Are there any female transvestites

[secret_mischief]

Do any girls have a compulsion to dress up in men's clothes... or is transvestitism a fetish that's male-only territory...

Not against it, but can't understand why a bloke would want to wear women's clothes, and I certainly can't understand why the opposite would happen either. Butch lesbians excluded, of course.

[baeraers]

Why excluded? Some lesbians practice the "man" side of a lesbian relationship. The same women may swap if they are with someone else who wants to be the "man". It doesn't always go so far as wearing men's clothes. The BBC, or Discovery Channel has a DVD on sex changes from man-women and also women-man that you might want to look at.

Personally, I think a women running around in my shirt the next morning is erotic.

[nopanties80]

It's easy to class a man as a transvestite if you see him wearing a skirt type garment (Scots excepted), but about a woman wearing trousers or jeans?

If you look back in time, for several hundred years, in Britain (and probably most of the western world) women wore dresses/skirts while men wore trousers or some form of attire that covered individual legs. I read somewhere that a woman was stoned in the street for wearing trousers in the 1890s. It was only during World War I when men were away fighting and women had to take on the men's jobs in factories etc that some women wore overalls with legs or wore trousers for practical reasons. The same occurred during WWII. Up to the mid 1960s, it was rare to see women wearing anything other than skirted clothing, especially at work or social occasions. Most women did housework, gardening, shopping in a dress or skirt.

About 35 years ago women started demanding equal rights with men and sex discrimination laws started to be passed. About this time many women started to wear jeans/trousers and recent court cases have ruled on the side of females wishing to wear trousers at work and school. We now have the situation where it's acceptable in society for women to wear "men's" clothing, but not for men to wear "women's" clothing. This makes it much more difficult to classify a woman than a man as a transvestite, so it appears there are more male than female transvestites.

With the increase of thrush in women and falling sperm counts in men both being put down to tighter clothing around the genital area, it would have been better if the sexual equality movements had brought about a change that dictated that the norm was for both sexes to wear skirt type garments.

I was born just after WWII and wore skirts and dresses untill my late teens when I tried a pair of jeans. I'd never been so uncomfortable in my life, and apart from a loose fitting pair of overalls for certain jobs, since then have never worn trousres again. I don't understand why anyone would ever want to wear trousers. After a persistant thrush infection in my mid 30s, I stopped wearing knickers altogether - since then no more thrush. I feel much more comfortable in the hot weather, and winter's taken care of by long coats and skirts that come down well below my long boots,

[MandyUK]

I did read once that one reason why women were forbidden to wear trousers, particular tighter fitting ones, was it showed off the female form too well, and led men into temptation (!?) How true that actually is, I don't know. Sounds like an excuse to me...

[baeraers]

At one point a "flash of a well turned naked ankle" (some old poem) was enough to get guys horny.

I personally have some trouble? at the start of the summer season with all the additional skin. Oh I'm old and not going to start drooling, but dayum, those first few skirts get the blood pumping.

[Hewitt]

Do any girls have a compulsion to dress up in men's clothes... or is transvestitism a fetish that's male-only territory...

There was a piece in either The Sunday Times or The Observer a year or two back about groups of women in New York who dress up in men's suits. Some of them also have stick-on moustaches and beards.

Michael

[GlitterBabe]

The reasons may be different with each individual actually. Alot of them crossdress because they relate more with the opposite sex. There individuality is just more leaning that way and doing that makes them feel good to be who they are on the inside. Just as everyone likes to just express themselves.

[cross_dresser]

Women are so fortunate. They can dress sexy and feminine much of teh time but when needs suit for practical purposes they can wear more masculine clothes and still look good. Us poor men who love the look and feel of fem clothing have to keep it secret and indoors as we look pretty silly in a skirt!!

I think we are also very misunderstood by women. I work in the construction industry, play rugby and used to be a part-time fireman and I'm 100% hetrosexual, but I can't resist slipping on some stockings, skirt , lacy undies etc, a few times a week at home. I know I look ridiculous but I feel great and stress free when I dress up. I don't bother with make up or wigs or anything, it's just the feeling of the clothes and how it makes you feel when wearing them. I don'y try to be woman when wearing them, just a relaxed happy hetro man.

[Simon(e)]

People make such dramas out of irrelevancies, don’t they? Why should one’s reproductive organs dictate what they wear or how they look? If something makes a woman feel sensual and sexy, why then shouldn’t it do the same for a man? And of course, vice versa.

Personally, I identify more closely with women, but everyone has their own individual reasons. I don’t even consider that I am cross-dressing, although a quick glance in the mirror tells me otherwise.

[MandyUK]

There was a piece in either The Sunday Times or The Observer a year or two back about groups of women in New York who dress up in men's suits. Some of them also have stick-on moustaches and beards.

Oh that's interesting - there was an episode of 'Sex and the City' on the other night, and Charlotte was dressed as a guy, with slicked back hair and fake moustache, for a photo shoot...

[Guest]

It is a part of our social bias and sexual discrimintion that men will always get criticised for their sexual adventurousness and variety and women will be considered right in all things they do. Women just are not called transvestites bacause women can do no wrong. There is far more latitude given to women in what they wear than there is to men. The word has negative connotations and therefore only appropriate to men. Such is life. It sucks.

[Guest]

Women have never been 'forbidden' to wear trousers, for goodness sake. Another myth to bolster support for the 'male domination' myth. Women have dressed as they have wanted in every age. It is men who are controlled these days.

As for trousers. They were invented for riding horses. Men everywhere have always been free to wear skirts of some kind right up to recent times. Now its treated as some sort of perversion. Women can wear trousers as a matter of course.

If tight trousers showed the female form and were therefore a no-no, what of all the other clothes women have worn which were specifically designed to do just that. Even in Victorian times a women would not be seen without have her breasts on open display and her bum accentuated. What do you think corsets were designed ( by women) for? Comfort???!!!

knickers were not worn by women until the last century. They took the garment from men. Now men can't wear knickers either. Just look at some of the wierd controlling attitudes expressed by women on these boards. Some seem to have a fit if men wear knickers!

Why don't you women get over the blame men for everything saga. Lose the controlling schoolmaamism. Let people wear what they like.

[MandyUK]

Women have never been 'forbidden' to wear trousers, for goodness sake.

I beg to differ:

Until 1970 it was not fashionable and sometimes against the law for women to wear pants in offices, classrooms, and restaurants in the U.S.

I also did a study on Women in British History when at school, and I'm almost certain it was against the law for women to wear trousers in the UK, until one of the world wars, when the law was waived for practicality reasons as they were manufacturing munitions, etc. After the war, the law was not entirely reinforced again, and ultimately fell into disuse.

[Guest]

Differ away, but don't say there was a law about it. It was akin to what happens now when men aren't allowed into night clubs if wearing the 'wrong' gear. No law involved, just a social convention. Women had trousers for wear even then. There are always odd legislatures around with arcane prohibitions but to ascribe them to the whole of a nation - like the USA - is daft. Even other regions laughed at them.

There is a book - "Vested Interests" - which looks at female and male transvestism history which shows the extent of female transvestism and its acceptibility from the year dot. Men too. It is only recently that men have come under such approbation ( past few hundred years). Women wear mens clothes for fashion and for taking male 'power'. Men more for an internal sexual urge and for parody. These days anything sexual that is a male's is considered in a poor light compared to women's.

Men are the new 'second sex'.

[Guest]

I think the debate here is interesting but misguided. Many more men, it seems, dress as women than women as men and that is an important fact we should look at more.

Men are in constant and stupid competition with each other even in their minds and this creates a pressure cooker sort of sexuality which must be satisifed. This is why gay guys go rabbity bonkers when they get together!! Women don't have this. Why do women's mags have pictures of women on the front and men's magazines have women on the front?!

This stuff about women being free to wear anything isn't actually true - they do have strong dress codes and women's trousers are not cut to look like men's, are they?!

Men dress as women as way to possess them but women wont be possessed. Wearing women's clothes allows a man to get close to them. Which is a bit spooky and a bit nice at the same time. Seeing your man dressed as a woman destroys the internal image a woman holds and devalues all their feelings. TV's should bear that in mind! There is a movement afoot to make porn and paysex "normal" - be wary of that too!

Bye!