Take part in study of crossdreamers, crossdressers and other transgender people

Kathryn drew my attention to research done by Prof. M. A. Gilbert, PhD, Principal Investigator Department of Philosophy at York University of Toronto, Canada.

Professor Gilbert, who is a crossdresser himself, says:

"My goal it to explore and mine the experiences of and crossdressers with respect to changes in personal self-identity. The idea of “being a woman” or of “being a man” is linked to the concepts of masculinity and femininity. How do these concepts interact in the context of gender change? Clearly, one can be a masculine woman or a feminine man, but what information about gender can be garnered from this? Goal: To what extent can a transgendered individual experience her/his personal identity as being formed by the outside world, and to what extent does changing social roles change the individual’s self-identity."

Send them your life story

I have been in touch with Professor Gilbert and he confirms that they are still looking for life stories.

If you have a story describing one or more experiences of life “on the other side,” (i.e. transsexuals and crossdreamers/crossdressers) the researchers would be very interested in hearing about it. Stories should be about how one feels differently when en femme [or en homme] and how the world is different in terms of how one is treated or how on interacts.

Please include your name with at least a first name and a last initial. The researchers confirm that all personal information will be kept in strictest confidence.

Please email your story to tpi@yorku.ca.

Give your permission

Please note that by sending your story to the TPI Project, you are agreeing that it may be reprinted and/or used in publications. Unless you specifically specify otherwise it will be used anonymously with only your initials as an identifier. Please state in your email that you are giving permission for your material to be used anonymously in scholarly or trade publication. You will also be added to the TPI listserve, so if you do not wish to be added, please say so.

For more information, see the Transgender and Personal Identity site.

Get your story published here at Crossdreamers

By the way, if you want some feedback on your life story, you can also send it to me (jack.molay@gmail.com) so that I can publish it on this site. Some of the best discussions on this site has been based on real life stories. Unless you do so, I will anonymize it before putting it up on the blog.