The Crossdressing Discussion Thread

@Cirrus Light
I disagree with a. I don’t think there’s evidence that crossdressing causes gender dysphoria. I might be wrong, and you’re happy to show me a connection, but I believe dysphoria exists independent of a person’s fashion preferences.

I love to crossdress and identify as genderfluid, but I don’t feel that crossdressing is turning me into a woman. My love of crossdressing has been with me since my teens, and it’ll never go away. It’s a part of me that exists regardless of my clothing choices, but it also drives me to enjoy dressing feminine. It’s not the other way around. I crossdress because I love being a female, but I didn’t become gender fluid because I started crossdressing. Instead, I discovered I was genderfluid and now happily accept it.

a) Men who crossdress can easily become very confused about their gender, role…

1. If my claim was every case, then your experience would disprove it, but since it’s not, it’s anecdotal, since it doesn’t represent every case.
    
2. Reasons we believe we did things don’t often match the actual reasons they were done - see until 1:43. There were also other experiments that confirmed this in normal brains. Off the top of my head, I recall one where subjects had a simple goal of moving a mouse cursor to one portion of a screen. They found that if they subtly nudged the mouse to one side, the subjects would often pick that side, and later state a reason for it - they attributed a reason for doing something, when in reality, it was an outside factor that pushed them to do it.
    
   In other words, I don’t think people understand their own motivations as well as we believe - just as a simple neurological part of being human.
    
3. Actions reinforce thoughts. In OCD, compulsions grow stronger the more they’re acted on because actions “reward” the brain for sending a signal, they strengthen pathways. This is how addictions happen, as well. Binging may temporarily satisfy a desire, but it makes the addiction stronger by reinforcing the neural pathways for it. Same applies to non-addictions - this is the basis of training and memorization.
    
   Point of number 2 is; you may think causality runs one way, but with how the brain works, it probably runs both ways. With number 3, actually cross dressing probably cemented the genderfluid perception. Neurologically speaking (and I’m just someone who’s poked into it a little, not an actual neurologist), I don’t think it was discovering yourself so much as inventing yourself. To support that claim, I cite number 3, and as to why it doesn’t feel like number 3, I cite number 2. Reason being, number 3 is just how the brain works.
    
   You can’t cross dress because you feel a desire to without reinforcing those pathways that grant that desire. In the short term, it satisfies the desire, but in the long term, it comes back stronger. That’s how the brain works. To support that claim, I cite 3 again. Feeling satisfied is a short term effect. Long term, these things tend to increase the connections.
    

1. Might be addicting/habit forming since it feels so right.  
2. Lots of people would give us crap for it.

They’re so much more comfy than pants anyway! They let my balls breathe instead of squashing them.

@Ciaran
I’ve considered it. Can I even get away with it without being Scottish though?

@Kirb
Wear what you want. Kilts are pretty awesome. You can wear a skirt and be a bad-ass and I think many people associate kilts with being a bad-ass.

 
You can also wear a Sari - they’re far enough away from what people expect that no one will say anything.
 
Me at work: