"I don't like guys in skirts/dresses..." (11)

The only reference in the Bible to men wearing woman's clothes is in the Old Testament (I could find the reference if you are that interested). It forbids men wearing woman's clothes (along with not eating pork, and being stoned for premarital sex or disobeying your parents). The main reason for this, however, was to prevent men sneaking into the women's side of the camp to have sex with women.

But this concept of it being a sin took hold with the modern church leaders (by modern I mean a few hundred years ago). And since then, it has been taught in Western society that cross-dressing is a sin, and being a transvestite or transsexual is paramount to blasphemy against God. This is the basis for why it is such a taboo in Western society.

I have found the majority of people in this lifestyle very open and accepting to men in dresses, regardless of how well they 'pass'. Which is really fantastic, and I wish it would catch on to the rest of the world. But this doesn't preclude that some people just don't get turned on by it. Me being one of them. I'm not against men doing it, but it doesn't float my boat.

Pen

Empty. Drained. Running on fumes. Longing for pain. Searching for the one. Missing the cane. A virgin and horny. I'm lost. Can not find my way. Reality has consumed me. Subspace eludes me.

As i am a pre-op TS, it is one of the stipulations that 'The Gender Clinic' in London puts on us.

EG:- You will live as a female for 2 years (without testosterone blockers and hormones)....dress as a female 24/7 for 2years. If you are summonsed to the clinic, you shall wear a skirt (most females i know, wear jeans and casual wear)....jeans are frowned upon and not taken seriously by the medical profession.

So as you can see, it is a necessity for some of us to wear a skirt (although i am in girly jeans most of the time now)

Hope this explains a bit Tamzin

In loving memory of a dear friend..April lear 1953-2008. Fondly remembered and very sadly missed...finally found peace my sweet.

Yes it's mortifying to me that the idea of a person's gender is defined by what they might wear... as if clothing were somehow symptomatic. And yet at the same time it feels like to think otherwise is like trying to swim against the stream...

-- A Kervert Pinky

But therein is the rub... if say we treat a dress or skirt as any other piece of clothing... why is it then that it can't be worn as any other piece of clothing and treated with simillar disregard -

ie. what is the difference or rather - why is there a difference between a guy wearing a skirt or a guy wearing a pair of jeans? Why should it matter at all? The guy is afterall the same guy in a skirt or jeans.

(I'm not talking about TS/TV etc...)

-- A Kervert Pinky

With regards to gender specific clothing, has anyone ever accidentally bought female sports shoes or other clothes 'designed' for women, or of course vice-versa, worn them for a while with no problems then instantly gone off them when someone points it out?

I myself have favourite pieces of clothing, and I was going to say that I never wear work clothes outside work, and vice-versa, till I remembered a black jumper I have, which frequently crosses the divide, normally when I'm not looking forward to work!

Life is like a game of poker: Sometimes you've just got to make the best of a bad hand.

her

A skirt in all but name, but regarded as very masculine; and increasingly popular in the fetish scene too, especially the 'urban' style in non tartan fabrics, notable 'cammo' or black, and of course leather.

I even fancy one myself - though as I have Scottish ancestry I have 4 family clan tartans to choose from. But would probably end up with a black one.

To Protect and Support, To Guide and Correct, To Celebrate and Cherish, To Give Release. "A Spanking Gentleman's Creed"
"It is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others."-Marquis de Sade

We define ourselves, rightly or wrongly, strongly by gender, and clothes are a powerful symbol of gender. If you think that the symbolism of clothes doesn't matter, try visiting a synagogue wearing a swastika, or go to a job interview (as a man) wearing a frock!

The trick is to recognise the power of gender identity and symbols and use them to your advantage. Men can be deeply humiliated or stimulated by being made to wear 'womens clothing'. A woman can communicate her sexual power by wearing, say, leather clothes, or something else that works for her. Recognise the psychological power they carry and use it to your advantage!

Aw, thank you honey, the cheque's in the post.

I do not cross dress. I have two full length skirts that I love wearing out, and which I have worn to vanilla events as well as fetish ones. I think they look good, I feel confident in them, and I enjoy the reactions I get - almost universally positive. I know that part of this is because I'm an attention slut, but also they are smart and different from the boring fare men wear most of the time.

A dirty mind is a joy for life.

Does a piece of material/garment actually dictate the character of an individual to such an extent that the saying "clothing maketh a man" is to be taken literally?

When you think about it, across time it has been quite fashionable for men to wear dresses and skirts without that same question/idea of gender associated with it - and it is only in the modern day that such fractional ideas are so definitive.

It's quite a wonder to me just how much "power" we invest in a piece of clothing; so much so that a person can dread or fear being dressed up in a skirt or a dress for the potential of its symbolic implication rather than for what it actually is - someone wearing just another form of garment.

Can people think around this eventually? Or is it a sort of doomed sheep mentality?"

The truth is that appearance matters. Take for example aging - how old is the oldest that you would consider as a sexual playmate - 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 ? At some point most people would say that no matter how charming or keen the potential partner was there would be an upper limit, primarily an aesthetic one where consenting adults are concerned.

Clothing too matters. We are keyed in to visual sexual signals from the opposite sex. Women have a far freer range then men - a woman could wear, for example, a men's suit but because of other visual signals - large breasts, long hair, make-up - could still appear attractively "feminine". But there is also a cliched bull dyke look amongst some lesbians - shaven head, overweight, dungarees, Doc Marten boots - where the apperance has been so masculinised that they would cease to trigger hetrosexual desire in most men. I'm not saying that no man would ever find this attractive but I'm not saying that no man could ever be attracted to another man either.

With males wearing female clothes the social prohibitions are much tighter - skirts, dresses, corsets, bras, knickers are WOMEN'S clothes - end of, full stop. The reaction tends to be stronger because BDSM is not "balanced". Male Doms, female subs is far closer to established social norms than the reverse (there is complexity - the battleaxe wife ruling the subdued male husband is also a popular and long standing cultural artefact). Two hundred years ago relationships where the man's word was law, the female was a chattel or possession of her husband, and that disobedience could be dealt with by a spanking or caning were not deviant but the norm. The main masculine sexuality traits - strength and power - are also totally undermined by cross dressing emphasising primarily vulnerability and submission. Also a male cross dresser's status within his peer group is likely to be significantly diminished.

The garments are not definitive. A cross dresser can be a strong and effective Dom, even when cross dressed. But sexual desire is hard wired into our make-up at a level that may be embedded beneath rational analysis.

Clothing may be symbolic but symbolism matters. Consider the following variants - police officer's uniform (real one, not sex shop), nun's habit (ditto), Thigh boots and short leather skirt, dungarees and DM's. A woman could behave identically in each of the four outfits and have an entirely different responses solely based on the way in which she dressed. And the same would go for a man...

S....x.