One answer seems to come to my full spectrum mind: "Days of Future Past". Everything happens for a reason my friend. It's not really necessary to know the full reason to go with it.
One answer seems to come to my full spectrum mind: "Days of Future Past". Everything happens for a reason my friend. It's not really necessary to know the full reason to go with it.
Second star to the right and straight on till morning
Ah Manwithbra, have you ever heard of the "cross-dressing is a form of synesthesia" theory. It explains it all.
Stage One: Biology/ Synaptogenesis
When you were a wee little baby your brain was making between 700-1000 neural connections per second! Really. So by the time you were three years old your brain had many more synapses than an adult. Then when you are still very very little, you begin learning and experiencing your world. Neural pruning begins and where there are connections that don't make sense - they are pruned. Learned associations reinforce other connections.
Stage two: Environmental Factors/Psychology
We are all exposed to environmental factors when we grow up. Some of us are bullied. Some of us are told we should have been born a girl. Some of us are taught to be strong, tough, suck it up, and never cry. Girls are valued simply because of their appearance. Girls have it better in life than boys. If we grow up thinking that life is hard because we are boys, and if we were girls then life would be so much better, and our mothers would love us more. In any case, there is usually some way we over-valued females, and didn't care much for male virtues. In my case I had a sister who was favored by my mother and I was a sensitive, clingy baby who craved my mother's attention. My mother would treat my sister like a princess, which I was usually told that my mother wanted a girl when I was born.
At this stage synesthesia takes place. Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which activiation in one sensory pathway leads to automatic,and involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway. In this case you have a sensory pathway associated with identifying the female gender (mom, and other females), and another for experiencing contact with females.
Stage 3: The Trigger is set
Okay, now your brain is hard wired. Then for whatever reason you experiment with some feminine clothing. It hits you. Your brain interprets cross-dressing as actual contact with a female. If you have reached puberty and have high levels of testosterone then this will be a sexual experience. Testosterone provides your sex drive. When your brain registers "contact with a female" it releases a host of neurotransmitters and these neurotransmitters produce the sensations of well-being, pleasure, gratification, bonding, etc. The neurotransmitter, dopamine, is response for urges, the driver, which is seeking gratification and a reward stimulus. It is also associated with compulsive/additive behavior. Serotonin is the neurotransmitters which produces a sense of well-being, happiness, comfort, contentment, etc. Then there is oxytocin. Oxytocin is the love neurotransmitters, responsible for social empathy, trust, and bonding. All these neurotransmitters are involved in your cross-dressing.
Rather than tell you to search for reasons, let's just say that there are a lot of different reasons why we prefer to wear clothes of the opposite sex. Whatever your reason is, is just as valid as anyone else's. The biggest problem seems not of self acceptance, but for the heterosexuals of us, it's finding a female mate who is accepting of our choice to wear the clothes, and emulate females.
Some causes of crossdressing you've probably never even considered: My TG biography at:http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/...=1#post1490560
There's an addendum at post # 82 on that thread, too. It's about a ten minute read.
Why don't we understand our desire to dress, behave and feel like a girl? Because from childhood, boys are told that the worst possible thing we can be, is a sissy. This feeling is so ingrained into our psyche, that we will suppress any thoughts that connect us to being or wanting to be feminine, even to the point of creating separate personalities to assign those female feelings into.
Stage 1: Tried it.
Stage 2: Liked it.
Stage 3: Need Sugar Daddy to pay for all this stuff. j/k
I think various kinds of paternal habit are the origin of crossdressing.
I doubt I will ever understand The Big Why, but neither will I ever stop trying. I do recall a time when I was a teenager. I had on my mother's three inch heels and a yellow silk evening gown, and I was at her vanity putting on her Revlon Cherries in the Snow lipstick. I recall thinking: This is right. This is me. This is who I am. To this day, nothing brings me such a combinations of peace and excitement as does dressing up like a girl.
my personal belief is that CDers are born with a certain amount of female hormones ,some have more than others. but if you think about it I know I have a lot of female in me.Not sure how others feel about it ,but something triggers the desire to dress. Having a little bit woman inside might explain why we do what we do.
Roxie
How about - I'm a very tactile and sensuous person and .. nah! that doesn't work. It is the perennial question with the perennial answer, we don't really know. But personally I'd forget Pavlov.
Christen x
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.” - Rumi.
I had a distant uncommunicable dad and a needy mum, when i was 3 i was in love with her and i used to be with her as she dressed, she showed me how to put socks as she put on her pantyhose. but that was the only part of her i wanted to emulate.
Then one time when i was 5 a little girl dressed me in her dress, i was so embarrassed about being 'caught' i had a big emotion about it. then i would play dress ups at my friend's place until i stopped getting invited.
So maybe because it was taboo and maybe my gender modelling was bit skewed. I'm trying to cancel this out of my parenting.
Why do I dress in women's clothes? Just lucky I guess.
Hugs
Ellen Jo
Somtimes the light's all shining on me, Other times I can barely see.
Lately it's occured to me.....What a long strange trip it has been.
Truckin by the Grateful Dead
Because it feels so so right. And beautiful. And fulfilling. And complete. And sexy. And wholesome. And femme. And... and... and...