Years ago I read a definition of crossdressing which, following the wearing of clothing language, added "for sexual or emotional reasons". Today I checked several online dictionaries and none of them included a motive. Wikipedia specifically excludes a motive - it's simply the wearing of the clothing, which includes costumes and disguises (Tootsie, Doubtfire...). To me, it takes two things to be a crossdresser: an inner desire to wear clothing normally worn by the opposite sex, and the act of wearing the clothing. Without the former, disguise and costume wearers are excluded, and without the latter, those who desire to wear the clothes but never have (yes, there are such people) are excluded. But Webster didn't ask for my opinion, so motive doesn't matter.
You see two men dressed as women. Which one is a crossdresser, and which one a fetishist? You can't know unless you determine their motives? Even if you could, it's not all or nothing. For many of us, there is a sexual aspect to dressing, but there are non-sexual aspects as well.
This is all an attempt to distance the all-girly-inside dressers from sex-crazed deviants by those fearing the association. As one who enjoys the sexual excitement crossdressing brings, if someone thinks I'm all girly inside, I can handle it. haha
I always find it interesting (and irritating) when a dressing-for-sexual-excitement thread prompts those whose dressing is non-sexual to drive the point home. Is this really necessary.
I dress up as a woman. I'm a crossdresser. Or am I?
