What Crossdressing Really Is (and Isn't)
Dr. Z explains how not everybody who is male-assigned at birth and engages in crossdressing to a lesser or higher degree is necessarily immediately transgender. This is one of Dr. Z's pet peeves when it comes to the world of gender care—when she hears people on social media, Reddit groups, Discord saying that if you crossdress (whether in secrecy and privacy, for sexual pleasure, or because it makes you feel good about yourself), that means you're automatically transgender and you're just not acknowledging it to yourself. That’s untrue.
Dr. Z shares various other reasons why people crossdress and how that may also overlap with transgender identity. Crossdressing traditionally means an individual is wearing clothing that is traditionally or stereotypically of the opposite gender. It could be as little as just wearing women's panties to as extended as completely fully wearing stereotypically considered women's clothing, makeup, hair, breast forms, and other things. Everybody's different in terms of what they need to achieve their goal for crossdressing—for some, it's very little, for some, they need a lot.
People crossdress for many reasons. Some because it's a sexual preference (the same way people prefer wearing leather during sex, being dominant, being submissive, fantasizing about certain things). Some because they like how it makes them feel—free, at peace, more creative, like it allows them to express parts of themselves that feel very limited by stereotypical men's clothing. Some because it releases an element of stress. And yes, undeniably one of the reasons is because they are transgender, or they might be transgender and in denial, or not in touch with it, or their relationship to their authentic woman's gender is still repressed. Some crossdress out of curiosity to explore their gender.
Watch this video as Dr. Z addresses the problem with saying "if you crossdress you're definitely trans" (it takes away freedom to engage without taking your mind to extremes), why people who are comfortable with their assigned gender and don't have dysphoria can still love to crossdress, and why we need to normalize gender bending and crossdressing for sexual pleasure.
