) a feeling of non-sexual comfort in expressing himself that way, and might further feel a sense of freedom or elation in being able to do so in public, if he felt he could go out and be accepted without being judged .... just like a CD wanting to express her femme self.

Lots of CDs do admit they dress for purely sexual reasons ... the stereotypical view being that these CDs keep it behind closed doors, they don't try nor do they want blend, they don't identify femme, and they mostly wear what excites them sexually. But, when I read posts and look at the pics in the Gallery from the CDs who do not feel their dressing is paraphilic, there are still many sexy, suggestive outfits and sentiments. And as you say, many enjoy wearing edgier clothing in clubs for example. And unlike GGs, they don't do it to attract a sexual partner, but more because the focus is on feeling sexy. There is a subtle difference. So one can hardly say the sexual element disappears entirely even among the CDs who identify as female and who dress in public to blend.

You bring up an inderesting point, an added dimension to the mix. You are questioning whether the paraphilic difference between the infantilist and the average CD is only a question of degree .... you bring up the possibility they either are both paraphiles, or they are not. Interesting. I never thought of it this way and I would not be so quick to rule it out entirely, at least not across the board.

The TSs I know do not overly preoccupy themselves with clothing ... the image I have in mind is a TS who enjoys looking nice, but who would just as soon be seen in cute jeans and sneakers than fishnets, sexy shoes, and a curve-hugging dress.

Before anyone gets upset, I am not saying this is my belief and it is true. It is merely a point that I had not previously thought as having the possibility of being valid .. the idea that the average CDs, because of their focus on looks, clothing, and wanting to feel sexy as opposed to purely feeling female (they are not the same thing), are closer to the fetishistic aspect of dressing than I had previously thought.