...And the results are in!

I'd just like the extend a big "Thank YOU" to everyone who took part in the survey.
When I posted the survey, I honestly believed that I would get about 300 responses to this,
 but then I saw it hit over 2oo in just a few days, I began to hope for 500.
Then when it got to 500 I thought "Right! TOO THE MOON! ONE THOUSAND!"....


I think I got carried away.

We've closed entries at 740 responses total (Nice full number isn't it? Not 739 or even 741. No, 740 is our number. :D I'm really pleased because this will turn out much better quality data than my initial hope for 300.

And yet I'm disappointed somehow. I have to account for voter apathy, but it just seems like there should be more of us. I know there are more of us.
I looked at numbers in all of the websites I frequent, and in terms of user base, the numbers here pale in comparison. I'm not sure what to make of it.

But that does not mean that our data wont be useless.
The link to the survey was accessible via a few websites
My google+ profile, my blogger, crossdressers.com forums, Transtastic and TVchix.
It may have been shared elsewhere, but I doubt it somehow.
This means all respondents but have been English speaking and have internet access.
They are also likely to be the level of crossdresser who might want to know about themselves a bit better and meet people like themselves.
I find it unlikely that there many 'hairy panty wearer' types who responded to this.
I wont bore you with my own assumptions about the type of person who has responded, I'll let you judge that for yourself.
In the name of transparency, I am making both the table of results and the analytic graphs available to every one. 
Here is the link for the table - Click Me 

 
Here is the link for the analytic graphs - Click Me


 As for my own thoughts on the results?
Well as for biggest surprise, the award has to go for question 2. I honestly though that the biggest age group would be the 40-50 crowd, maybe the 30-40 group. But no!
It was those feisty fifty-somethings that are having the most girl time!
I was also saddened to be reminded of just how many of you kept this all from your wives until after you were married. I remember that burden. I wish luck to all of you yet to come clean.
I also learn that I need to speed up my makeup skills, because getting ready takes a massive majority  of you less than 1 hour. Averaging at 2 - 2.5 hours, I need to move a bit quicker getting ready LOL.

It's interesting to look at the broader picture in a concise and easy to read form and fun to see where you sit in that broader picture.

Thank You all again for taking part.
I had fun with this  :D

Don't forget to comment and share!

Samantha
xx

Samantha! Where have you been?

Yeah, sorry about the interlude there everyone, but I've been quite busy.
And that's not just an excuse, I have genuinely been up to my eyeballs.

For one - My Girlfriend became my wife at the end of May.
Yes, I got married!
My long suffering lady actually wanted to marry my sorry ass *Smirk*.
It's kinda weird, people always say "Our wedding day was the happiest day of our lives" and I always thought that was just 'the done thing' to say. That is until I went through it for myself.
Now I fully appreciate what people are talking about when they say it.
Not only is it you, proclaiming your love for each other in front of everyone you both hold dear and making vows to each other (I cried at that part - LOL).
But you get to have an entire day that 's all about the two of you, everyone is happy for you, everything is taken care of by the venue owners (in our case anyway) so there is no stress, and then there is Jack Daniels and all your friends and family to party with you.
Literally the best day ever.
Bar none.
I just wonder where the day went, because it was over far too quickly.

It's also nice to be a reminder to people that despite my transvestic ways, my Mrs has decided that I am still the one she wants in her life. It means even more to me, having her know about me being (sort of) two people, and all the crap that comes with that, and still wanting me around forever.
Let's hope she doesn't change her mind.

Anyway, then there was the honeymoon. We traveled over five-thousand miles to Las Vegas, Nevada.
What a week that was. Not going to give away loads of info because I don't want anyone tracking me down via here. Lets just say, I would go again tomorrow, without question.
I think before the legal drinking age, Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, after that age, Vegas is the happiest place on earth, LOL.
I am a little disappointed with one thing however - Didn't see a single Crossdresser, Transvestite, T-Girl, Transexual or anything all week. TV has greatly misled me.
Either that or they all passed me with flying colours.

Then after the honeymoon we had to come back down to earth.
Back to life, back to reality...

Then its been work, sleep, repeat ever since.
The Mrs ended up working a load of nights, I was on days, until the weekend just gone, we had 2 days off together over 5 or 6 weeks. And it sucked.
Newly-weds separated by their work rotas. 
Who would be a nurse? I ask you.

So the odd chance I had to dress was always at night. This is because I try to dress in my time off when she isn't home (is at work), not because she doesn't want to see it, but because she wants quality time with her fella, and I want quality time with my wife, and when Samantha is out, romance isn't on the cards. So rather than waste time with her because I'm dolled up, I keep it to times when I can do as I please, as much as I can.
But this has the knock on effect that I never want to sit and write to my blog at night, I'd rather pour myself a glass of vino and hit up a chatroom while the social fuel is flowing.
But today is different, so here I am to give you the catch-up.

My birthday is only 5 weeks away too. I've been looking on Quiz and LindyBop
a fair old bit. I also fancy a new hair do (wig) and some shoes. But then when do I not fancy some new heels?

Oh and while I have your attention, I was just wondering if you (yes, you!) would mind doing me a favour.
Those of you who follow me in other places will already have seen that I'm running a survey at the moment, it's going to be running for another 3 weeks before I tally the results.
So if you can spare me 5 minutes and you're a male crossdresser/transvestite, please just fill it in for me - several people have said it was even fun!
It's not for anything serious or academic, and the results will only be published here and some CD focused social sites.

And that about brings me up to date with you guys n gals.

Thanks for stopping by, and if you have and comments or queries, drop me a line in the comments below, I always try to reply to anyone who cares enough to write me back.

TTFN
Samantha xx

PS - Almost forgot, obligatory selfies :D

Sissy Girls Make The Rest Of Us Look Bad?

Hello again everyone.
It's been a while.

Don't worry, I'm well, it's just sometimes my CD life doesn't have a great deal happening and my guy life will have everything happening, and that just makes it hard to write a good chunk of...
Well, anything really. Let alone anything that anyone will really want to read and stick with.

That isn't to say I haven't been checking in and blocking people from my Flickr and Google+.
I'm taking zero chances now when it comes to my privacy. That's just how it is.
If someone has a problem with my policy on blocking anyone I cant trust, then leave me a comment below, and I will explain in full why you are wrong :D.

Anyway, lets get down to brass tacks.

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing a forum when I came across a post about 'Sissy Empowerment' or something to that effect.
Essentially, stating that sissy girls are often suppressed in Trans scenes, labelled as the fetishistic odd balls.

(For those of you who don't know, sissies are a sort of niche within crossdressing. I think I've covered this in a previous blog, but I will indulge you.
 Here is a definition from urban dictionary

a boy or man who enjoys little girls clothing. Especially babyish clothing. Lots of frills. Not always straight or gay. Likes to be treated like a babygirl. Likes tea partys and playing with dollys.

Which kind of looks a bit like this 

Not that the above sissy is any way promiscuous, but very often, sissy gurls will talk about fantasies of being used and abused. A quick search on the internet will show you what I'm talking about, but I'm not going to bring that in here. 
Note - Hyper-feminine appearance, with lots of makeup and pink everything, lots of frills, satin, you might as well dump a pound of sugar in her handbag and use cinnamon as bronzer (sugar and spice...). Essentially, a very stereotypical embodiment of femininity.)

Now we have that out of the way.

You may be able to appreciate why they get labelled and shunned.
Hell, I shunned them more than most. They act like a cartoon of a woman, they dress in the same mindset, they were everything I was not trying to convey with my own appearance.
I wanted to create a femme image, but a more believable, less flamboyant femme image than they were creating. Many of them would go into the chat rooms that I went in, asking for men to be their 'daddy'.... It gets weirder, but I will leave it there.

They were my enemy. All I wanted was to look like a woman, then the sissy's come along and inject their chauvinistic view of women into the woman/girl they are dressed up as. Their interests were not makeup techniques, stylish dresses or cool nails.
They were sexual favours and fantasy, a skew of crossdressing I wanted (and still want) no  part in.

It's fair to say, I saw myself as superior to them.
My appearance was not driven by male opinion of what a woman should be...

Or was it?

After all, we share many traits such as heavy makeup to hide the male features, desire to be as feminine as we can possibly feel...
I began to consider that while nothing like me, Sissys are actually a lot like me.

And that is the crux of why I hated them.
I got mad that men and other CDs began assuming I myself, identified as a sissy.
They spoke to me like dirt, they send pictures of their penis to me expecting me to appreciate the gesture. Not one of them was let off the hook, they all felt the sting of my keyboard in full CAPS LOCK RAGE MODE - UNLEASH FURY!!

And then I started to think, it's not sissies I was mad at, it was the douche nozzle idiots messaging me. I was mad because they didn't know the difference between a CD and a Sissy.
Probably the same type of moron who refers to a transexual woman as a 'shemale'.

Ignorant and rude ass-holes - that's who I was mad at. Not the sissies.

But they do kinda fuck things up for us crossdressers and transvestites who want nothing to do with frills or daddy, and even less to do with random men looking to have sex with us.

But then I step back and think, this whole trans thing...

It's a vast, diverse community with niches and skews many people can not fathom, myself included. And unfortunately there are also ignorant rude ass-holes who will tar us all with the same brush. So while it used to be very easy for me to disrespect Sissy girls and believe they are inferior to me (I do look better than most of them though LOL), I now can't, with clean conscience, continue to hold that mindset.
We're all equal, even to the ignorant ass-holes (it probably isn't their fault that they don't know any better, but I'll still wipe the floor with them when they don't), even sissies.

I'm not saying long live sissies.
I am however saying;
Long live Equality and Diversity.

Without them, the world would be a very boring place, and I probably wouldn't be sat here feeling fine in a cute dress.

I don't mean to go all 'Peace, Love, Stop War' on you, but next time someone pisses you off, just think about where they are coming from. Educate them. Then try again.
You may be outnumbered, but you don't have to be out-gunned.

I'd actually really like to hear everyone's input on Sissies and other niches in CD/TV land.
Do they give us a bad reputation? Do they normalise the ideal that women are walking sex toys? Are they a by-product of over exposure to pornography?

Let me know below.

I'll see you all soon,
Love,
Samantha -x-

The fucking nerve of some people!!!

Well, where do I begin??? Because folks, it has certainly been a while.
A follow up to the last blog would be a good place eh? All stories have a beginning, middle and an end, and so does this one.
To cut a long one short - 'Liz' moved out.
No more worry over "Did I get all that eye-liner off?" or "Shit! Did I leave caked up make-up wipes in the bathroom?", now I can return to my mess and throw my bras where I like.... As long as it's near the wash basket... My Mrs goes fucking spare!

No, in all honesty, having another female presence in the house was nice in truth. Me good lady always had a friend, and to be honest, I kinda miss 'Liz' clattering through the front door, sighing, then unfurling the most random story you ever heard on an almost daily basis. Every story seemed to trump the last in it's complexity and ridiculousness.
She does seem to have landed on her feet though. I'm really pleased for her and I'm happy to have been a part of seeing her through her time of bullshit.

Here's to 'Liz'.

Just a heads up - The title has nothing to do with what you just read.
Apparently an aggressive attention grabbing title is what lures people in, I give you some filler first and you wade through it looking for the part that the title describes - It's a fine social custom.
When did you ever bump into someone on the street like

"Samantha!!! How are you doi..."
[Samantha interrupts]
"Someone is pretending to be me on Facebook...."

No, we don't do that, we do the whole 'Hows life? Hows the wife???' part first before dropping a bomb like that.

But that's pretty much how it is. Or, should I say was, because I/we/maybe even you got the fucker taken down.

Okay, so....
I was minding my own business, catching up with a few people on one of my CD social sites the other week, reading messages, notifications, the usual catchy-uppy stuff.
When I read a message-

"Hi Samantha ,

I hope you're well, I have just received a friends request from yourself on Facebook and I would just like to confirm that you have actually sent the request.

I have been chatting with this person for a little while and I noticed that your location was being given as London. It was only when I checked on here that i remembered that you live in ***********.

Can you confirm that you have a facebook account, if not would you like me to report it as a fraudulent account.

Claire"

Excuse me?

Here's a little snippet of info before we continue.
I am not on Facebook. At least Samantha is not on Facebook (third person is weird), my guy life, my real world life has a Facebook (herein 'FB') and that's fine, I know I'm being tracked, I know how the advertising is targeted, I know how it suggests friends, I know it's a huge invasion of my privacy. 

But as Samantha, I'm on Transtastic, TV-Chix, Crossdressers[dot]com (forums), Flickr, Pintrest, Google, Blogger... I have enough to be getting on with, without FB figuring out my IP for IRL me is the same IP as Samantha. 

I don't want 'People you may know' throwing the curve-ball of suggesting 'Samantha' as a friend to one of my IRL friends who doesn't know I AM Samantha, purely because Samantha and me IRL share an IP address.

If you're still following - Well done. I just read that back, confused myself, re-typed it and am still crossing my fingers that you understand what I'm saying.

OK.
So. I immediately go looking for it. Took a while, but I found it. Some c**t had taken my photographs from the web, edited them to claim the images as their own and set up shop on FB using Samantha's name. Impressively, the scammer had managed to accrue over 200 followers. I was shocked!
So I went down the normal channel of report it to FB as 'This person is impersonating me'.
But when FB replied, my take-down request was denied (because I requested the take down on MY own - MALE FB account.)
I replied. Grudgingly I told them I am a CD. I told them that I have all the originals to the photos that the scammer was using as well as many more besides.
I told them it was delicate matter and sent the reply...
Then nothing...
No quick reply like last time...
I started to worry.
But then a spark of genius struck me. I told Jo. A good friend of mine from New Jersey.
You don't fuck with the friends of a 6ft transsexual called Jojo who pronounces coffee as
"Cawwfee".
Jo sent a VERY threatening message to him, as well as delighting in the misfortune I had bestowed upon me.
We had a chat on skype, then I went to check - still no reply from FB.

I got onto the rest of my Trans/CD/TV social sites, posted the details of my situation and urged everyone to report the sonofabitch.
They did so in their droves. I was overwhelmed with support, for which I could not be more greatful.
Still no reply from FB.

Then, suspecting that the lying dick brain got my photos from Flickr, I decided to upload a quick n nasty photoshop image to all of my social sites (mainly Flickr) that would host images. This image infact...
 

Then I went to check again - Still no reply from FB.

I was pissed now. This meant war.
I posted on forums, went into chatrooms, pulled every string, called in every favour to request the take down, stressing that some arsehole was pretending to be me and was going to fuck my privacy over....

Then the reply came
"We have reviewed this case and have closed the account."...

---

Relief.

While a little scary, there was a tiny part of me that was a little flattered by the whole thing.
That someone went out of their way to impersonate me (or who they would like me to be by the sounds of Claire's message).

This is a lesson folks.
Involve yourself with this community. Even if it's only online, because in your time of need, if you can summon an army, your chances of winning the battle are much higher.
If I had been the reclusive, barely involved type, Claire would never have noted that the person on FB didn't 'sound' like me (Fuck knows what they were saying), Nor would I have been able to call upon so many people when I needed them.

So there's your take-away - Stay in touch.Even if you haven't dressed in months, even if you're not into it as much as me, if someone goes online with your photos, they might as well be you.


And here's a little something, just in case my 'Samantha Wannabe' is reading this.

If this was some kind of 'Told ya so' stunt because of my views on posting photos of who you are on the internet in the name of transparency and honesty, then go fuck yourself with a cactus.
You are the worst example of a person I have ever come across - theft, fraud, libel....
You are nothing.

Just remember - you may think you are a one-man-army...

"But I have dragons....."

It has become quite apparent that I can call upon my friends, my army of equals when my world is threatened.

Word to the wise...
Wouldn't try it twice if I were you.


And there we have it folks.
If you like what you read then follow me here or on Google+ and don't forget to leave a comment if you have anything to ask or say.

I'm off to enjoy a night dressed nice n pretty, see you all soon

Samantha -x-