What type of crossdresser are you?

a) In serious entertainment, actors playing a role. From Mark Rylance as Cleopatra or Judi Dench as Olivia to Antony Perkins in Psycho. Japanese Kabuki and Nō players. Sopranos singing "breeches" roles in opera.

6) Transvestites – what most people first think of. For transvestites, crossdressing is an end in itself; motives many and various. For most, these go back to childhood or before birth and are obsessive.

A crossdresser is any person who wears the clothes of the other sex. I’ve identified about eight different sorts, but if you can add to the list I’d be glad to hear. They can be broken down into:

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8) Those forced into crossdressing. This category is included for completeness but barely seems to exist in real life today. It was however observed in the period 1850-1950 when boys were occasionally forced into girls' clothes as a punishment at school or in the home. It is a staple of fiction – to escape from danger (Some Like It Hot), to obtain a job (Tootsie, Mrs Doubtfire), or forced by a sadistic female relative (much transvestite erotic fiction).

4) Entertainers.

3) Fetish crossdressers - who use clothes as a substitute for, or an essential precursor to, sex. This is commonest among teenage boys, but usually disappears or develops into transvestism later. It is rarely seen in public, although the word "fetish" is often misapplied by those who should know better.

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d) Stunt doubles.

b) In light entertainment: female impersonators/comedians; pantomime dames in British theatre.

7) Transsexuals – for many of them the cross-dressing is merely an incidental stage in their transition of identity. Once achieved, the wearing of the clothes of the other sex becomes the norm, and can no longer be called crossdressing.

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2) Fashion crossdressers - some metrosexuals and most women fall into this category. Women in trousers – seen as a sexual and social aberration in 1900 – had become the norm by 2000.

Which sort am I? No. 6, no doubt. Like most transvestites I’m married, almost entirely heterosexual.

5) Other professionals: the occasional spy/undercover policeman/criminal in disguise. Gay prostitutes.

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c) Drag queens and Drag kings – an exaggerated satirical sub-section of the light entertainment field.

1) Occasional crossdressers - Hallowe'en, practical jokers, fancy dress parties, students' rags... etc.