The word transvestite will appear a lot on this site and so I should give you a description of what I mean by it. I consider a transvestite to be a person who cross-dresses. Literally that is what the word means because of the two Latin parts trans which means across and vestite which stems from the verb vestire which means to dress. Is transvestism a fetish? Well it might be and then again it might not - just like shoes or feet. I certainly get some naughty thoughts when I think of my boyfriend in sexy lingerie or a pretty dress but that doesn't mean the dressing itself is what it's about. So I decided to think of a transvestite as someone who simply wears clothes of the opposite sex - regardless of his motivation. That makes transvestite a synonym for crossdresser really.

Ideally we shouldn’t need special terms to label men who wear women’s clothes as a transvestite. I mean, men wearing feminine clothes should be just as normal as women wearing trousers. You’d hardly say a woman is crossdressing when she’s wearing trousers. Is there even such a thing as a female transvestite? On the other hand, part of the fun is that there's something special about men dressing up like women. So perhaps, if transvestism was normal, maybe some of the things that make it special would also be lost.

One of the big misunderstandings about transvestites is that people seem to think there is something unusual about them. But in reality, chances are that everyone has met a transvestite on several occasions and, if the numbers are anything to go by, then you probably have a transvestite in your immediate circle of friends and family. I know for a fact that many women are in a relationship with a transvestite and have no idea. There are so many who keep this secret from their partner (something I don't condone by the way), that there must be a lot more of this than anyone thought.