The term "cross-dresser" is composed of the prefix "cross-" meaning "to pass from one condition to another", and "-dresser", meaning "clothing". It therefore refers to the person dressed in clothes traditionally attributed to the other sex. It is the word "traditionally" which is therefore important here since ultimately the definition of "transvestite" is based on tradition. Thus, in the time of Louis XIV, men wore heeled shoes that are typically feminine today. In Scotland, the Kilt is manly, even though it is actually a type of skirt! In Africa and Arabia, men wear long clothing styles that are clearly feminine in our country. Let's also not forget that in 19th century France, to wear pants, a woman had to ask for permission to... cross-dress!

That said, we feel that it is not just a simple question of "fashion". It is not fashionable to wear green hair (even with the Joker...) but the man who goes out with green hair will surely be less bothered than the one who goes out in a dress. The notion of dressing as a woman indeed involves an element that turns out to be vital for many men (and women too), virility! The guy with green hair will surely be entitled to a lot of qualifiers (Ridiculous, stupid, ugly, eccentric...) but the one in a dress will rather be entitled to attacks aimed above all at his supposedly failing virility (Slacker, Faggot, Sissy...). All this is a direct result of 2,000 years of patriarchal monotheism which imposed the concept of the superiority of men over women. So, Mr. Everyman can easily understand that a woman wants to "play the man" (and even if understanding does not mean accepting, it is a first step in that direction) while conversely he does not understand that a man might want to "lower himself to the rank of a woman".

Why cross-dress?

It is important to know that while some people cross-dress for pleasure or amusement, others have a vital need to do so. Those who want to delve deeper into the notion of gender can read this page, but to simplify to the extreme, let's say that regardless of one's biological sex, one can feel more or less close to the masculine or feminine archetype (archetype means social construct, a definition that society has chosen to qualify each of the two sexes, which means that it is not as clear-cut as biological sex). As long as there is not a big gap between biological sex and behavior, it's fine (it seems quite obvious that not all men feel obliged to look like warlords to exist), but if the gap is too great, the situation quickly becomes delicate and intolerance on the subject leads to quite a few regrettable dramas.

Someone once asked me if it bothered me to cross-dress "for fun" while the gender issue is a real drama for others. Well, I think that it is precisely by showing that we can cross-dress for pleasure, while specifying when it is necessary that we are aware of the painful aspect that this concept has for some, that we can positively move things forward. The average person often has the impression that the one who cross-dresses is a loser who has failed at everything and does not even know who he is. Showing that some people are perfectly comfortable with cross-dressing and are ready to compare themselves with the average idiot in areas such as social success, cultural level or simply the level of happiness in their lives can only positively move things forward. There is no worse strategy than to forbid oneself from doing it because it reinforces people's idea that it is a shameful thing that we must absolutely hide or repress.

Cross-dressing and respect for the image of women

A common criticism of cross-dressing is that it generally gives a very poor image of women. In popular imagery, the look of the transvestite is generally stiletto heels and miniskirts often associated with a questionable shave and/or unshaved legs. In addition, the openly prostitute behavior gives the impression that cross-dressing is more or less insinuating that the woman is nothing more than a hypersexualized whore. This unflattering description of cross-dressing is unfortunately often accurate BUT... If you take 1000 men completely at random, you must feel that there will be a lot more big rednecks who like to drink a warm beer while talking about sex with their friends than sophisticated dandies. If you take 1000 women completely at random, you must feel that there will be a lot more grannies in jogging pants with neither hair nor makeup watching reality TV than cultured and nicely dressed women. This is true for many examples, including cross-dressers, but it doesn't justify putting everyone in the same basket. Quite the opposite, it takes all sorts to make a world, the trick being to find those who share your way of seeing things and ignore the others instead of getting into stupid conflicts or sweeping generalizations.

The real message in all this is that many people who are not in the norm only want one thing, the right to indifference. Unfortunately, the opposite is happening at the moment, we have increasingly violent divisions linked to a majority paralyzed by "political correctness" and ultra minorities playing the provocative role and shouting as loudly as possible, imagining they speak on behalf of all the people in "their group" (And yet it is completely the opposite, not all homosexuals, for example, have as their ultimate dream to be able to parade naked on floats with a feather in their ass in front of the stunned good people, it is even only the fantasy of an ultra minority of homos but we only hear them!).

Beyond Cross-Dressing

So far, it's been about men dressing as women, which is the case with Ophidia. But for some people, the goal goes far beyond simple clothing appearance. It involves taking hormones that will modify hair growth and cause physical changes (appearance of breasts, etc.), or even complex surgical operations leading to a complete change of sex. People who are on this path are called "Trans" or "T-Girl." T-Girl is the term that seems to be the most popular.

The terms "Shemale" and "Ladyboy" are extremely pejorative! They refer to a person who has both breasts and a penis, but in a way that implies that their only use is to make Porn... That's why in some scenes, Ophy can be called a Shemale, to be taken as an insult therefore and not in the strict sense of the word since she has no breasts.

There is a recurring debate about whether or not we should continue to call a person who has completed the process and has therefore had their male sex replaced by a female sex (or vice versa) Trans. By the simple fact of the burden of the medical and psychological process necessary to get there, I think that the least we can do is simply call these people women or men because they, more than anyone else, have, it seems to me, earned this right!

It is obvious that a man who wants to dress as a woman is trying to fulfill an impulse, whatever the reason given for cross-dressing. And this impulse is much more widespread than one might think, just look at the number of cross-dressing men at carnivals. BUT, in general, carnival cross-dressing is a caricature. We keep the beard, but we are especially careful not to make it too feminine, so as not to arouse doubts. Always the same mental process in the background, I can dress as a woman but only to make fun, to accentuate the inferior side of the woman on the man, to emphasize that a dishcloth cannot be confused with a towel, even if we present it as such.

Crossplay, a lesser-known term than Cosplay, is a particular case in which the cosplayer embodies a character of a gender that is not their own, whether it is a woman wearing the costume - and playing the role - of a male character or vice versa. In Japan, where cross-dressing is much more accepted than in the West, crossplay is quite common and the crossplayer tries to really look like their character. In the USA, crossplayers tend to openly cross-dress the character (for example, a man will embody a cross-dressed Darth Vader with a lot of pink and a Hello Kitty badge) and/or to keep an obvious irony (Bearded Man embodying a female character) in order not to look too 'cross-dressed', exactly as in the case of Carnival. In Europe, crossplay is still very marginal, many people still thinking that a man embodying a female character is necessarily a repressed homosexual...