Have you ever felt misunderstood?
Sadly, there’s a lot of ignorance out there! That’s why in this blog post, I want to debunk common myths about crossdressers and transgender women.
Let’s start with one of the biggest misconceptions that’s unfortunately still hanging around:
Myth: Transgender women, crossdressers, and drag queens are all the same.
While all these are valid ways of expressing one’s gender, they represent distinct groups, and it’s important not to use these terms interchangeably.
To clarify, here’s how the GLAAD Media Reference Guide defines some common transgender terms:
- Transgender women – People who were assigned male at birth but who identify as women. Many transgender women are prescribed hormones or undergo surgery, but transgender identity is not dependent upon medical procedures.
- Crossdressers – Men, typically heterosexual men, who occasionally wear clothes, makeup, and accessories associated with women. This activity is a form of gender expression and is not done for entertainment purposes. Crossdressers do not wish to permanently change their sex or live full-time as women.
- Drag queens – Men, typically gay men, who dress like women for the purpose of entertainment.
- Gender non-conforming – A term used to describe some people whose gender expression is different from conventional expectations of masculinity and femininity. The term is not a synonym for transgender or transsexual and should only be used if someone self-identifies as gender non-conforming.
- Non-binary and/or genderqueer – Terms used by some people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the categories of male and female. The term is not a synonym for transgender and should only be used if someone self-identifies as non-binary and/or genderqueer.
Now that the record has been set straight, let’s look at some of the most common myths about crossdressers and transgender women.
7 Myths About Transgender Women
- Being transgender is a choice.
- Transgender people are gay.
- Transgender women aren’t “real” women.
- Your sex is defined by your chromosomes and/or hormones.
- You have to have surgery to be a “real” transgender person.
- You aren’t transgender until you start hormone therapy.
- Kids and teens are too young to know if they’re really transgender.
7 Myths About Crossdressers
- Crossdressers are gay.
- Crossdressers are perverts.
- Crossdressing is a psychological problem.
- Crossdressing can be cured.
- Crossdressers want to change their sex.
- Crossdressing is a destructive addiction.
- Crossdressers can’t be good husbands or fathers.
Have you heard any of these myths before? They’re frustrating and hurtful, aren’t they? It’s time for the world to wake up and realize this truth:
Your gender is who you are on the inside. There are countless ways to express your gender, and all are completely valid!
To help spread this truth, check out these excellent resources from GLAAD below. They’re a great way to increase awareness about transgender issues.
Recommended Resources from GLAAD
Now let’s hear from you…
What’s the truth that YOU’D like to set straight? Let’s continue the conversation in the comments below!
Love,
Lucille
Hi ladies. I am a bi-sexual cross dresser and am on HRT and breast enlargement cream and have gone from a 48a to a 48c in 3 months. WOW. My partner really loves to massage my breasts and I don’t mind it at all. It turns me on so the rest is history. Use your imagination!!!! If I was 20 again, there is no doubt that I would of had SRS. However, it doesn’t matter much because my sex life is marvelous.
Thanks, Lucille, for a very interesting article. I am a profeesional psycholgist on TG probem so I detemine myself as MTF. Now I’m on the last step before comission F64. In our region where I live this person must be devorced and taking hormones at least one year. F64 it.s the right to change the documents to female and have SRS. But to get these documents you can after having bilateral orchiectomy. SRS or GRS is only your decesion. Orchiectomy is just enough to have got female documents and live completely free your life as a woman. In photo I.ve set here I am at single TG Centre and also not internet TG shop in our country. I am in Maid dress of Victorian England of very high quality. It.s not Helloween costume. But now this centre is closed and their masters and founders went to USA. So if you really have got female documents you’re one to one with inumerous problems with real adaptation and searching the new job. Especcially if you”re not a member of Unit Russia Party who rules now like CPSU in the USSR. But despite of all these problems we want to build a new centre in St Peterburg on the new basis as noncommercial organization and establish good tights with American Centres And Centres of European Countries. If somebody is interesting in these contacts send Margo Lunar a private message in PinkEssence.
I Loved your article. I think you are a very strong person and I would be proud to call you a friend. I wish I had known you or someone like you at a young age. I might have had the strength To come out and live my life as I should have. I kept hiding my true feelings and lived a very unhappy life. Don’t get me wrong I had some good times but my relationships with women never worked out. I never felt like a whole person, something was always missing. Now I am ready to find what I was missing. I’m ready to act on my true feelings. Thanks to open people like you. Sincerely, Donald
I discovered I was transgender at the at the ripe old age of 4 years old, maybe younger,I lose track of time since it was quite a while ago. Everyone like me was called a sissy in my day and Christine Jorgensen was the most popular and successful transgender known to the world. Growing up I was allowed to act as a little girl, wrap large pieces of cloth around my waist like a skirt and no one seemed to care. At 12, caught wearing a bra, I was lectured about what little boys get to wear and what little girls wear and a bra is not something little boys get to wear so stop it. I never expressed myself openly again but that female side of me was always there. Growing up girls always said there was something strange about me. Boys tended to be protective of me. I prayed every night to become a girl. I dressed whenever I could as a girl. When it rained I would put on my yellow rain coat with a short skirt underneath and go out in public as happy as can be. When I went to college I didn’t stop dressing as a woman but went out first at night then during the day in fashionable dresses and shoes. It’s a wonderful feeling to feel a man looking at you with one thought in mind. I am fortunate that over all of these years I have never been challenged as being a man. I have, at times, even in my most masculine appearance been identified as a woman by both men and women answering my questions with a yes mam or no mam. Today my waist isn’t as narrow as I would want it but my breast are full and my hips round. If I had the finances and opportunity I would have SRS surgery but it’s not as important anymore. I have always been a TS and I will die a TS that is the way of things. Am I happy I have a daughter and a son that I never would have had if I had changed my sex and yet I sometimes I wonder would I have traded them in for the chance. The frightening part is I would be severely tempted to do just that. If I were growing up TS today I would be another Jazz but not so public. The need and urge to be a woman is something I can’t explain to you it’s just a part of me. I guess I chose the safe way out and that brings a tear to my eye, hormones, oh well, but that is the life I have settled for.
I have read most of your comments and I wish all of you the best of luck in your journey to womanhood or just being able to express yourself in your own natural way.
I remember the first time, as a child, I slipped on a pair of panties. They felt wonderful. All my life I have felt trapped inside my body. I am fortunate to be married to a wonderful woman who I have been able to reveal who I am. Even underneath my men’s clothes I wear my bras and panties. My breasts have grown over the past year from a A cup to almost a full C now. They are very sensitive to the touch and each day I feel more happy as a woman. I doubt I’ll ever get the opportunity to become fully physically a woman though it is still a dream.
Its difficult to admit to ppl you kno your whole life…that you want to transition! With that being said I am a 42 year old Male whom wants nothing more but to be a beautiful thick sexy lady. Have been wearing woman’s clothes and undergarments since I was like 6, or 7 dont kno why just always love the feel of satin, lace, nylon, and spandex made me feel free and sexy. So at 39 I chose to no longer hide my true self and started taking herbs that are high In estrogen and bought the lovely feminine secrets download of how to grow your breast! Very satisfied customer. I do not like men only women is another myth that transgender only like men not true so waiting for the day to take real HRT and have a few surgeries until then I will be a loyal fan.
Cali
I was at my chiropractor , she had pulled up my shirt to do what she needed to do and I was on my back , for this session I had removed my navel piercing , but the hole still existed and was obvious . Needless to say she noticed it , asked about it , and I just replied ” it’s a long story ” and left it at that. She chuckling said ” well that’s the last thing I expected to see today ” , and added ” that’s probably the most interesting thing I’ll see all day . As a Dr. I didn’t think it was appropriate to say anything , now I’m concerned that since she knows some of my customers something will be said , even though Dr. patient privacy laws say otherwise …….be careful with piercings , or tan lines and shaved legs.
Hi Lucille,
This is not an easy one to answer one way or the other for me.
I always think of myself as Joanna, I’m me, myself.
Ok so I’m Male,I’ve crossdressed almost all my life, I’m married for nearly 50 years this year, sometimes very happy others so so. Now in my mid seventies my desire to live full time as a woman is at times overwhelming, made worse because I know I can’t turn my back on my wife, family and friends let alone being able to afford the cost of trans operation.
So to sum up I live in my “me” box a cross dresser with ambition. xx