Crossdressing can happen back and forth between either gender, male to female or female to male but males are the targeted gender to be shamed for wearing girl/women’s socially assigned apparel. Most people have inaccurate beliefs about crossdressing and crossdressers. This is mainly due to misunderstanding and those who continue to stay uninformed about crossdressing.
In this article, we break down 10 most common misconceptions about crossdressers.
1) Being Transgender is the same as crossdressing
One of the most common misconceptions out there. This is totally false and very wrong assumption. Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from the sex that they were assigned at birth.
Many transgender people experience gender dysphoria, and some seek medical treatments such as hormone replacement therapy, sex reassignment surgery, or psychotherapy. Not all transgender people desire these treatments, and some cannot undergo them for financial or medical reasons.
Transgender people don’t feel comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth and hence live their lives as their selected gender, as a man or as a woman for the entirety of their life. For transgender people, suppression of their gender identity has serious emotional and psychological consequences.
Crossdressing is simply an action or activity which is a form of gender expression. Crossdressers do not wish to permanently change their sex or live full-time as the opposite gender. A crossdresser is simply someone who enjoys crossdressing enough, to see it as part of their identity and may choose to do it for various reasons.
Crossdressing can be done in private, or for an event, and by itself crossdressing means nothing in terms of gender identity. There are many men that enjoy crossdressing, and most of them are cisgender and heterosexual. Crossdressers do not have any compelling need to transition to the opposite gender fulltime.
Therefore, being trans is not the same as being a crossdresser. So please don’t confuse between the two.
2) Crossdressers are gay
Plain and simple the answer is NO. Not all crossdressers are gay. Most people who crossdress are actually straight and in some cases bisexual too but crossdressing doesn’t make anybody gay.
It is just a misunderstanding that crossdressers are gay in the sense that they want to look as feminine as possible and attract male attention. Crossdressing is more about how one feels about oneself. For a gay sex-ual experience, crossdressing is counter productive. A gay man wants a man and not a lady. So, crossdressing is not a sexual orientation, it’s an activity like putting on lingerie, wearing dresses or heels, and feeling sexy.
Sexual orientation: Straight, Gay, Bisexual, Asexual
Activity: Crossdressing, role play
3) All Crossdressers are Kinky
Many people think crossdressing is nothing more than a sexual fetish and that is quite incorrect. Just because someone is into crossdressing doesn’t mean they are all kinky. Crossdressing is a separate activity and doesn’t necessarily factor into the world of kink. In some cases, crossdressing can be kinky. For example – forced feminization. However, there is a broad spectrum for it.
4) Crossdressing is a mental illness
People who don’t have any understanding about cross-dressing have this misconception, which is entirely false. Crossdressing is not the result of mental illness, but rather one of many personal traits that some people have genetically woven into them. This particular trait just happens to be widely misunderstood and has a social stigma attached to it.
5) Crossdressing is only for feminine body types.
Crossdressing is for all bodies. Anybody can cross-dress as another gender. Crossdressing is supposed to be fun and happy activity.
6) Crossdressers are perverts
This is also one of the most incorrect assumptions about crossdressers. Most crossdressers are just somebody who has a strong feminine side and has interests in feminine things. There are perverts who could also be crossdressers but it isn’t accurate at all, to judge an entire group of people just based on them.
7) All crossdressers want a sex change
Crossdressers do not want to be a woman full-time or have SRS ( Sex reassignment surgery), but rather crossdress to explore and express their feminine side. Some men crossdress underneath their male clothes only, as they like the feel of stockings or wearing women’s lingerie and that doesn’t make them want to become a woman through a sex change.
8) Crossdressers act like women even when not dressed
This statement is quite false as well. Most crossdressers in the world are those who crossdress in secret and when they are not crossdressing, they are doing normal things as men. For many crossdressers, you can’t even guess if they are crossdressers by just looking at them or by their actions. Because as mentioned before, crossdressing is quite different from being transgender and crossdressers don’t have the need to express their feminine side all the time.
9) Crossdressing is a choice & It can be cured
This one is a little complex. In some sense, it is a choice as someone who feels the call to dress and feel feminine can decide to put those feelings in a deep part of their mind and try to forget it exists, But the call might just get louder and they cannot push those feelings aside any longer and eventually, they will start to dress in some form or fashion.
Crossdressing is a very necessary outlet for feminine self-expression in some men. It is more than just choosing to crossdress but rather a compulsion. So, it is not as much a choice as it is a part of that person’s being. They feel it inside and know that is who they truly are.
Crossdressing is not an illness to be cured.
10) Crossdressers are not good husbands and fathers
This is also false. Crossdressing can bring complication to a family relationship but that in no way illustrates that crossdressers cannot be good husbands and fathers. Most crossdressers actually put their family first and try to suppress their crossdressing, which is tremendously difficult.
We hope this article will clear some of the biggest misconceptions about crossdressers and inform & aware people about the actual meaning of crossdressing.
Please let us know your opinion in the comment below. Thanks.
Thank you for your wonderful presentation! Great to see the truth expressed so clearly! I agree completely. I enjoy dressing up … it just feels so good and comfortable, nothing more needs to be said … by me!
thank you for putting this point acriss , more people out there should read and understand crossdressing then again i have said this to many people if everyone understands the reasons and purpose of why we do it the word crossdressing might not be used , everyone at some point inthere lifes try it its good reliefs stress help to relax mire people should listen to the people who crosdress and find out why they do it and not ridicule them eveyonr has there own choice ib life just leave them alone to do there think and keep ther remarks to themselfs
I would love to hear from like minded sissy boys who I could become friends with!!!!!!!
Hi Daphne i would like to talk about sissy and like to try doing things they do. I live in baltimore Md.
I am a 57 year old married man, I am also a crossdresser. I have been crossdressing for literally MOST of my life. My wife does know about it but doesn’t seem to like the idea so I normally only dress when she is not home. I don’t force it upon her as I have far too much respect for her to do that. However, I would really like to find someone who I could talk to about it. Perhaps a man I could talk to as Willow. I’m not looking for any kind of relationship, just simple occasional chat.
Thanks for addressing this. Just because I love dressing feminine. Doesn’t mean that I’m gay, or that I don’t want to be a man anymore. The opposite is true for me and most crossdressers. I’m a straight guy and I’m glad I was born a male. I go by Nicole as a crossdresser as it’s my femme name. In terms of choosing I didn’t choose this. I’ve tried to cure and suppress it. This is because, I come from a family who’s old fashioned and wouldn’t approve of it. However, my urge was telling me that I should wear a dress. So, I made one out of trash bags. I cut out holes for the head and the arms. I taped that up. I put it on and I’m happy in my dress. I love how it’s conformable on my body. I love the air blowing on my dress and I feel confident in my dress.
From a lady, Nicole
this is well written and best to understand the difference between the terms that was written down. thanks for this post hope everyone would read this including real woman, then they will understand the difference. yes, real woman cross dress too. i love cross dressing and i buy my own female attire from dresses, skirts, nylons, bra’s panties, pads, make up, earrings, necklace, nail polish, wigs, heels and i have more female cloths then wife and even wear female cloths as society would call them. more than my wife world wear female cloths. I under dress every day when i get out of bed like a real woman would get dressed up. i start with my bra, then panties and pad, nylons, then a nice dress to wear for the day or a nice skirt and blouse, then my male cloths over them so no one can see me dressed up. i do not wear makeup when i go out to see people or shop. wife knows of me dressing up and lets me dress up, she told me one day i seen you dressed up no big deal, so i don’t hide it any more i just dress up and stay in house and walk around the house when i need to go to kitchen, i do wear makeup when i am home and not going out, perfume is put on also. i dress up to let my fem side out and also i look more myself as a female, i am not gay, i dress up to feel happy, less depressed and no panic attacks
The trials & tribulations of a cross dresser are well expressed in your article. Thank you for sharing. It took me nearly 50 years to share the last secret in my life. Having done so with my wife and children has been just as liberating as cross dressing itself. Blessed. We are truly becoming more accepted in this bigoted society that we live in, so optimism prevails.
Good luck to you readers if you haven’t yet shared your secret with loved ones. Not easy and the reactions can be diverse, for sure.
Michelle (finally liberated and it feels good)
More sites like this, please.