Are you a member of the MCM?

[Helana]

Do you belong to the MCM? The Militant Crossdressers Movement.

Does this exist you ask? Of course not, I just made it up silly! We are all too nice to be militants and we would never burn our lacy bras to make a political statement!:D

But what would happen if the 5,000 members of this forum all agreed to sign up to the MCM and be pro-active in promoting our goal for widespread acceptance. Could our 5,000 members make a difference? What practical measures could we take to advance our cause without abandoning our present lifestyles and privacy? What spin and trickery could we employ to make others take notice of us?

My suggestion is this. We circulate the contact details of the top 50 woman's magazines among our members and ask them to write letters to every magazine. Each member could decide whether to write in as a man or pretend to be a woman (we like doing that!) discussing relationships with or as a CD. Before long. with their mailboxes swamped with crossdressing letters, stories about CDs will be regularly printed in all womans' magazines and CD information will become widespread. The editors will view this as a new trend in society and will try to outdo each other to get the best scoops.

The cleverer magazines may actually devote regular space to crossdressing articles as a strategy to increase their readership. Adding 5% of the male population onto your circulation would be very attractive. This is one niche market they have not yet identified.:cool:

What other tactics can you suggest?

Remember the MCM needs you! Sign up here now.:cheeky:

[Daphne Renee]

well I am not exactly millitant.. LOL.. but you have some good ideas.. It would be nice to see regular mainstream mags devoting time to cd issues.

[melissacd]

Helana,

This idea is brilliant. Where do I sign up? I feel that you are on to something here. I believe that we can do many little things that will gain more attention, more air time and eventually more acceptance.

Lets keep the discussion going, rally the troops, make an action plan and make this happen.

:thumbsup:

Melissa the Hopeful

[wo-MAN]

I'm in.:D I also think that we should come up with a magazine for cross dressers male and female alike. :) What do you think?+?

[uknowhoo]

Great idea, Helana :thumbsup: :thumbsup: (as always).

I'm sure we could, and should make a difference.

Sign me up too!

I'd like to nominate Helana as Director.

I wonder if Tri-Ess or other orgs have mobilized any such efforts?

Hugs,

Tammi

[wo-MAN]

I second Helana as director:clap:

[MsJanessa]

Sign Me up!!:dom:

[Christina Nicole]

No, what's to gain? I'm already going out, so writing letters won't make a difference there. Editorials won't change my wife's mind. So what is the point? There are many more issues in the world that are much more important than crossdressing. It seems that it should not be hard for anyone to find something more important than crossdressing which one could be an advocate.

I knew two TSs who were in transition. One passed very easily and well. The other never passed and probably never will. The one who could pass transitioned, married, adopted kids and lives as a housewife. The other works and is a TS advocate. The second was very angry with the first since the first one thought the second was wrong for not standing up as a TS and advocating for TSs. The second thought it was more important to fit in and raise her children.

Different folks, different priorities. I suppose it depends on what issues one faces. Crossdressing is very far down on my list.

Warm regards,
Christina Nicole.

[Helana]

I'd like to nominate Helana as Director.
Tammi

Just director:( I was hoping President for Life:D

[Helana]

I'm in.:D I also think that we should come up with a magazine for cross dressers male and female alike. :) What do you think?+?

Workable but the question would be how to get that into general circulation where the masses get to read it on a regular basis. Maybe we need a page 3 girl to get our circulation numbers going :thumbsup: (for non-UK citizens that means a bare breasted model which sells a modern UK tabloid)

[Helana]

No, what's to gain? I'm already going out To help everyone else of course


letters won't make a difference there. Editorials won't change my wife's mind. So what is the point? One editorial will not but many might. Propaganda works by repeating the same message over and over again so that the idea slowly slips into mainstream thoughts. If you succeeded in changing popular culture then many non-accepting people would have a sudden change of heart as they would be out of step with everyone else. Most people's intolerance is not that extreme and would evaporate if there was no support from society to help them justify maintaining it;) When it is no longer cool to hate or laugh at a sub-group then the bullies retreat into the shadows.

[racquel]

Wonderful idea.:clap: i'm in.

[Christina Nicole]

To help everyone else of course

One editorial will not but many might. Propaganda works by repeating the same message over and over again so that the idea slowly slips into mainstream thoughts. If you succeeded in changing popular culture then many non-accepting people would have a sudden change of heart as they would be out of step with everyone else. Most people's intolerance is not that extreme and would evaporate if there was no support from society to help them justify maintaining it;) When it is no longer cool to hate or laugh at a sub-group then the bullies retreat into the shadows.

Sure, Goebbels said that and it worked for him and his group. I don't know if that should be the model to mimic.

There are two negatives to this.

I don't believe that people would have a change of heart, but you may be right that the bullies would retreat into the shadows. The downside is that everything would retreat into the shadows. People would think it was "safe" to come out and wonder why they stopped getting promoted at work, for example. "Well, you have to admit that <fill in the blank> is better qualified than you," is often hard to refute since many times the choice comes down to splitting hairs. I know many situations where the pool of qualified candidates included someone who just "rubbed everyone else the wrong way.' Guess who always got passed over? I passed that person over too, when that person was assigned to me. Why? Because otherwise there would have been heck to pay with the rest of the staff.

Tolerance is not acceptance. People tolerate a lot that they don't like. One may tolerate the obnoxious guy in the next office since one has to work with him, but you don't have to like him, nor do you have to support him either. Who wants to be the pariah? Cross dressers thinking tolerance is acceptance may put themselves into bad situations where negativity is unseen and therefore difficult to counter.

Then there is the slippery slope argument. If society tolerates people wearing anything they want, how does society draw a line? It's one thing to say it is ok for a guy to wear women's slacks and tops to the office. It is short leap to saying it is ok to wear a woman's business suit with a skirt. How far does it go? Mini dresses, leather outfits, fetish outfits, dressing as babies are all things that I read about cross dressers wearing. Survey after survey shows that men think that they look better than they actually do, while women think they don't look as good as they actually do. God help us if guys who think they are beautiful, sexy, hot, whatever, start running around dressed as they think appropriate. It would be worse than that "fat person on the beach" thing or the old French Canadian men's fondness for Speedos. Yucky!

Sometimes tolerance backfires. The false sense of security may only be setting up a TG for problems that would have been nicely avoid my staying in the closet.

I think I'll save my letter writing campaign for something more likely and something I'll appreciate more, like getting my taxes reduced.

Warm regards,
Christina Nicole

[KathrynW]

Tolerance is not acceptance. People tolerate a lot that they don't like.
You're totally right. Society's opinions concerning cd's aren't likely to ever change. Oh....I'm being negative you say? No, I'm being very realistic...
MCM? that's laughable at best....
activist cd's? campaigning for mainstream acceptance?
that's basically a huge joke...

The best thing a cd can hope for is self acceptance...that's what it's all about...

[Olivia]

Militant Crossdressers? Gee, I do have a sizable collection of assault weapons and ammunition and pistols...what? Oh, it's not militant in that sense huh? Awwww heck! You had me going for a moment there. Never mind, lol. Later girls, Olivia

ps. give me a shout if I may be of, uh, service with my "toys". O

[Helana]

People would think it was "safe" to come out and wonder why they stopped getting promoted at work Some places of employment are not judgemental. It would be up to each person to decide if they wanted to inform their work collegues if they felt that might be a factor in their promotion. This is hardly a reason for not pursuing tactics to obtain greater awareness and acceptance of CD.


Tolerance is not acceptance. People tolerate a lot that they don't like. Quite true, we cannot convert those who are truely intollerant by nature, they will just have to learn to bit their tongues. On the other hand many people's non-acceptance is supported by society "norms". Change the public perception of CDing and most people will no longer see CDing in negative terms but will change their stance to either neutral or positive.


Then there is the slippery slope argument. If society tolerates people wearing anything they want, how does society draw a line? Wearing the same clothes as 50% of the population is not redrawing any lines. You would have said the same thing 30 years ago with women but the fact that many women have a masculine styled wardrobe has not had any social reprocussions.

Its OK if you dont want to be a member of the MCM, you can just piggyback on the efforts of others and enjoy the benefits won;)