Why must we have to be seeking a "feminine identity" when we crossdress, or else it must be a fetish and it is done soley to arouse. For me it started with the clothes. One day when I was in nursery school I wore my sister's underwear to school one day and it felt great (and not in a sexual way, more of the it felt right). Another time, around the same age I had to try on the wedding dress in my sisters' dress up chest to see how it felt to have it "on," and again it felt good. Next was a slip...

There was no tucking, no thinking I want to pretend to be a girl, no sense of I want to relinquish male power/gain female power, merely exploring the clothes. Today I have forms and have to say that they make the clothes fit better. I have a wig because I like to wear my clothes outside of my house at night away from people so that a form with long hair in a dress does not call too muuch attention to itself.

I do not have a female persona that I am trying to embody. I am not trying to hide my masculinity. I am still drawn to the clothes and as Dr. Seuss might say I like to wear them in the house, with a mouse, at the park, in the dark... Would that make me a fetish dresser if I am not seeking to climax or have any other experience than walking around dressed? I don't think so. I would argue that I am somewhere on the crossdressing continuum and resent the idea that it cannot be about the clothes for some us, but that there must be a deeper more transexual reason for dressing.

Personally I liked the person who mentioned the possibility that they had been a woman in a past life to descibe their desire to dress, because I could relate to that, because I have always wondered why the idea of me wearing the clothes of a woman felt "right" to me from such an early age. I also could imagine how clothes would feel on me from that early age. So the attraction of the clothes for me is real and I do not think that there is a great deeper meaning that I am failing to grasp, but I am sure others here will be more than happy to debunk my beliefs.