How about self-described sissies and crossdressers?

Isn't a crossdresser just an antiquated term for a femboy? Those seem to describe the exact same phenomenon - a person who adopts the clothing and other social aspects of the opposite gender without identifying as that gender.

The term crossdresser has fallen out favor, as it's long held negative connotations. But definitionally, I think a crossdresser and a femboy are the exact same thing.

The trans community has a history of reinventing terms. A lot of the same divisions that exist in the community now existed 20 years ago. The words have just changed. My mapping of new to old terms:

Transsexual -> transsex at best, transmed/truscum at worst

Crossdresser -> femboy

Genderqueer -> various flavors of nonbinary

Transvestite experience -> gender euphoria

Sissy fantasy/scenario -> boy removal fantasy/scenario

A lot of these terms have negative connotations. And we've replaced them with more neutral terms. But people are people; we're still describing the same phenomena. The trans community exists on the euphemism treadmill. We invent terms, those terms gain a negative connotation, so we invent new terms. Those develop a negative connotation. We're always in a never-ending race away from what was the polite and respectable rhetoric of a decade or two in the past.

Sissy is a fetish thing.

Crossdresser is a broader, but outdated term. It can refer to a fetish or simply that somebody is technically wearing the gendered clothes against their current gender.

Like "gay" and "straight", a lot of these terms are outdated and don't mean anything once your education gets past a certain point. Just like a lot of other higher education stuffs, they have the simplified and/or outdated terms... and then actual understanding.

i have trouble understanding sissies and cross dressers. on the one hand i get it, my first experiences of gender euphoria turned me on in a big way. but on the other hand that mostly went away the more feminine ive become and the more often ive felt gender euphoria. it feels normal and right to be femme all the time, so it really doesnt turn me on by itself anymore. is it really just a fetish for them, or are they trans femmes who cant fully acknowledge their gender to themselves?

it feels like theres something deeper going on with them but im not in their head, and i suspect if there is theres a component of denial that would make it hard to figure out as an outsider.