Transvestism, Women & Politics

Transvestism was first described in detail by Magnus Hirschfeld at the beginning of the twentieth century (1), although the same phenomenon had been described by Havelock Ellis under the term Eonism during the same period (2). Though the term transvestism literally means cross-dressing, Ellis put a limitation on the term which Hirschfeld had not, namely that the cross-dresser not only received pleasure in dressing and acting like a member of the opposite sex, but was heterosexual.

Sexologists are still debating this limitation since as our knowledge grows, matters become far more complicated especially when dealing with crossdressing by fe males and by homosexuals and lesbians. This article, however, is concerned with male heterosexual transvestites. The thesis of this article is that these men who get pleasure from dressing and acting as members of the opposite sex, at least in their fantasy literature, have a stereotypical view of the fe male and of gender roles in society.

While transvestite fantasy literature dates at least from the seventeenth century and the Abbe de Choisy (1644 - 1724) who wrote of his adventures of living as a woman (3), most of it dates from 1960 on.

The reason for this is due primarily to a heterosexual transvestite known as Virginia Prince. Prince (also known as Virginia Bruce) began publishing a magazine called Transvestia in 1960 from Los Angeles. The success of the magazine soon lead to an organization of transvestites formed into a sorority, Phi Pi Epsilon, which held meetings and events for men who gained pleasure through dressing as and impersonating women. Prince established a correspondence club, sold transvestite oriented merchandise, and traveled around the country (and eventually the world) meeting individual transvestites and organizing groups. As the transvestite group emerged, conflicts also arose and other groups and publications also entered the field. While Prince is now more or less retired, the publications she started continue and she has come to be regarded as sort of a Grand Dame of transvestites both in this country and wherever organized groups exist.

("She" is the proper pronoun for Virginia since she has lived as a woman for twenty years, although anatomical she remains a male. Genderwise, however, she is a woman and she pioneered the concept of gender as being distinct from anatomical sex.)

Various transvestite support groups around the world now hold public meetings where they appear as women and hold seminars on makeup, clothing, feminine behavior and so forth.

How numerous transvestites are is not known. I can make only estimates and then I can only say there are a large number. For example, whenever I speak on the subject, I usually get a number of letters and telephone calls from people asking for more information. Many refuse to give their name but want to meet other transvestites. An article on some of my research in the Buffalo, New York, newspaper led to about 100 letters and phone calls either to me, my wife, or one of the organizations that I mentioned.

Since there are approximately one million people in the area, this suggests at least a '/10OO ratio. This is the minimum. There are also many organized groups.

Ultimately, however, the answer depends upon definition. Organized transvestism appeals primarily to those males who want to dress completely as women and seemingly the ultimate ambition is to pass as a woman occasionally without being read.

Obviously reality often interferes with the ideal and only a small proportion of the organized transvestites ever try to pass as a woman outside of the confines of their home or meeting places. It does mean, however, that transvestites as a group spend a significant amount of time learning about what being a woman entails. For those who cannot pass or who have jobs or social positions which would make the possibility of exposure extremely threatening, reading about transvestism can allow them to live some parts of their fantasy.

As members have grown, so has the literature aimed at them and this literature is generally of two types, autobiographical or fictional. it is this latter type of literature which might best be entitled fantasy literature with which this article is concerned.

Before turning to the literature, however, I should report on some of the findings of some of my previous studies on gender roles of TVs. One of the major findings in sociological terms of those TVs who belonged to organizations or subscribed (as distinct from buying them off the newsstand) to TV publications was their status and income. Using a standard occupational prestige scale which ranges between a high of 94 for Supreme Court Justice to 34 for workers at the lowest level of occupational prestige (shoe shining for example)(4), the TVs ranked on the average at 71, with a median of 75. With some exceptions, moreover, they were not in what could be called stereotypically feminine jobs. Instead they were over represented in stereotypical male occupations such as engineer or accountant, high prestige jobs traditionally dominated by males(5). Similarly the transvestites as children seemed to have been for the most part to have a standard stereotypical boyhood, i.e. active in sports, good students, and so forth, and in fact crossdressing sometimes seemed to be an escape from this stereotypical youth. Similarly crossdressing as an adult was said to be relaxing to them, to escape the limitations of the male role to which they subscribe.

The traditional biographical sketch indicates how a person who is otherwise usually a successful person in his male life, combines crossdressing with his professional life, often on weekends or even by wearing women's lingerie under his male clothing while at work (it makes undressing in the locker room a difficult problem.)

Most transvestites explain that they continue to crossdress because it allows them to show a different side of their persona than they normally can. They can be less demanding, more yielding, more supportive, more sympathetic to others. In short they seem to be caught in their John Wayne machismo role of being a male.

Inevitably then the fictional fantasy literature somehow demonstrates to them the potential of being a different persona while dressing and acting as a woman.

The theme of the literature is somehow finding an excuse to put a rather dominant male into women's clothing whereupon his personality undergoes a radical change. Often the person initiating the change is a wife or women friend who wants to demonstrate to the man that there is more to life than being domineering and machismo.

An example is a story entitled Barbara. The man, Paul, who is on this way to becoming Barbara, something he did to save his marriage which was failing because he was so demanding, states that he feels different when crossdressed, "I am able to come to you with such a fuller feeling." (6)

Chevalier Publications, originally founded by Virginia Prince, did a whole series of stories including Fated for Femininity, (a boy becomes a beauty queen and then the bride of another "pretty" girl); I Am A Male Actress, (a reporter impersonates a star, gets contract, marries the star); Tales From a Pink Mirror, (a boy becomes a girl in a special school); From Martin to Marion, (a transvestite story in three books); The Turnabout Party, (George goes to a party as Sally, finds a new life and friends); His and Hers Equals Theirs, (wife borrows Steve's clothes, he does the same, becomes Stephanie); Schoolgirl in The Secret Service, (two boy cousins become girls, attend a girl's school and work with British Secret Service). This last story is particularly chauvinistic since it seems to imply that a real woman could not become a secret agent; only a man dressed as a woman can. Increasingly as the transvestite movement grew, the literature became somewhat more varied and increased in volume. Currently there are seven or eight publishers regularly issuing fiction designed for the transvestite audience.

Virginia Prince once wrote that the problem of how to deal with the feminine side of his nature is the biggest problem facing a male as he grows up. Femininity is in every male as masculinity is every female, but the male does not have the freedom to express all facets of his personality as the female does(7).

What this has meant is terms of transvestite fiction is that the women in them are cardboard figures, and the men who crossdress do so in order to express their feminine persona and thus adopt the caricature of the female. Reading transvestite fiction, one would think the ordinary woman spent a good part of her time in getting dressed, putting on make-up, going to beauty parlors and shopping. In the TV literature, the "male" woman does all these things, especially shopping. A number of transvestite characters who change their identity in the literature become hairdressers, secretaries, and nurses, although they also become actresses and models. Though fictional transvestites rebel against the loss in income and status, the, tend to regard this as normal. In the past two or three years there has been a growing consciousness of the limitations of the traditional women's role, but transvestites are not in the forefront of women's liberation.

One of the more perceptive writers in recent transvestite literature, who wrote under the pen name of Robin Esch, had recently attended a woman's leadership conference (as a woman).

"At a women's leadership conference I attended last month (as a woman) a major point was made about the 'problem of the missing middle box.' The leader drew two boxes, with dark solid line boundaries, on either side of a middle box shown with light dotted lines. In the dark box at one end she wrote words like 'nice', 'sweet', 'feminine', 'soft', 'weak', 'submissive', 'doormat.' At the other end she put in the words 'strong', 'bossy', 'loud', 'pushy', 'bitchy', 'aggressive', 'unfeminine', 'unlovable.' Her point was that many women have only these two choices, have not developed a middle box, with terms like 'feminine but assertive', 'effectual', 'principled', 'caring but self-respecting', 'up front', 'attractive', 'taken seriously.'

Many of us in the crossgender community have an analogous problem, we also have only two boxes at our disposal. One... box is labeled 'masculine', 'strong', 'tough', 'crude', 'left brain', 'aggressive', 'hard bargainer', 'argumentative', 'unfeminine.' Our other box is pretty much like the weak woman box. Unfortunately, so far this weak woman box may represent the only way we have available to remain in a feminine behavior mode".

Obviously, if transvestites who pride themselves on studying women, imitating women, even~ living as women, think of women as two dimensional creatures with the proper woman being submissive, sweet, soft, et al.,., then it indicates just how far society has to go to change. Perhaps, it is true that the transvestites persist in preserving a one-sided view of woman because in a sense they can play both the male role (as a man) and the traditional female role while crossdressed. The problem, however, is probably much deeper than simply opening up new opportunities for women. While we have worked at redefining what it means to be feminine, the major problem seems to be in redefining what it means to be masculine. The labels on the man (or boy) who appears to have feminine qualities remain harsh. The transvestite has solved it by adopting another persona, but by doing so they help preserve a stereotype. Our major priority over the next few years would seem to be a major society re-education of what it means to be a male. John Wayne might well be dead, but his spirit lives on.

References:

1. Magnus Hirschfeld, Die Transvestiten (Berlin: Alfred Pulmachier, 1910)

2. Havelock Ellis, Eonism, in Eonism and Other Supplementary Studies, Vol. 7, 1110, Studies in the Psychology of Sex (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis, 1928)

3.Abbe de Choisy, Memoires de'Abbe de Choisy habille enfemme ed. Georges Mongredien, in Memories de ['Abbe de Choisy: memoires pour server a l'histoire de Louis XIV (Paris: Mercure de France, 1966)

4.R. M. Hodge, P. M. Siegel, and P.H. Rossi, Occupational Prestige in the United States, 1925-1963, American Journal of Sociology, 70 (1964), 286-302

5.Vern Bullough, Bonnie Bullough, Richard Smith, A Comparative Study of Male Transvestites, Male-to-Female Transsexuals and Male Homosexuals, Journal of Sex Research, 19 (1983), 238257

6.Barbara, (Tulare, Calif.: Chevalier Publications, 1972, p. 39)

7.Virginia Charles Prince, The Transvestite and His Wife (Hollywood, Chevalier Publications, 1967, p. 51)

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