The internet has always been there for me. So I was wondering what was cding like before it. Where did you find crossdressing information, support groups and friends?
I believe the internet has been great for crossdressers and other alike. Can anyone think of a negative impact internet has had on crossdressing?
fuzzy
there is always a negative impact with good, in this case the bad impact is that we can get caught and outed easier
For myself, before the internet, there was the library which had very limited information and there was the bookstores that carried the fringe magazines such as Nugget. We had a store which carried a few Empathy Press books (TV fiction) but there were ads in them and that put me in touch with the Illusions club in Calgary. It was a start. Today it is just awesome what is available.
Super Mod
Oh God, Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small
The Breton Fisherman's Prayer was engraved on a brass plaque and presented to President John F. Kennedy by US Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover.
Daintre, gone but not forgotten, R.I.P. Angel xx
Tamara
I can't really think of anything negative about the internet and crossdressing, to me it's really nice knowing about others and learning every day about something new and helps me deal with it to a greater degree,
Before the internet I would go to the local library as the had alot of reading materials. I would think that I started reading books by Peggy Rudd and that was good enough at that time.
Be Yourself, Everybody else has been Taken......Oscar Wilde
I go to the beat of a different drummer
Susan Michelle
I would have hardly dreamed of coming out as CD before the internet.
Before that, I believe a crossdresser would either have to go to Gay bars or a private "back door" like club. Since I'm straight as a male, I wouldn't have never even looked for such places or known how to find them. I remember CD support groups starting up during the eighties, and cross dressers coming forth for the first time on shows like Phil Donahue (remember him?). It was around the same time the Gay/Lesbian movement began to gain momentum, but again, at the time, I wouldn't have associated myself with that movement.
Other than that, the majority of CDers who were seen or acceptible were proformers or comedians such as Milton Burle or Flip Wilson, and they were generally out there for laughs.
Trust me, this is much better time, tho I'm guessing the time I grew up-the seventies and eighties-were better than previous times. So technology and communication are indeed making it easier for us.
Caroline Emily
Co-Moderator
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Before the internet, I think a lot of us thought we were pretty much alone, no one to talk to or ask questions.Besides the shopping oppurtunities, being able to talk to others has made me 1000% more secure in my feelings.I started a thread in this same vein not to long ago--http://www.crossdressers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72353 --lots of good answers there
Last edited by vikki2020; 02-12-2008 at 07:28 PM. Reason: wrong link
"And if you want some fun, sing Ob-Bla-Di-Bla-Da!"
Before the internet, CD for me was a vast and lonely wasteland. Sources for clothing that I knew of were mail order companies that you might find out about in classified ads in some magazines as mentioned earlier, or local entertainment papers.
It really stunk. I'm much happer now that I can see how many people there are in the world like myself, and who have had similar experiences.
Christine
The coming of the internet has been for the better. But before that there was information and stuff from books and magazines. There were some support groups out there but to get to them without the help of the web made them harder to find. I remember that there was just barely starting to be a little bit of acceptance in the very late sixties and in the seventies. But this wasn't across the board. This may sound sleazy and off color but a lot of nudie girlie magazines had "tv" clothing catalogs and other transvestite stuff like pictures of guys done up to look like girls. I'm talking pre-internet about a lot of this stuff but not like 50 or 100 years ago. I mean like 1976,1980,1989.Which was years ago but not ages ago! The idea that any person would dress up(and do this as thoroughly and meticulously as possible)in the clothing of the opposite sex just for pure pleasure and pleasure that is sexual,narcistic or for relaxations sake was still pretty new in the sixties and seventies. A lot of people beleived that crossdressing was more or less a prelude to "transexualism" or "homosexuality". I guess these folks thought they were casting a vote of sympathy in their own way. The first sensible information that I came across regarding crossdressing was in 1979. I found a small paperback book on a drugstore magazine rack written by some sort of shrink or therapist who outlined all the verying degrees of TG/TS/CD tendencies in men and women and this therapist was completely sympathetic and aproving. There were case histories about all the sort of stuff like what we talk bout in these threads and forums. Actually,I didn't buy that paperback book. I went back and read all of it I could read comfortably while standing by the book and magazine racks for a succession of several days going back and forth. That was quite awhile ago and I swear that I don't remember the name of the psychologist or psychiatrist who wrote the thing or the title,either. But I was very reassured. I used to worry when I was about 10 or 11 that when I was grown up someone could get me over a barrel with a law suit and say that I'm crazy because I CD! And here the latest findings are on my side and dammit if I'm not crazy! Oh well,I've gotten awful longwinded here. Like I said at the beginning of this post. the internet is much for the better. I'm finding wigs and clothes I can't find anywhere else and I have a lot of email pals through sites like this. It's a whole other social life by itself,in a way. I better stop. I'm getting lonwinded. Samantha
Well... before the 'net the only place you could find any info on cross dressing was by buying TV/TS magazines at the Adult book store. Occasionally there might be small ads to companies that catered to us, but that was about it. I still have some of those magazines, wish there was a place to buy vintage TV/ts mags.
Nothing but good vibes from the net, so far.
d
Dani
By the time I logged onto the Internet for the first time in 1992, I had already been a crossdresser for almost 20 years. Searching for CD websites and newsgroups was one of the VERY first things I did online.
The only depiction of crossdressing I had any contact with before the Internet was the occasional crossdresser played for comedic effect on television or in the movies.
Other than that, the only indication I had that other crossdressers even existed were very infrequent 'letters' in magazines such as Penthouse or Variations. I would find those letters and read them over and over again!
There was ONE very analytical book in our local library that discussed CDing, but I never got a chance to read is because I was too embarrased to check it out!
I couldn't imagine going back to those dark days of isolation again
Last edited by Cristi; 02-12-2008 at 07:58 PM.
In a society in which it is a moral offense to be different from your neighbor your only escape is never to let them find out.
-- Robert Heinlein
It was pretty much "seat of the pants" for me and I had a lot of imagination. Not too many groups around in those days.
Second star to the right and straight on till morning
Penthouse and Forum magazines were the first publications where I first read about crossdressing "sororities" and that was in the early 1970s. I was too embarrassed to buy any CD magazines that I would sometimes see in an adult bookstore during that time period. I was pretty much in the dark until the internet came along in the early 90s.
My first indication that there were others who thought about this was finding a paperback called "I Want What I Want", about a young man who ran away from his small town home to go live in the big city as a girl. What an epiphany! I bought that book and kept it stashed for years...read it over and over. Recently googled the title and found it almost word for word on line! It's sort of become a classic of non-porn T-literature.
Then, when I was in high school, I worked at a newstand after school and waaay in the back rows were magazines like FI (Female Impersonators)and a few others all about drag queens, no porn. I devoured those magazines without having to buy them. Nobody ever bought them, but there was always a new issue every couple of months. I think my boss who ran the stand in the daytime probably liked them, too. Heck this was in the days before transistors in radios! Chips? Those were made from potatos!
No, no intra-webs, no porn (too young). Really lonely...
Screw the 'good old days'! Today the revolution has come, and we're in it.
deja
Danille! there are lots of vintage drag queen and impersonator mags for sale on eBay, both American and English. Search for "drag" and/or "impersonator" in the books section. Those girls from the 50's were magnificent. There were often picture articles that showed how the queens transformed from men to women. I love that kinda stuff!
Hiding, guilt, trying to figure it all out.
SandyR
Real Men can Cook in Heels...
Before the internet, I thought I was pretty much alone. Live in a small rural town, when I did get out I went to the next town over. The only bad thing I can think of abut the internet is that I spend too much time on it shopping.E-bay of course.
Striving for acceptance.
The Sears catalogue vs. e-Bay.
The few books and articles we were too scared to be caught reading vs. dialogues with like minded people on forums like this one.
The loneliness of the closet vs. membership in a pretty large population of accepting men and women around the world.
Yeah, those things... West Side Story song sung by a bunch of punk gang members - one mentions a male relative who wears a dress... "no wonder I'm a mess." I guess I didn't have the nerve or whatever to investigate further...Originally Posted by SandyR
Lee
Before the Internet and before my wife knew I was alone in my dressing. my wife being OK with the dressing and all my family here life is good.
Angie
Growing up, almost complete isolation. A kid had no way to make contact with anyone before The Net.
My first real indication of others, comes when I find a dubious magazine in an adult book store. In the back an advertisement for a small shop in Chicago, called Rose Lee's. At age 23 I can't stand it anymore and drive the five hours from St. Louis.
Stood outside for about 20 minutes, parading back and forth and finally I work up the nerve to go inside. Rosie bless her soul, really understood the young CD. Greets me, looks at me, and says: "Do you like to dress up?" The very first time that I ever admitted to being CD. Just like someone took about 3 concrete blocks off my back.
We just had a heck of a time that day! Rosie encouraged me to try things on, offered to help me meet others in the area. What a shock! What a Rush! I don't remember anything about the drive back home. Did I go back there? Oh, you bet I did! Found out there was a bit of a subversive "Underground of Trannies." Today, it's light years better. We don't have many understanding pioneers like Rose Lee anymore, but I don't think that anyone with any gumption, and a computer, need ever be alone again.
Peace and Love, Joanie
Yes, the internet really has changed the world, in so many ways.
My crossdressing has always involved feelings of excitement, joy, fear, shame, fantasy. And, loneliness, in a big way.
The internet, and especially this wonderful forum, has been GREAT!
I was raised in New York, Long Island.
It was a 15cent subway ride to the "City".
There I could as a teenager cruise 42nd st the "Porn Capitol" of the world.
Also just off Broadway there were lingerie shops with great, sexy things,
One I remember most was "Opera Length Stockings"
The thigh high of the day's gone bye.
Pre Pantyhose days. Now I am dating my self.
Also I could spend a full day in Macys & Gimbles, what a thrill
JoanAz
Ah yes! On Irving Park.
Do you remember the early pics of "himself" under the counter glass?
She was quite a memorable and reassuring character for sure.
Of course she was happy to help. What with the prices she gouged on those clothes I would too.
I do have fond memories of finding my early girly self in that place though.
And I was hot stuff in that lingerie I bought.
"If I could turn back time"
Last edited by bEEb; 02-13-2008 at 10:36 AM.
It is a well known fact that crossdressing did not exist before the internet came into being!
One of the first magazines I ever seen dedicating a section to cding was "nugget" this is also why I think it drove the thoughts of porn and cding
To know now what I did back then it is amazing what is available that isn't
pornagraphic.
Staying in the closet isn't so bad as long as you know why your in there.
The only info on the subject that I saw before the internet came along were articles in Playboy and other mags about transvestites and boy-to-girl surgery. I knew what I was and knew there were others, but no info on the everyday things we do. Most of you, like myself, can identify with the stories on this site because we all have had similar experiences and have to deal with the same issues.
For me, before the internet, the most difficult about being a crossdresser was shopping for women's clothes, especially bras. I always did, and still do feel out of place in the lingerie department, although I do more of it now.
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