Quote Originally Posted by SweetIonis
But it's possible I was trying to relieve some of the other stress of having to survive. It's that stress associated with having to survive, to make a decent living where I THINK (I'm not sure) the link my lie.
Quite possible. I personally know of two men who committed suicide after they lost their jobs and could no longer provide for their families. If failing in your male responsibilities can result in suicide then just the fear of failure would provide sufficient impetus to develop a coping mechanism. The psychological impact of crossdressing behavior is to remove yourself temporarily from your maleness and all its stresses and responsibilities and explore a fun experience that is devoid of stress and responsibility.

So are you saying that studies have actually been done where men and women are asked to do the same task.
Absolutely science has identified many tasks which produce small be reproducable differences in perfermormance such as in language and mathematics proficiency or spatial abilities. Not only are there differences in brain mapping but also in what makes up the brain with men having significantly more grey matter while women have more white matter so the concentations of neurons are different. When a man is asked to speak a certain word one part of his brain lights up to perform the task while in women a different part of the brain is used. But both men and women can speak the word as proficently as each other and have equal understanding of the word. So the differences in the brain processing are irrelevant to the outcome.

Essentially men and women process information differently and so often approach a subject from a different angle but the end result is either the same or very similar. None of the differences in abilities are profound and are minor compared to the large differences in behavior different cultural environments produce. Most importantly of all, men and women share the same overall abilities, feelings and emotions. There is nothing men do that women do not and vice versa. So when we see any form of behavior that is dominated by one gender in our society, that is solely the result of gender conditioning not of differences in brain mapping/processing. So any male who dresses in a LBD and enjoys feelings of prettiness and desirability then that is as normal a feeling for a man to experience as it is for women.