Is cross-dressing a sin?

[RDKirk]

My understanding of what it means to "be" anything ends with my understanding of what it means to be me. I'm a man. Link is a man. Autumn is a man. Stan is a man. The fact we share that quality does not mean that I truly have any insight on what the experience of being Stan is like. I may be able to empathize on a situational basis with him on things based upon shared cultural experiences - but I have zero understanding of what it truly means to walk around in his shoes. The fact we are both male does not change that one bit.

So to that end - I don't *know* what it means to be a man - because I have absolutely nothing to compare it against. I may attribute certain feelings that I have to "maleness" - but who knows if that's a shared feeling? Questions of what it would be like to be me in a different form are absolutely meaningless - as I would have to have something else to compare it against (which I don't).

So - all this talk about "I feel like I experience life as something I'm not" to me is crazy talk. All you know is what it's like to be you. Anything else is just a form of cognitive discord.

...and it's a form of cognitive discord that is so invasive in their lives that they take extraordinary measures to mutilate themselves. Really - when it comes down to it - that's what it is.

Let me say first a caution I keep in mind in any discussion: "Never underestimate the difficulty of transferring a thought intact from one human mind to another."

That said, I think I understand what you're saying.

However, there are broad gender differences with admitted overlaps that you may have noted.

One of those appears to be a difference in how males and females comfort a friend in distress. Males around the world and over the millennia tend to do it the same way: By expressing confidence in the other's strength and ability to overcome the problem.

That's why five hundred years ago, Shakespeare's Romeo tells the mortally wounded Mercutio, "Courage man, the hurt cannot be much" and his male audience back then got it. That's why today we tell a buddy, "Shake it off, man. Remember that time it was a whole lot worse?" and men today still get it. Men tend to find consolation when others are confident in his strength to overcome (even if he's dying).

Women tend not to do that, but rather to commiserate. Women appear to find consolation when others agree that being distressed is a valid feeling under those circumstances.

 

[tenderheart1]

1 Corinthians 6:9King James Version (KJV)

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Webster's Dictionary of the word "effeminate":
Full Definition of EFFEMINATE
1: having feminine qualities untypical of a man : not manly in appearance or manner
2: marked by an unbecoming delicacy or overrefinement <effeminate art> <an effeminate civilization>

 

[tenderheart1]

Honestly, my cousin does it as a joke because he's in acting. And my husband I've convinced him to dress up like a girl and then I dressed up like a boy to play a joke on a friend. I think when it's just all in good fun that's one thing...
...I think dressing as a convincing woman when you're a man or a convincing man when you're a woman with the intention to woo the same sex under pretense of being the opposite sex might classify as "bearing false witness" under the 10 commandments.

I always thought bearing false witness is speaking falsely about others. ???

 

[DZoolander]

Yeah - bearing false witness is not the same thing as general lying/misrepresentations. At least not with my understanding of the term. It's the context in which the misrepresentation is made that the distinction lies.

 

[Dave-W]

1 Corinthians 6:9King James Version (KJV)

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Webster's Dictionary of the word "effeminate":
Full Definition of EFFEMINATE
1: having feminine qualities untypical of a man : not manly in appearance or manner
2: marked by an unbecoming delicacy or overrefinement <effeminate art> <an effeminate civilization>

Actually, according to Dr Derek Prince (who was fluent in ancient Greek of most any dialect) that word meant the more passive or "feminine" person in a male homosexual relationship. The next word, rendered here as "abusers of themselves..," depicted the more agressive or masculine homosexual partner.

NEVER NEVER NEVER try to get at a true understanding of biblical words without going to the original language sources. (Hebrew and Greek)

 

[Dave-W]

Yeah - bearing false witness is not the same thing as general lying/misrepresentations. At least not with my understanding of the term. It's the context in which the misrepresentation is made that the distinction lies.

"Bearing false witness" is what we would call purgery today. It is lying in a legal proceeding where someone's life or wellbeing is on the line with your testimony.

 

[Isaacsname]

Idk...sin...not a sin...but I do know this:

I look horrible in a dress

 

[mkgal1]

NEVER NEVER NEVER try to get at a true understanding of biblical words without going to the original language sources. (Hebrew and Greek)

Exactly....that and divorcing passages from context, too.

Related to that verse, though (and a bit off topic).....I wonder why there's so much emphasis on the passive behavior? Aren't they the victims?

 

[mkgal1]

I just found this on the verse in 1st Corinthians 6. The word "effeminate" (malakois) literally means "soft" and is used by Jesus in Lk 7:25 to refer to soft or fine clothing. I wonder if that has more to do with greed & sense of superiority than anything else.

Look, those who are splendidly dressed and live in luxury are in royal palaces.