Well, first we all need to understand, the many motivations and desires experienced by crossdressing males are highly complex and not at all just a matter of the clothes. There are a lot of motives involved. Being attracted to the pretty clothes, how they look, and how they feel on the body is only a part, a small part for most crossdressers. Certainly, the desire to look pretty, to wear things which enhance physical appearance, and to present self in the most positive looking manner is a strong motivation. Crossdressers who totally adore women, how women look, how women dress, how women present themselves, love to wear pretty things to look as good as they can and to express their adoration for feminine beauty by emulating it as best as they can. Truly, this is a case of the most profound flattery and statement of imitation being adoration. This part of the motivation in crossdressing in imitating women is truly a means of expressing adoration as strongly as possible. There's more, however, to the sequence of motivations which all work simultaneously in the crossdresser, pushing and driving the crossdresser to engage in the act of wearing clothes society decrees to be exclusively for members of the opposite sex. These motives are complex as we said earlier, but perhaps by giving it some thought we can decipher some of these motivations and truly come to see it as more than the clothes alone.

For many years the whole notion of why some males are so strongly motivated to dress in feminine clothes was regarded simplistically as being in some way a sexual thing. The simple assumption held so prevailingly both by lay people and the helping professions, particularly medical practitioners, was that the drive to crossdress was a sexual deviation at the least or a form of repressed homosexuality at worst. Very sadly, this misconception pattern is still quite common among most people outside the professions even today. Even more sadly is the common continuation even in the professions, in which a linkage between sex and crossdressing is believed to be the dominant motivation for crossdressing.

It is true, some crossdressers do admit to a strong linkage between crossdressing and their sex lives. The reported sexual component in these crossdresser, 5 activities runs the gamut from simple excitement, elevation of desire, enhanced enjoyment of coitus, all the way to a fetishistic inability to perform sexually without engaging in crossdressing as part of the sexual experience. There do not seem to be significant data to indicate the numbers of individuals who fall into this category, however, it is believed to be a relatively insignificant number when the total population of crossdressers is considered.

With the lessening of Puritanical thought relative to sexual activity between marriage partners and lovers, a far greater sense of freedom to experiment and to enjoy a wide variety of sexual experiences by partners would seem to indicate an increasing number of couples engage in sexual practices including fantasies and crossdressing as part of their ordinary sex lives. The prevailing thought is that what is pleasing to both partners is to be enjoyed without concern for the former rather Puritanical considerations. It is likely this sort of 'anything goes' in the privacy of a couple's bedchamber leads to more frequent crossdressing experimentation simply because it adds to the enjoyment of sex for many people who would not otherwise even think of crossing the gender stereotype lines which are so strong in our culture.

During times when the Nurture side of the Nature vs Nurture debate which has raged for many years and rages still, was in ascendancy it was fashionable to hold the position that we are born into life, a blank slate and all we ever become is a result of the impact our environment has on us. In recent years science has shown conclusively this simply is not true. A huge impact of genetics, or inheritance from both the father and the mother, has been demonstrated in virtually every sphere of human endeavor. This includes both sexual identity and gender relatedness. It is far more evident that a person ultimately makes a sexual identification more because of her or his genetics than due to any environmental influence. Likewise, among crossdressers, it is abundantly clear, the deep underlying need which crossdressing somehow meets is based in the person's genetic endowment rather than being the result of any complex set of environmental influences.

This is not to say the multiplicity of factorial influences of the environment have no impact. This simply would not be true either. The degree to which the environment effects such things as sexual identification, sex partner choice, and self identification relative to manliness' or 'womanliness' simply cannot be stated in categorical terms. To differentiate the infinitely complex interrelationship between what is clearly and foundationally based in a person's genetic endowment and what comes about because of the environment in which the person grows to maturity simply cannot be done at this time in history. One thing is abundantly clear, however. The environment cannot produce what the genes deny or disallow. If the environment could influence an identity contrary to the fundamental genetic predisposition, it would be obvious there would be very few homosexuals for example.

The mythology of choice is common today. The religious right (actually the religious wrong would he a better or more accurate naming of the movement) strongly espouses a mythology saying homosexuality, for example, is a choice people make. This mythology has no basis in fact. While it is true some individuals who have a genetic predisposition to sexual attraction to individuals of either sex can and frequently do choose a primary sex object choice pattern, the true homosexual individual who experiences an exclusive natural sexual attraction only to members of the same sex does not choose to be as he or she is born. The only choice such an individual has is to act on their natural inclinations or to deny those natural desires and deny themselves a sex life. What the person is does not fall in the category of choice. What the person does about how they naturally are is where there is a possibility of choice.

Similarly, those who expound the mythology of choice in regard to homosexuality say with the same degree of belief in their myths that crossdressers are as they are because of some choice they make. The same obvious failure of logic exists in this argument as is true of the mythology of choice regarding sexual identification and sex object choice. It is totally contrary to logic that a person will choose to be a social misfit. One of the fundamental needs identified by Psychologist Abraham Maslowe is the need we all have for positive regard of others. It is basic to our human nature to need to feel high regard by others. As is the case of homosexuals, crossdressers face a social rejection which is unyielding and unrelenting. It is therefore illogical to say a person would willingly and knowingly choose to be rejected in this manner. Any logical explanation of the motivational factors involved in crossdressing therefore must move past the popular explanations and mythologies and look more deeply into the individual person.

Yes, as we've already stated, there is some measure, in some crossdressers, of sexual linkage to their need to crossdress. Yet there is far more. The intensity of need varies widely among individuals so any cogent explanation has to cover a wide variety of need and expression in fulfillment of meeting that need. Simplistic statements regarding the clothes as being pretty and satisfying a desire to look attractive in a sexual sense as well as simplistic statements saying crossdressing is always a choice and this choice is based in sexuality are likewise unwarranted.

What then can we say truly is at the core motivational level which so strongly motivates heterosexual males to crossdress? What motivates these males to seek to express outwardly an inner feminine nature? Is this it, just to express a natural inner sense of self which does not meet and does not comply with the socially defined stereotypes? This is it largely, but not totally. There is still more.

Partly, in most crossdressers there seems to be knowingly or unknowingly, a sense of rejection within the self. This rejection is directed toward what they sense their society is constantly communicating to them they are supposed to be like. They see behaviors, attitudes, appearances, and overall simple ways of being as a human being which are smiled upon by the culture as representing what a 'real man' is and inwardly they realize this is not how they naturally are deep within their inner most being. They reject these socially approved definitions of how they are supposed to be. They see society smiling upon females who show many of their natural ways of thinking, ways of feeling, ways of preferring to be. They come to recognize they are fundamentally different from what society says a man is supposed to be. Finding they reject what society says they are supposed to be, they find they are naturally inside themselves what society defines as womanly. They begin to feel an identification with women and once they give themselves the freedom to express this feminine self identification by dressing as women dress, they experience a great and satisfying revealing of themselves as being more fully human then they've ever experienced. It is a heady feeling. It leads to more and more crossdressing. for only when they are dressed as women do they fully feel human. Only when they are dressed as women can they smile and feel good inside, feel good about whom, feel good about what, and feel good about how they are as total human beings. When they are crossdressed they no longer feel they are having to act a role, play a part, and in the process deny themselves their true selves by pretending to be something they know in their nature they are not.

Truly, it is more than merely the clothes. it is truly more than anything sexual. It is far more than being simply a game or a neat and enjoyable fantasy. It is also more than an escape from the pressures and tensions of living in a highly competitive aggressive 'man 5 world'. It comes down to the act, even if it is for a short time on a few occasions now and then of being true to the fundamental essence of self. Crossdressing is an acknowledgment of the uniqueness of self and the right of the individual to be who, to be what, to be how one is by the very nature of their being as a whole and complete human being. To be who the self is, without excuse, is the ultimate motivation to crossdress.