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Early Media Impressions of TGs
Footprints from the Past
By Andee W
Over the last two months I have related some of the "letters to the editor" and correspondence from a variety of English publications from the last century. Long before we became the 'in thing' of the 1990s in the media, curiosity about crossdressing and female impersonation interested the masses. The series of letters this month marks a transition of sorts as an increasingly wealthy and literate middle-class actively followed the rich and stars of the day in the printed media.
Last month I related letters from the British magazine Society. The first letter is also from the April 1900 edition. Now, picture the passengers in the scenes from the movie Titanic and try to imagine how the circumstances described in the letters this month really appeared:
"My father died when I was two years old, and my mother purchased a small young ladies' boarding school in a country town, and, acting under advice, she determined to bring me up as a girl, until circumstances made it possible for her to do without the aid of the school.
[Accordingly] I was dressed and brought up in the same way as the boarders of the school, except that I slept in a small room opening out of my mother's, and that I mixed with the girls as little as possible.
This went on until I was nearly seventeen, when a legacy enabled my mother to sell the school and leave the town, and it was not until then that I was dressed in male attire. For some months I felt so uncomfortable that, whenever my mother and I were alone, I would resume my female dress, and have never discarded the underclothing; but even now, although I have been married [to one of his fellow pupils] three years, I still continue to do so beneath my ordinary attire."
Later that year, for a reason lost long ago, Society vanished from the literary scene. Another contemporary publication along a similar vein was named Modern Society and was published from 1880 to 1917. After the ownership changed in 1909, a correspondence column was a feature, and a set of letters ran in the fall of 1909 into early 1910. It was subtitled 'Slaves of stay lace' and, late in the series, covered the subject of effeminate men. This letter is from February 1910:
"I cannot agree with 'Happy Sister' that a young man can be feminine and not effeminate. Like her brother, I was persuaded one day five years ago, when a boy of fourteen, by two older sisters with whom I lived, to dress as a girl. They were so delighted with my appearance that they insisted on doing so again and again; and in time it became a custom that I should make a full feminine toilette every afternoon. I disliked it at first, but my prejudice disappeared with experience. Although pretty tightly laced, my corsets were extremely comfortable, and petticoats I found the most enjoyable garments in the world. I do not regret it; but I frankly admit I am thoroughly effeminate. Indeed, one cannot be manly in a dainty prison of lace and silk underskirts; one must bow to one's environment."
The next set of letters come from what was described as one of England's first pin-up magazines. Photo Bits was close to the People of its day, although much more risqué in showing a variety of theatrical stars in various states of dress or undress in photos or cartoons. There were some articles on show business, and other columns and features. In the summer of 1910 an American took over responsibility for one of the continuing articles, and in introducing the subject of tight lacing and high heels he invited his readers to write about their own fetish. In response he received this letter:
"I am approaching middle age; and to the outer world appear to be a rather unapproachable man, engaged in very dry literary work. I reside in a quiet London suburb, in one of those old houses with large gardens, which still have the encroachments of the jerry-builder. My household consists of an elderly Scottish housekeeper and her two daughters, who do all the work of the place, thus ensuring me the perfect privacy that enables me to live my own life.
Those who know me in my public capacity would be infinitely surprised to learn that I spend several days in every week dressed and living as a woman! During these periods it is always understood that 'Mrs. Mac' - my housekeeper - is the absolute mistress of the house and I, as well as her daughters, have to submit to her rules in every respect. My own peculiar fetish is that not only delighting to see women and girls compelled to wear large, sensible white aprons and long plain pinafores, but to be dressed as a woman and forced to wear aprons and pinafores myself! As I write I am dressed entirely in feminine attire. My 'undies' are as fresh and dainty as you will find anywhere, and I am wearing a dark blue linen frock with a 'Quaker girl' collar. Over this, I have been compelled to put on a long, plain, white diaper pinafore; and the feeling of delicious humiliation entailed in being forced to wear a pinafore is more exquisite than I can describe. I never get tired of it, although I have experienced it constantly for some years past."
Things at Photo Bits changed as the American left the magazine, but in the perfect example of borrowing what is successful another magazine of the time came in to being entitled Photo Fun, then New Photo Fun, then New Fun, then Fun and Bits of Fun. It was in this last incarnation that the column 'Confidential Correspondence' was established in 1910 and lasted through the war and into 1920 as letters without additional editorial comment. The final letter this month also covers the subject of "petticoat punishment," or forced crossdressing. It is from New Photo Fun of June 1912:
" The novel punishment of petticoat discipline is a most fascinating subject, and one that I, as a former victim, never tire of reading about.
To dress a boy in the daintiest of girlish clothing completely in every respect is to inculcate habits of gentleness and tidiness that will never be forgotten; although the boy may chafe at, or even be ashamed of his silken bondage at first, he succumbs to the witchery of frills and flounces, and willingly conforms to the rules and regulations laid down for him. And many a boy has lived to be grateful for the petticoat punishment, and learned to love his silken fetters.
I was fourteen years old when I was introduced to this form of discipline, and my mother was persuaded to adopt it by a friend who found it very successful with her boy, who like myself, was an only child. I fancy my mother had always wished that I had been a girl, which made the suggested regime even more acceptable to her.
Anyway, she ordered a complete outfit of girlish clothing for me, and one morning I was told to put on the frilliest of dainty white underclothes beneath the plaid kilt that was my ordinary costume. With my boyish prejudice I thought it was a degradation and refused. My mother was determined, and as a punishment for my rebellion decided that I should wear the full costume of a girl.
In spite of my struggles and resistance I was forced into the expensive and elaborately beribboned lingerie, laced up tightly in the shapely stays, and then beflounced petticoats and a dainty frock, pretty shoes, and stockings completing my costume, and my mother was charmed as a result.
In a month I was resigned to my fate, and ceased to beg my mother to release me. I began to take pride in my dainty clothes, to be interested in my lessons, my needlework, and dancing and deportment.
At the end of a year my mother took me to Paris to perfect my French and six months later to Berlin for my German. My skirts were lengthened, my corsets laced in tighter, and I often quite forgot my boyish freedom.
It came as quite a shock to me when on my eighteenth birthday my mother decided I must resume masculine attire once more. I begged her to reconsider her decision, but she pointed out the wisdom of it. Finally it was decided that I could continue wearing girls clothing and corsets, but that my outer clothes would have to be those of a young man, and with this I had to be content.
We returned to England. I had now become a tall slim young man, devoted to my mother, who had made it possible for me to taste such happiness, and who had by her strict petticoat punishment so changed my character."
I hope you have enjoyed this month's letters, and will continue to follow the series as we gradually move into the 20th century.
Andee is married with two children and lives outside Washington DC. You can send her email at AndeeW@aol.com.
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