How about self-described sissies and crossdressers?
Isn’t a crossdresser just an antiquated term for a femboy? Those seem to describe the exact same phenomenon - a person who adopts the clothing and other social aspects of the opposite gender without identifying as that gender.
The term crossdresser has fallen out favor, as it’s long held negative connotations. But definitionally, I think a crossdresser and a femboy are the exact same thing.
The trans community has a history of reinventing terms. A lot of the same divisions that exist in the community now existed 20 years ago. The words have just changed. My mapping of new to old terms:
Transsexual -> transsex at best, transmed/truscum at worst
Crossdresser -> femboy
Genderqueer -> various flavors of nonbinary
Transvestite experience -> gender euphoria
Sissy fantasy/scenario -> boy removal fantasy/scenario
A lot of these terms have negative connotations. And we’ve replaced them with more neutral terms. But people are people; we’re still describing the same phenomena. The trans community exists on the euphemism treadmill. We invent terms, those terms gain a negative connotation, so we invent new terms. Those develop a negative connotation. We’re always in a never-ending race away from what was the polite and respectable rhetoric of a decade or two in the past.
I don’t think crossdresser and femboy have the same connotation. And I feel kind of like the cosplay community reclaimed the term as a positive. I’ve seen crossdressing or cross used to describe genderswapped cosplay characters (I assume in positive contexts because the costumes I saw were amazing)
I honestly don’t know. The impression I get (and it’s only that, I haven’t polled anyone) is that “crossdresser” is used more by people who don’t identify so much with the “boy” part of “femboy”. i.e. They may be older, or don’t have a lithe boyish physique. And to my mind anyway, it carries more of an erotic connotation, whereas “femboy” seems more casual to me.
The trans community exists on the euphemism treadmill. We invent terms, those terms gain a negative connotation, so we invent new terms. Those develop a negative connotation.
Isn’t a crossdresser just an antiquated term for a femboy? Those seem to describe the exact same phenomenon - a person who adopts the clothing and other social aspects of the opposite gender without identifying as that gender.
The term crossdresser has fallen out favor, as it’s long held negative connotations. But definitionally, I think a crossdresser and a femboy are the exact same thing.
The trans community has a history of reinventing terms. A lot of the same divisions that exist in the community now existed 20 years ago. The words have just changed. My mapping of new to old terms:
Transsexual -> transsex at best, transmed/truscum at worst
Crossdresser -> femboy
Genderqueer -> various flavors of nonbinary
Transvestite experience -> gender euphoria
Sissy fantasy/scenario -> boy removal fantasy/scenario
A lot of these terms have negative connotations. And we’ve replaced them with more neutral terms. But people are people; we’re still describing the same phenomena. The trans community exists on the euphemism treadmill. We invent terms, those terms gain a negative connotation, so we invent new terms. Those develop a negative connotation. We’re always in a never-ending race away from what was the polite and respectable rhetoric of a decade or two in the past.
I don’t think crossdresser and femboy have the same connotation. And I feel kind of like the cosplay community reclaimed the term as a positive. I’ve seen crossdressing or cross used to describe genderswapped cosplay characters (I assume in positive contexts because the costumes I saw were amazing)
I honestly don’t know. The impression I get (and it’s only that, I haven’t polled anyone) is that “crossdresser” is used more by people who don’t identify so much with the “boy” part of “femboy”. i.e. They may be older, or don’t have a lithe boyish physique. And to my mind anyway, it carries more of an erotic connotation, whereas “femboy” seems more casual to me.
That’s an interesting point.