Cd Tg?

[Guest Clora]

so as i have been reading i noticed that at times a crossdresser can "turn into" a transgender how do you know if your more of a CD or a TG? all answers will be helpful thanks!!!

[Guest Ashlee]

arielle,

I consider myself as strictly a crossdresser.

Why?

Because I am comfortable in "my skin" - I feel its OK for me to have a mans body and just dress up when I want to (or get to). I have a wonderful wife and family and would loose them if it were anything more than that. They are and always will be a very important part of my life.

Because I have no real desire to completly transition. Part of this is the family, part is me. If I knew what I do now (mid 40's) when I was say, in high school, I think I may have had a completely different life. I may have wanted to transition and live my life 100% female. Part of this too is that I don't feel like going through all the surgeries, doctors, expense, and time that it would take to completely transition. With me, if it were to ever happen, it would have to be "all or nothing." I feel for those who do choose this path - it is a hard path to take, and difficult without support.

I think there are some people out there that start CD'ing and they find themselves thinking about their past, how they reacted at an early age, or maybe that they tried on their sisters/mothers/cousins clothes and enjoyed that feeling. That feeling came back and they find that they are able to find their true inner self. That true self ends up being the opposite gender that they were both with.

Hope this helps. In a nutshell, it is what you want it to be. What makes you feel the most comfortable. Do what feels right!

{HUGS}

Ashlee

[Guest]

so as i have been reading i noticed that at times a crossdresser can "turn into" a transgender how do you know if your more of a CD or a TG? all answers will be helpful thanks!!!

Tg or transgender is an umbrella term that includes many groups including cd's, transgenderists and transsexuals among others. If you are unsure consider seeing a gender therapist. http://www.lauras-playground.com/gender_therapists.htm . Do you desire or feel that you are a woman? At what age did you feel the way you do?

Laura

[Guest Clora]

Tg or transgender is an umbrella term that includes many groups including cd's, transgenderists and transsexuals among others. If you are unsure consider seeing a gender therapist. http://www.lauras-playground.com/gender_therapists.htm . Do you desire or feel that you are a woman? At what age did you feel the way you do?

Laura

no i dont feel the desire but a sense of right and feminity

[Sally]

so as i have been reading i noticed that at times a crossdresser can "turn into" a transgender how do you know if your more of a CD or a TG? all answers will be helpful thanks!!!

Actually I don't think that anyone has ever 'turned into' transgenderist or transsexual or even cross dresser, it is something that you are born with.

The level of comfort for each person is different.

Some people cross dress and this satisfies their need to express their true gender.

For others, that is simply not enough.

Cross dressers who 'turn into' transsexuals were always transsexual they just took longer on their journey of discovery, we almost all went through cross dressing - it is sort of the first stop for transgendered.

It is an important stop and wonderful if that is where you need to be, but if the part time expression of your true gender isn't enough you move into transgenderist where you basically life full time in the true gender but you never alter your body - not even hormones.

Transsexual is the last station , but it has two terminals one for pre op and one for post op - not all desire the surgery and the hormones have made all of the changes that the needed.

This was oversimplified but it takes in almost everybody except Androgynous - they have a separate track that runs along parallel to ours and have the wonderful ability and need to live in both genders - they in general have no problems with their bodies as long as they can appear as either, neither or both sexes simultaneously - This is a concept that is difficult for even transsexuals to understand, but it is where they need to be so I am happy for them.

There should be no caste system in "Transgenderland", but you will find some who will say, "only a cross dresser", don't let anyone disrespect you, you have as much of a claim to the kingdom as anyone else.

Start out on your journey of self discovery as a cross dresser, enjoy it, if this is your destination, congratulations on your arrival, if not feel free to re-board the train and journey to the next station.

All Aboard!

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Hi Arielle,

Very good question. I have been pondering that question myself. I started out as simply crossdressing in the privacy of my home. I now have evolved to looking as feminine as I realistically can (according to the situation I place myself in) ranging from partially male to fully female. I also insist with myself to not ever smell like a man (that is what I do not like the most). I always make sure that I smell like a woman. I also always wear at least one garment that is a female (always). On the weekends, when I do errands, my attire, when I go out is completely female. Crossdresser only? I don't think so. It is much, much more!! Fundamentally, I think what is happening for me, is re-awakening the suppressed woman that has always been inside me.

Just shareing,

bernie

[Guest Christy.dancer]

I ask myself this every day, and probably will CONTINUE to ask myself this. For me, I'm basically "fixed" on the idea of ending up in a relationship with a heterosexual male partner who is attrated to me as a woman. For that to "work", eventually the plumbing needs to be re-routed so we "fit" together better.

BUT.... with that in mind, I'm currently in school, on hormones (just barely started), and at the earliest won't go in for the snip-n-tuck for at least a couple of years. So, I'm going to have to get used to living a life as what is essentially a hormone-enhanced male cross-dresser. Will I get used to that life? Will I fall into a rut, and when it comes time to schedule the SRS, will I chicken out and simply live my life this way?

I dunno.... that's one big reason (among others) I'll be in therapy for a l-o-n-g time.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

First question I asked my therapist. Laura has basically given the answer in her reply.

I define it as this: a crossdresser dresses to express her feminine side, a transsexual dresses to affirm her femaleness.

Like Sally and most here, I don't think a transsexual starts out as a simple cross dresser. She may THINK that, but she has always known she was female (or at least wanted to be female) from the earliest age. A cross dresser seemingly starts dressing later in life, and never wants to have her male genitalia surgically modified, while a transsexual seems to obsess on it. A crossdresser tends to dress and see themselves as sexy and feminine, while a transsexual, just dresses and then goes about her business, glad to be female for a while.

And transsexuals have better outfits! Ha ! Transsexuals have to save up for the surgeries and can't afford fancy clothes. Grin...

[Guest Michelle_Heart]

BUT.... with that in mind, I'm currently in school, on hormones (just barely started), and at the earliest won't go in for the snip-n-tuck for at least a couple of years. So, I'm going to have to get used to living a life as what is essentially a hormone-enhanced male cross-dresser.

Hormone-enhanced male cross-dresser? Don't call yourself that, hun. As an MtF, you're just as much a woman as any other woman. In fact, some transsexuals don't even get SRS, but they're still transsexuals. Better yet, they are genuine men (FtM) and genuine women (MtF). That's what I think.

[Sally]

Hormone-enhanced male cross-dresser? Don't call yourself that, hun. As an MtF, you're just as much a woman as any other woman. In fact, some transsexuals don't even get SRS, but they're still transsexuals. Better yet, they are genuine men (FtM) and genuine women (MtF). That's what I think.

That is exactly right and it counts for you before you start on hormones.

The idea of 'becoming a woman' or a wan is erroneous because you have actually been that from birth.

I was born a woman, my mind heart and soul are female, my body just didn't get the message.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Hey Arielle,

I have thought more about this question. I think it is interesting that everyone, although trying to help, still has the tendency to put forth absolutes. It apears to me that crossdressing is somehow still misunderstood (even here!!). No disrespect to everyone ( I love you all!!), but what Arielle is asking is very, very important!!! Yes, some crossdressers are basically comfortable with their birth gender and sometimes wants to express their femininity by dressing up. However, there is definitely a class of us who crossdress because they absolutley have to!! Expressing ones femininity is not a hobby!! It is vital to our self worth and identity. For some of us, crossdressing extends beyond the safe private boundaries where we can express our femininity in our comfort zone. No, on the contrary, crossdressing becomes part of everyday life, and we pay dearly for it, in terms of ridicule and suspicion!! For those crossdressers (and I think Arielle, you are one) the question is more pressing... Can I be a woman? I know that I am a woman, but the demands of life indicate that I am not (or so it seems). We are transsexual, but the dynamics of our lives hold us back from being able to completely transition!! We are in hell. For those of you who are in the process of transition, I applaud you!! If you look at the spectrum, there is definitely a space where some of us want to transition, but cannot at this point, but we are not simply dressing up. There is something much more profound happening here for us!!

Thank you Arielle, for bringing this up again!

Simply put, Yes ther is a section of people who start out as crossdressers, but are really transgendered!!!

Whew, I just had to let that out!!

bernie

[Guest S. Chrissie]

On the topic of cross-dresser "turning into" a mtf or ftm. A question has been bugging me for a very long time....

Besides dressing up in my mom's clothes when I was very young, I literally don't cross dress at all. I don't know why.....it just doesn't seem to be appealing or in however ways make me feel any better. (I have virtually no experience with make-up ) Yet, the clear awareness of wrongness seems to always be there. That probably means I don't have any ways to express my femininity That begs the question on how in the world do I have the feeling of being a girl yet don't really have any ways to express my femininity. I mean

but we are not simply dressing up. There is something much more profound happening here for us!!

This definitely makes sense, but what about those, like me, that don't?

Ahhh....it's so confusing...

Sherlyn going crazy

[Guest Elizabeth K]

I still say do you feel feminine some of the time - or female all the time? There is the difference.

Cross dressers don't 'turn into' transsexuals. Transsexuals who don't 'know' they are transsexuals often cross dress. I was one of the latter.

I also have a good post op MTF friend who NEVER cross dressed. He just always felt female.

Lizzy

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Dear Sherlyn (and thank you Lizzy!!)

Lizzy has said so simply there is a distinction to being feminine and female. Sherlyn, dear, you don't have to wear makeup and dress as a girl to be female!! If you know that you are female then you will express it naturally!! My path, was to crossdress, because for me it is what worked for me and helped me learn more about myself. As Lizzy pointed out not every MTF or FTM for that matter needs to go down the crossdressing path! Your situation is very much alike of so many transgendered people. The day will come my dear that your gender will be expressed in ways you cannot imagine now. One of those ways, is that wearing what feels right will become absolutely neccessary!!

Keep on being who you are!!! It will all work out!!!

Love,

bernie

[Guest S. Chrissie]

Thanks glad to know there are people who are similar to me. I've always got questions from some people who I came out to that question me:

" You don't like wearing girl's dresses, then why do you want to become one?" (Told them I never wore any dresses before)

And my psychiatrist did question me on that too. I just never knew how to answer.....yeah, and that made me wonder alot , since it seems like most transsexuals I come across so far has more or less a history of crossdressing.

Sherlyn

[Guest CharliTo]

Thanks glad to know there are people who are similar to me. I've always got questions from some people who I came out to that question me:

" You don't like wearing girl's dresses, then why do you want to become one?" (Told them I never wore any dresses before)

And my psychiatrist did question me on that too. I just never knew how to answer.....yeah, and that made me wonder alot , since it seems like most transsexuals I come across so far has more or less a history of crossdressing.

Sherlyn

As a short reply... I never had much of a history of CD-ing.... but I knew I always felt female... >_< I just didn't CD cuz i didn't have my own room and I know it'd make my mom sad ...

[Guest Christy.dancer]

A silly little joke, but a little humor doesn't hurt, does it?

What's the difference between a transgendered girl and a cross-dresser?

The TG can't wait to get home to take her bra and high-heels off

A CD can't wait to get home to put his bra and high-heels on.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

A silly little joke, but a little humor doesn't hurt, does it?

What's the difference between a transgendered girl and a cross-dresser?

The TG can't wait to get home to take her bra and high-heels off

A CD can't wait to get home to put his bra and high-heels on.

Hey Christie!!!

Very well put!!!

LOL

bernie