The Young Crossdressers post caused my grey matter to bubble a bit.
For we elderlies, long before PCs, what CD info did you have access to when you were younger?
Mine was book store's psychology stuff (Transvestites), adult stores' paperback and magazine stuff when I could find it, but "Transvestia" was my main one. Do you remember Virginia Prince?
Was only vaguely aware of any literature and felt that the whole thing was so "wrong" that I stayed away from it all.
Well, I remember back in the 1960's, when all the comic books had a few pages of advertisements in them. Mostly it was for joke and novelty items that kids would waste money on, like "Amazing X-Ray Specs!". But there was also often an ad for "Michael Salem's TV Boutique", offering women's shoes and clothes. I saw those ads for several years before I understood that the kind of TV they were referring to had nothing to do with television.Never ordered from them, but I still remember that as the first ad I ever saw for TV/CD related stuff.
I'm completing my seventh decade on this planet this year. I'm a post World War II baby boomer. I grew up in Queens, NY and went to high school and college in Manhattan. I worked in a library after school. There was absolutely zero information available on cross dressing. The Kinsey Report was kept behind the senior librarian's desk. Playboy was about the only sexual magazine available which was fairly tame for today's standards. I was totally in the dark. I did know of Michael Salem's Boutique and I did pass by it on several occasions when I was in the area, but, I never would have had the guts to even stop and look.
To be a cross dresser back then was equated with being a homosexual. It was a very confusing time for me. Oh, and, I also had to think about getting drafted and sent to Viet Nam. And, whether the Cuban Missile Crisis would end my life. Anyway, on a positive note there were two women's stores in my neighborhood which had terrific window displays of mannequins attired in bras and girdles and slips and dresses. You don't find that anymore which is unfortunate.
I really didn't have any resources, just the feelings and compulsion to do it. Certainly there was a part of me that questioned why and is this OK. I went mostly on the feelings I had, as if I had much choice (it wasn't going away).
Maybe I had one resource. Anyone remember the Sears' catalogue and sneeking peeks into the women's underware section with all of the girdles?
"Centurion" and "Transformation", magazines and catalogs for herbal hormones. Sold other transformation and kinky stuff for T's..gif "Big Roll Eyes")
U can't keep doing the same things over and over and expect to enjoy life to the max. When u try new things, even if they r out of your comfort zone, u may experience new excitement and growth that u never expected.
Challenge yourself and pursue your passions! When your life clock runs out, you'll have few or NO REGRETS!
The only resources I had before the rise of the internet was my GF then SO's cast offs destined for the jumble sale but "surreptitiously recycled" to meet my own needs. Needless to say not much fitted well. Thank goodness I was slimmer then. I knew nothing of magazines or specialist shops. They idea that there was a community out there was not even in my thought process.
Who dares wears Get in, get out without being noticed
Before the internet, I had near to zero information available to me about this little "hobby" of ours. Most of what I remember is that of transsexuals returning from operations in foreign lands. Stephanie47's second paragraph mirrors how it was for me. If only... But then again, maybe it's a good thing I was pretty much clueless because of the many good things in my life now.
Sherrie Lynn Pall
Sometimes I make sense and that frightens me.
Please don't let me be the last post on this thread
Oh, yes! I used to subscribe to Transvestia as well as a couple of other sources. Times were VERY different before the internet!
Hugs, Carole
Mid 50s girl here just before the computer revolution and yes I remember that magazine as well, I'm sure I had a few copies.
I also remember stories I read about a few of the men who became women Rene Richards for one that comes to mind, it was all there but I was still very confused as to who I was and where I fit in
All I can remember is that you were either straight, or a gay drag queen, no in between that I knew of.
Other than tabloid TV, there were seldom any references to transvestites in the media. There were magazines (Tapestry) that could only be found in some Gay bookstores.
The first reliable information I was able to acquire came from the Library of Congress while doing graduate research.
Last edited by Sheren Kelly; 02-23-2017 at 02:31 PM.
Warmly,
Sheren Kelly
For me, wow, just went to store like sears or monkey ward. Then I found Venus and some other outlets Never knew about Transvestia.. Golly we were so protected from any thing for a cross-dresser.
Part Time Girl
When I was young there was almost nothing concerning cross dressing available, apart from a few obscures ads in some equally obscure magazines. We had a few popular drag acts in the UK but the media mainly portrayed CDers as sexual deviants or effeminate homosexuals. Not until the mid to late 80s did I hear of a certain Stephanie Ann Lloyd, a transsexual who had founded the Transformation shop catering specifically for cross dressers. I visited the store, bought my first proper wig, and took away an armful of literature about the whole 'TV' (as they then called it) scene. For me it was eye opening stuff and the advent of the internet then changed everything.
Here today, gone tomorrow....
For me it was "Female Mimics" and the rest of the TV magazines. They were the only source of ANY information outside the staid, medical versions in the library.
True we were probably all seen then as "Queens", but I didn't care at the time as it gave me the reassurance that I wasn't alone which was the worst part of being this way in the 60's, 70's and all the pre-internet years.
I don't wear women's clothes, I wear MY clothes !
Early on, it was psychology books, especially interesting to me were case studies of boys and young men with crossdressing-related fetishes, and even better, fetishes like mine. Then magazines like Playboy and Penthouse, even though there wasn't much crossdressing content, I still liked to look at pretty, sexy women wearing what I liked and wanted to wear. Then crossdressing magazines. And I did get a Centurians catalog. Finally, the internet.
I dabbled in crossdressing until my early twenties when I finally went head-to-toe. I thought my CDing had fulfilled my desires, but I was wrong. Over the next few decades my preferences got more and more over-the-top, and my enjoyment increased along with it.
Just like the rest of you I read any thing I could find to try and understand my own desires. And you have named all the sources except one of the early means that usually was a positive narrative, Ann Landers and a few of of the other advise columns when they were asked. I started in 1970 and there was very little but the irony is in the TV shows it was either a comedy or for some defined purpose that the subject was portrayed. But in society it was still taboo.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]Fran
It's worth something just being around to Fuss!
Same here.....I will be 70 in a couple pf months also...Originally Posted by Stephanie47
The only thing you ever heard about TS and transvestites (as CDs were all called back them ) was "Christine Jogenson " and I was extremely confused.
There was also just 5 channels on television and certainly nothing even remotely about TS, etc .
I grew up about 50 miles from NY City... where my mom was from so, we frequently when there.
When I was old enough to drive and have a car, I drove to some Times Square Porno shops in NY City and bought some books about on TVs.
Young people today do not realize how good they have it with the net, the TV shows about TS etc, and changing public attitudes...
Last edited by Barbara Jo; 02-23-2017 at 04:06 PM.
I went to a Catholic Prep high school in Brooklyn, N.Y. from '62 to '66. Part of our requirements was to write papers using the NYC Library at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue. In those days you could leave your stuff at the reading table and go out for lunch. One day I went down 42nd Street and crossed over Broadway to SIN CITY. All the movie houses had large XXX signs and all the book stores were ADULT ONLY. I remember it like it was yesterday when I looked in a store window and saw my first copy of FEMALE MIMICS. On the cover was a beautiful Blonde in a lilac gown and on the left was the same person in male garb. His male image would have set everyone's gaydar off today. "Not that there is anything wrong with that." quoting Seinfeld. But that was a pivotal moment in my life when I realized I was not alone. After that I spent all my lunches down at that end of 42nd. By my junior year i was shaving daily. So I did not shave on Fridays so that by Saturday I had a nice shadow and finally got into the adult stores and bought my first books. I did not get any studying done up in my room those nights. "Tranvestia" was a frequent purchase and Lee Brewster's Drag Magazine was a must. I would see his ads for an annual DRAG BALL in the Village all the time but never had the courage to attend. If you told me Lee and I would be fairly close friends by 1980 I would never have believed it then. As it turned out, Lee was a huge influence in my crossdressing and transgendered life in my 30's, 40's and early 50's. He was the first person to do a makeover for me and I exited his store on 10th near 42nd in 1980 fully dressed in the afternoon and my life has never been the same. I was 31. I can say with all honesty that I loved him as a dear friend. PS I do not consider myself a SENIOR! I am in the very late stages of midlife, but I'll take the discount anyway.
Last edited by Stephanie Julianna; 02-23-2017 at 05:54 PM.
When I was young, I would sneak into my mom's closet and grab a girdle to wear at night in bed.
At that time, "Christen Jorgason" was in the news as she was transforming into a girl.
I read every news articular I could find on her. A few years later, now in the service on R & R
in Australia, I ran across a drag queen show. At first I did not know that it was a drag show,
I was very impressed with the very cute bodies on the stage. Later it was reviled that the dancers
where all men, I was floored, but secretly wish I could have been one.
Later when I returned home, I started wearing my girdles at night, and loved it.
THEN i got married, the new wife did not go for the fact that I liked to wear female clothes of
any type.
9 years of disagreement"s led to divorce. It was only then that I could expand my desires.
Rader
Like several of posts above, the majority of what I read was in either Penthouse or Playboy magazines. There were a few others, remember Penthouse Variations??? Thankfully, I was smart enough to know some of those stories could be filed in the "pure fiction" category.
Then one day I opened my favourite motorcycle magazine and was fascinated to read that a famous motorcycle racer and moto-journalist Mike Duff, had become Michelle Duff.
I was also resistant to the use of computers in my job, and waited several years before I bought my first home pc. Anyway you cut it, I was late to the party.
Karen
I had not a clue when I was younger. I knew transvestites wore women's clothes and some of them had beards and wore dresses! But I never made the connection that I was one until I came here! Naive, yes! I remember Michael Salem's boutique and things in Playboy, Penthouse, and Penthouse Forum! The memories! Hugs Lana Mae
Life is worth living!
"Foxy lady! You look so good!!" Jimi Hendrix
I grew up in a small town in Iowa, but our local cigar-shop/news-stand stocked Sexology magazine which occasionally had articles on transvestites and transsexuals. They were, for the most part, accurate and non-judgmental. One article on transvestites that I particularly remember stated clearly that transvestites were, for the most part, heterosexuals who enjoyed wearing female clothing. It discussed a heterosexual couple, where the husband was a cross-dresser, and told how he came out to his wife. The wife's reaction was surprisingly accepting. (This was the late 50's or early '60s.) There were also occasional articles on sex-change operations. That being said, the attitude of the magazine as a whole seemed to be slightly negative towards transvestism.
Unfortunately, I left the issue containing the article on transvestism laying out on my bed one day, and my mother found it. She made me burn it in the fireplace. I guess it was just too evil to be thrown in the trash.
I knew that the article on transvestism was, to some degree, about me. But I was too young to come to grips with the idea at the time. At least I knew I wasn't alone.
This is such a great thread! There are, literally, bits from every story hear that match my own experience. Early surreptitious dressing in "borrowed" clothes, every ad in the back of this or that periodical, every catalog (Centurions, hadn't thought of that one in a while), the CD magazines, Tapestry et al. That's all we had, well, that and the psychology texts in the library. It took me a little longer to embrace Kelly fully, but it's all good now.
I have an internet presence that predates the "boom" by a couple of years. I always envisioned what a transformative thing it would become as the boom started, and I have been fascinated by, and generally thankful for, the cultural impact it has had. So many younger people here learning and coming to terms with themselves so much earlier and easier now.
There was nothing except magazines that I can remember.
My first foray into dressing was when I was a junior in HS.
It was fun but short lived.
In my late 20's I became friends with a local transvestite by accident actually shared a cab ride with her.
We stayed friends for years.
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