Thread by @LaraAdamsMille1

@Gnothi_S There is. Part of it is due to the overlap between transgenderism + a rural, small-town, conservative, usually religious upbringing. People raised in rural America are both more likely to have “traditional” ideas about gender roles AND more likely to enter the military, -

@Gnothi_S - because that’s a common path for men in those families.

I am going to counter what people have said here about the military being part of a compensatory effort. I don’t believe that’s the case. That would imply these men are naturally gender-nonconforming, and they aren’t. -

@Gnothi_S - They do the armed forces, competitive sports, macho hobbies (like mountain climbing and body building) because they grow up in a very “man is strong and successful; woman is sweet and pretty” world. They often will talk about “feeling like a girl” growing up, but only AFTER -

@Gnothi_S - they’ve grown and publicly transitioned. If you get into the forums and such and read the more candid accounts, you will find that the cross-dressing was 100% sexual for them for a long time. When they’re older, into adulthood, it may become a bit less sexual and more -

@Gnothi_S - comforting peaceful as it’s too familiar to be thrilling anymore. This is often the point when they step things up (dressing in public, involving their wives in sexual play with the cross-dressing, having her make love to them “as a woman,” etc.) to chase the dragon. -

@Gnothi_S - But they don’t get into cross-dressing because part of them all the time feels feminine. No. They feel very male most of the time. When they dress up, they’re visiting a non-self place, going into “girl mode,” accessing their “inner woman,” who has a name and they experience -

@Gnothi_S - as a second self. They’ll say of their wives, “She doesn’t want Brianna to come out” or the like. They talk about their woman self as another person. See, it’s sexy for them BECAUSE it isn’t them and BECAUSE it’s like a woman, and they’re men attracted to women. -

@Gnothi_S - If they were to expand their notions of what a man or a woman could be, they’d no longer find going into “girl mode” sexually thrilling (or emotionally comforting), and they would lose interest. It only draws them because they see women as OTHER, a little mysterious, and -

@Gnothi_S - VERY sexual. They sexualize women to the point that women ARE sex. They dress up as a woman and feel they are inside the body of the object of their own desires. Their entire sexual orientation boils down to being to one person: themselves as that woman.

The military is only-

@Gnothi_S - a theme because men in families who have strong gender lines are also commonly military families, and military culture (I used to work with them) is stronglu oriented toward highly masculine / highly feminine binary norms.

These men are NOT feminine by nature.

@Gnothi_S @dalyandot I answer your question in the replies above.