(02-02-2015, 11:22 AM)Zyrusticae Wrote:(02-02-2015, 07:06 AM)Nako Wrote: In and of itself a transvestite is simply someone who feels comfortable in the clothing of the opposite gender. There are people that fetishise it, true, but there are people that fetishise feet.
Nah, transvestite definitely has fetish connotations, to the point where "wholesome cross-dressers" started using said phrase just to avoid said connotations. From the wikipedia article on the subject:
Quote:After all the changes that took place during the 1970s, a large group was left without a word to describe themselves: heterosexual males (that is, male-bodied, male-identified, gynephilic persons) who wear traditionally feminine clothing. This group was not particularly happy with the term "transvestism". Therefore, the term "cross-dresser" (which has exactly the same meaning as "transvestite") was coined. Self-identified cross-dressers generally do not have fetishistic intentions, but are instead men who wear female clothing and often both admire and imitate women.
Now, it IS a bit silly since transvestite literally means the same thing, but social mores tend to be weird like that.
It's a little silly, but as you said social mores bestow connotations. Myself and many other males that enjoy feeling pretty on occasion simply are not comfortable with the word transvestite as it was hijacked, given a fetish bend, and liberally used as a slur. It may not seem that way now, but that's because it's a dated term that you rarely see these days.
Personally I don't even like the term cross-dresser because it genders clothing, but the real world isn't tumblr, so I'll live with it.
Hell I don't even think it's possible for women in the modern, rational, western world to be considered a cross-dresser anymore because it's become mostly socially acceptable for them to wear whatever they want.
