Crossdresser vs. Transvestite

[Bob]

See this in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender#Cross-dresser

Also note that "transvestite" and "crossdresser" are just about one and the same. One is in Latin, one in English. I believe that "My Husband Betty" claims the term "transvestite" came about in the 1800's. The term "crossdresser" came around the 1960's in an effort to "clean up" and "normalize" the image of cross-dressing.

Some people make a distinction between "cross-dressing" (wearing the clothes "of the other gender") and a "cross-dresser" (someone who seeks to impersonate the other gender, or who wears clothes of the other gender for a particular reason). I think it's an etymologically dubious distinction to make, and I doubt that it has much historical basis.

Really... we need another word for the repurposing of clothing or styles originally designed for the other gender. That has happened all the time in the fashion world --- usually male-to-female repurposing, but in this case it's going the other way. It's no different from (say) repurposing your Linksys firewall as an email server.

I would want to call (some of) what we do at SkirtCafe "borrowing."

[JRMILLER]

Bob,
Women have long "borrowed" from men's side of the aisle and most people call it "normal". How about "normal"?

[Since1982]

"Normal" makes good sense to me. In 30 years it will be anyway. That's what I believe will happen. It's taken women about 60 years to get out of the "skirt" for general usage and men in some way or another have been wearing skirts in or out of the closet for probably 20 years of not being a CD or TV usage. Probably another 30 years or less and it will be just as normal to see a man in a skirt as today is seeing a woman in trousers is.