What’s going on?

I have been an interested observer of the gender revolution for over 50 years. And it seems to me that today, more males want to be females than ever before and they are doing something about it.

Today, males are crossdressing with great abandon. 

Wig sellers claim that males are their biggest customers after cisgender women who need wigs for medical reasons. Similarly, males are the biggest customers for breast forms following woman who need forms for medical reasons.

Foundation sellers claim that males are their biggest customers for girdles and corsets – womenswear that were almost history, but have been brought back to life by the demand of males who are getting into female shape. 

Although, the majority of middle-aged and senior crossdressing males are still closeted, there is a growing minority, who are out and about experiencing the world as “weekend women.” And there is a subset, who have abandoned the male life altogether and are living full-time as females. As a result, consultants teaching males how to be females is a booming business.

Meanwhile, our female peers are less likely to present themselves in a classic feminine manner. Slacks and trousers have replaced skirts and dresses. Shorter, simpler haircuts are popular and many mature women have abandoned cosmetics as a frivolity rather than a necessity. Do middle-aged and senior crossdressing males miss the “classic feminine” females and are trying to fill the gap themselves? 

Younger crossdressing males are less closeted than their older sisters. They grew up in an era when crossdressing was more mainstream and more acceptable. They are often encouraged (or at least, not discouraged) to crossdress by their female peers, just as their mothers encouraged them in womanless beauty pageants that seem to be an integral part of 21st Century school life.

As more and more females become the breadwinners and relegate their husbands to househusbandry, there are cases where the male embraces the wifely role by crossdressing either voluntarily or by force from their spouse. Male housewife crossdressing is a very small segment of the gender revolution, but it does exist and if we believe that the “future is female,” it is likely to occur more frequently in the coming days.

The transsexual population is growing, too. The old joke (Question: What is the difference between a crossdresser and a transsexual? Answer: Two years) is not a joke. Many males find that crossdressing is a stepping-stone to transsexuality and today, it is easier than ever to get the hormones and surgery for a sex change. (As compared to the “good old days” when you had to live full-time as a female for a year before the doc would write you a prescription for hormones and beyond.)

Every week, another celebrity comes out as transsexual, transgender, gender fluid, etc. Trans people are showing up in films, television shows, as well as in the commercials that pay for the television shows. We are more mainstream than ever. And now we have the support of the federal government, so we are not going to fade away despite the wishes of the so-called “Christian” evangelicals.

So that’s what’s going on. The next question is “Where’s it going?” In the future, will you ask a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up – a girl or a boy?”

Wearing Moda Operandi

Nancy Ng dining in a Benihana-style eatery