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Reconsideration for cross dressers

By Dannie Zheng

Sexual identity makes no necessary correlation with sexual orinetation. However, according to a recent survey conduted by students of the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong , more than a third of respondents confused the practice of cross-dressing with being gay. Nearly half felt disgust with cross dressing. Another third said they do not really understand the concept.

A cross dresser is a person who enjoys wearing the clothes normally worn by one's opposite sex.

A young cross dresser Ann (not his real name) explained, “Do not mix up cross dressers with being gay. A pure cross dresser admires women so much that he wants to imitate them. Gay men, on the other hand, admire men and are proud of men's features. They would in no way make themselves look more feminine.”

Decima is the shop owner of Fetish Fashion in Central, the only shop in Hong Kong that serves cross dressers. She said that all of her customers are normal men, neither gay nor transsexual. She is very upset about people's poor understanding of cross dressers.

“Despite the fact that they sometimes wear women's clothes and want to be feminine, they are happy to be men.”

The survey also reveals that the public has misunderstood cross dressers as transsexuals as well.

According to the Renaissance Transgender Association, most cross dressers do not have transsexual desires. Although they uniformly enjoy wearing women's clothes, the majority seldom want to live as women, nor do they want to become women.

They simply want to look like women.

“I feel more comfortable, natural, joyful and beautiful when I am in female's dressings,” Ann said.

This confusion extends to areas of sexual identity as well.

For example, cross dressers sometimes get lumped with drag queens.

Jimmy, who used to be a drag queen performer, is also a member of a cross dressing blog. He said, “Not a single woman will dress so flamboyantly as a drag queen. Drag queens are in the business of entertaining their audience.

Ann is disappointed about the social misunderstanding. “As a business, drag queens do not have much pressure, but we cross dressers are suffering. The society often doesn't read about cross dressers, they know little about these people,” he said.

Most cross dressers have been insulted when they went out as women. Due to the social pressure, many cross dressers have tried to give it up.

“Some burnt all their women's clothes, some threw them away, but they just failed to abandon the habit,” Decima said.

Ann has had a similar experience. After throwing away the clothes, he purchased the same products again for much more money.

“When I was a teenager, I just dressed secretly and felt rather guilty. I had ever looked for women's clothes from the rubbish bin,” said Ann.

Apart from social misunderstanding, marriage is another tough problem encountered by cross dressers. The result of the survey showed that more than 90% of the 118 females interviewed, would probably object to marry men of with the habbit.

“Leslie Cheung, a Hong Kong movie and singing star, is my idol. He is an idealistic artist and hopes to live in a perfect world. My character is similar to his. Both of us have high standards for beauty and we are afraid of getting old,” Ann said.

Different cross dressers have different preferences for their costume. Some like lady suits, while some prefer nurse's uniforms; some like wearing sexy underwear.

“Fetish cross dressers like tight, sexy clothes that are mainly made of rubber, latex and leather. They are especially fond of black high-heels, T-backs, and stockings,” Decima said.

Her shop provides services like complete transformations with makeup, wigs, a full range of underwear, shoes and garments, accompanied shopping, individual makeup consultations, and female voice and movement training for cross dressers. Fetish Fashion also holds parties for cross dressers from time to time.

“However, such dressing is not acceptable to the general public. People should have the right to be who they want to be, as no one hurts,” Decima said.