Alexia
I think you have done a fair job of describing several states that many crossdressers would identify with. I also agree that there is a clear case of progression in the behavior, the more you think about it, the more you enact it, the more you become it. There is a strange amount of self prophecy about it.
I think you missed something important though. Stage 1 is the trigger point which is gender dysphoria. Whether that is gender identity in transsexuals, or gender confusion in transgenderists or, in most cases of crossdressers, feelings of inadequacy about male roles and responsibuilities. That triggers the interest in female clothes as a gateway to the need or fantasy of turning ourselves in females. Most crossdresser's triggers occur years before puberty during the tranistion from innocent young children into prototype gendered adults.
I want to highlight this point from Juno about crossdressing being described as a fetish. It is not!!! We need to stop accepting this wrong label. A fetish is when you direct your sexual attention onto an object. Crossdressers may love their clothes but the sexual drive is focussed on an image of ourselves as a woman whether in our heads or in the mirror. It is just directing our sexual drive onto an imaginary woman rather than a real one. How we relate to women will alter how that imaginary image will develop.
