When I was twenty, very out and guys would ask me for makeup and dressing tips.
"Er! you look good do you think I coul get away with doing it as well?"
That became a familiar opening line to a quite unique conversation.
When I was twenty, very out and guys would ask me for makeup and dressing tips.
"Er! you look good do you think I coul get away with doing it as well?"
That became a familiar opening line to a quite unique conversation.
Work on your elegance,
and beauty will follow.
There's a world of difference in finding out you're not the only cross dresser, and, coming to the realization there may be nothing wrong with you- or at least you're not what everyone says you must be. I am a child of the 1950's and 1960's. My earliest foray into the world of wearing women's garments occurred when I was a young child. My mother use to hang dry her slips in the bathroom or on a clothes line she hung down the hallway in our apartment. I came to love the feel of nylon. It was a fascination with the fabric. It had nothing to do with wanting to be a girl. I tried on her slips when I had the opportunity. There was no sexual aspect to it. A single digit boy in the mid 1950's never heard about sex. As a mid teen I reentered the world of trying on her slips. Then her bras and panties. Then a girdle and stockings. Then a dress.
I felt I had to be a pervert. In the 1960's you were either straight or gay. Christine Jorgensen may have been transgendered, but, that did not play out well among the populace. There was something wrong with her and the men who wanted to marry her. I must have been a "queer" or a "faggot" in the terms of the 1960's.
I had no urge to cross dress for many years. However, when I was dating cross dressing was in the back of my mind. How could it be I really grooved on girls, but, I had liked wearing women's clothing???? Confusing thoughts. After marriage my wife and I did end up with some bedroom play antics; wearing a nightgown and stockings. I pretty much thought I must have had an aberrant streak in me, but, nothing to worry about.
The first inkling of a cross dresser in the wild was a young man who lived down the block; six houses away. His wife discovered he was a cross dresser. Yuck! Perversion! His wife dumped him quick and hard! I heard the conversation between my wife's cousin who worked with the man's wife and my wife. It was not pretty. It wasn't hostile. It was why would any woman stay married to a guy who liked to wear women's clothing? So, I knew I was not alone. There was another one of US nearby. Then there was an incident in the neighborhood where a totally frustrated cross dresser took his own life. He set fire to his house. He sat in his recliner fully attired. He held off the responding fire department by shooting in their direction. The house burned to the ground. The newspaper article reported his charred body was found with his high heels strapped onto his ankles.
I'd say it wasn't until I lurked around this site that I came to realize I was not alone. I had already come to the conclusion I was a normal hard working guy with a little quirk my lovely wife did not understand. That made two of us.
Interesting question and it got me thinking about my various phases.
I was born in the mid-50's and remember dressing in my mother's clothes and sister clothes in the late 60's. I was 14 or 15 and I can recall walking to the Ben Franklin store to buy a pair of Legg's pantyhose. Once I could drive I would go further and buy shoes and skirts and tops. Still thinking I was alone. When I was 17 early 70's I went into an adult bookstore and saw the drag magazines. That told me I wasn't alone but didn't really seem real. At age 21 I went to a drag show and talked to one of the queens still not seeming real. Then in 89 or 90 I logged onto Prodigy and one of the chat rooms and then finally I felt connected, AOL really drove that forward. What a ride.
When I first attended Gay Pride Events in the 1970's, circa 1974. That os when a leaned alot about myself.
Fulfilling a Lifetime Dream of Living as a Woman in My Adult Years.Ten Years Living 24/7 as a Mature Lady
My Love of Cat's Eye Frames, Bangles, Red Lipstick, Nails, & Cheeks, Comes From My Mother - An Irish Beauty
I'm Always Rainbow Proud
When I was 13 or so, I had a conversation with my mom about her youth and who her friends were. At the time most of my buddy friends were girls and I was curious if mom had boys who were her buddies. She told me about one of her friends that was a boy sort of. Sort of, I enquired. And that is when I found out about boys who like to dress as girls and the subculture that surrounded him. She told me after high school he left forever for New Orleans to be a female Impersonator. She got some letters form him but after she married mom never heard from him again. I don't remember a time when I wasn't dressing up in girls clothes. When I was 11 my mom and sister stopped participating in my cross dressing and I went underground. But now at 13 my mom was telling me of someone else in her life like me. After that conversation nothing more was ever said about the subject but I knew my mother knew about me and I was not condemned for being a cross dresser. I never thought about being the only one after that, but did often wonder why me.
Last edited by shayleetv; 06-11-2014 at 03:25 PM.
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn't sit for a month."
~Theodore Roosevelt
For myself, the realisation that I was NOT the only one in the world who preferred his sisters clothes to his own came in 1962 or 1963 with a Bonanza Christmas Album of all things.
Inside was a story with a few illustrations about a young slim beautiful woman who arrives in town on the stagecoach, then a series of murders took place by a young slim gun-man. It turned out that the gun-man was using a woman's clothes as a disguise during the day. The saloon owner, Kitty? noticed a shaving nick on the woman's neck and put two and two together But more to the point I WASN'T alone as there were now two of us who dressed up, I'd be about 9 or 10 at the time but already knew I was different and in the wrong body! I read and re-read that story until I must have almost worn the ink off the page.
Later, the occasional article in the news-papers I delivered showed that there were others like me. But they were usually court cases of some sort and it almost frightened me to death that this "thing" was going to ruin my life. Which, in some ways it has, but that's a whole different story!
Take care all, Penny xx
I had dressed since i was in elementary school and didnt know why. I think id known that other people had done it since i was about 10 i think but the eye opener for me was when my gay cousin told me that he did it alot too. eye opening moments are hard to forget, but it takes such a huge weight off.
I had dressed and held a fascination for more femme attire since my pre-teen days, and wondered if I were gay or mentally ill for a bit. With age comes some clarity and understanding, but as a young boy, well, you can imagine my fears. My only real idea of crossdressing came from the movie Tootsie, which couldn't have been the bet place for that information. I had met a great young lady who was new to my school in the seventh grade, and she introduced me to a world I had no clue that existed, via some magazines she had gotten a hold of. We were very close, and one day I shared my secret with her, and she told me about seeing pictures of men dressing in women's clothing, and we began to explore drag and female impersonation, and it was the Phil Donohue show that really opened this youngster's eyes.
As things go, there's often someone closer to home, and it turned out to be one of my friend's neighbors who had a brother who was very much into crossdressing, and in him I found a friend and someone I looked up to. He was very closeted, and we'd trade clothes, makeup tricks, and other things, and when he moved to College, we lost contact some months later. But he will always be that first "real" other cossdresser that I knew, and that was around 15 years of age for me. Certainly a pivotal point in my life.
Interesting story Shay Lee. Peaceful knowledge with your mother
And Bryanne, what wonderful experiences to have, as you said during a "pivotal point" in your life.
Originally Posted by Bryanne
Hi Bryanne,
That is amazing to have someone that close to you that also liked to dress.
I have a similar story, I went to school with someone, and I ended up working with him, and during our time working together it came out that he also liked to dress, alas I never did confide in him my dressing habits,in hind sight I wish I did.
Adelaide.
Funny, I thought about those ad's just recently. Wondered who else remembered them.
Christen x
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.” - Rumi.
Adelaide, it was truly a blessing, but scary at the same time. As he became more free in his exploits, I harbored a lot of fear at being outed for it. Over time, he made me feel perfectly comfortable in my own skin -- and dresses! I would give almost anything to recapture that confidence.
He had a great way of looking at it, in that dressing was an outlet for creativity and the feminine side we were conditioned to hide, and that if we didn't embrace that, it was a waste of potential. That drives me to this day. I often wonder if he still dresses as well, and regret having stopped for so long. Strange to have been both embarrassed AND wishing to have done it more like that.
Thinking back, and not certain that anyone had mentioned this, but seeing Jimmy James on an episode of Donahue ignited a lot of interest in dressing for me. A bit on the drag or impersonation side, but a big influence to achieve a look.
When I was at university for my first degree, I came upon a book about crossdressers. The author might have been Robert Stoller. I was satisfied I wasn't alone and unlikely to be gay.
I actually became aware that there were other boys who liked to dress up in their mother's and sister's clothes at about the same time that I, myself, was making my first forays into Mom's closet. There was a neighbor boy, and a pretty good friend of mine, a couple of years older than me who regularly crossdressed. His mother was upset about it, and came over to talk to my mom a couple of times. My own mother was pretty open and nonchalant about those kinds of things (indeed, she had a major part in getting me started dressing), and I'm pretty sure she mainly told the neighbor lady not to worry about it, or punish the kid for it, and that he would find his own way in life eventually. (And he did, although it took him quite a while.)
After one of these meetings, my Mom came and filled me in because she didn't want me saying anything when I was over at this friend's house that might upset the delicate situation in his family. And, as far as I can remember, I never did. My friend always had some women's accessories like stockings, purses and bathrobes lying around in his room, but I never saw him dressed.
Anyway, that was my first inklilng that, as Mom put it, "some boys like to dress up in their mother's clothes," but it tuned me into the possibility and from that point on, I was very attentive to anything I could see or read in the media about crossdressing and transsexualism. There wasn't a lot of easily accessible material in those days (early to mid 1960s), but if you kept your radar on, you could at least pick up the hint that you weren't the only one with this interest.
When I was ten or so (1967-ish), a copy of Harry Benjamin's book, "The Transsexual Phenomenon," showed up on my grandfather's bookshelf. I never had the nerve to ask him why he had it or was interested in that subject, but you can bet that I devoured the contents in small doses whenever I had some time to myself in their house.
- Diane
Last edited by Diane Smith; 06-12-2014 at 06:37 PM.
I secretly wore my Mom's bras and panties when she and Dad went out for the evening. Later, my older brother had a job as a lingerie salesman - selling high quality lingerie to department stores. He had 3 big suitcases full of samples that he used for demonstrations. One day, after he noticed that I had been through his samples a bunch, he took me down to the garage and said, "Look, if you'll quit going thru my samples, I'll give you some lingerie of your own!" With that, he gave me my first 2 bras, a slip and a camisole! I considered this be acceptance - at least from my big brother, so I continued on from there! Now, I'm 70 and still love how feminine I feel in a cute bra and panties! I don't have too many occasions to go out fully en femme, so I am content to underdress most every day!
What a great elder brother, he is one in a million!
Started being attracted to women's clothing articles before I was 10. I think my parents had some suspicions (despite several purges) so eventually I was discovered. Heard my parents talking and my dad said "I think he's queer" and then they called me down and asked me if I had been doing it long and did I want to talk to anyone about it. I denied all.
For a long time I thought I must be "queer" as my parents said. Over time, I figured out I wasn't gay and it was the feminine expression that I was really looking for. There were occasional items that popped up using the term transvestite or crossdresser and I realized that might apply to me.
That's when I really started researching what tranvestites and crossdressers were and discovered the community at large, though not this specific one. Wish my parents had used Google!
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