IMAGINE how diffweent it would be if we had the internet and this forum in the 1960s?

[Beverley Sims]

What would you post or do differently if you has the internet and computers sixty years ago.

For those who have been there and done that, give us your ideas and those who who are younger and not thinking about funeral insurance yet.....

Use your imagination. :-)

[LaurenS]

Oh, wow. Definitely would have changed me. But I grew up in the South, and still don’t know if I would have been out. Conforming to society is a powerful force in the South. I know there are exceptions, but overall, if middle class white, you are expected to like football, hunting and fishing among other things. Judgement everywhere.

but maybe I would have moved, so ...

well, I just don’t know!

[Helen_Highwater]

Well for a start I wouldn't have had to rely on "saving" my SO's cast offs from the jumble sale bag so I had something to wear. Online shopping would have moved my wardrobe on no end.

The greatest boon however would surely be the confidence gained by knowing you weren't alone, a weirdo. Being able to reach out to others brings with it such a wealth of knowledge and experience.

I moved my CD'ing on further in 3 years having joined this site than I did in the 2 previous decades. That's what you call having an impact!

[Rayleen]

In the sixties was very different and CDers were in hiding. But it would have help with an internet forum for sure.

Shopping was more one sided store, not the family type like now. I was CD in my bedroom, family religious we strong.

Hug Rayleen

[Laura912]

Beverley, the single biggest impact would be learning about everyone else, how similar their experiences were, and how they delt with the different degrees of needing to dress and needing to transition. Being alone with the fear was not easy.

Now, about that insurance....

[Teri Ray]

I cannot imagine how things might have been different with the internet during my younger days. For me it was connection with others online that lead me to find I was not alone with these desires. Finding that I was not an isolated crossdresser did help with my acceptance.

[alwayshave]

Knowing it was just not me would have been a big help to my mental state.

[Cheryl T]

Could we make that the '50's??
Then all this information would have been mine before puberty while I struggled with identity. If everyone had this information then then my dream of being a girl might have actually come true and all the years of shame, guilt and hiding would never have existed.

[Gypsy Sam]

Drag Queens,Female impersonators,and transgender news items were heard of, or displayed in print. The disdain was stronger then than now, even amongst artist and entertainers. Effeminate was a derogatory term that for many led to suicide.. Still present today amongst large number of people, it's a jungle out there.

[GretchenM]

I think my life would have been very different, but I am not sure how it would have been different. I might have transitioned. But a lot of it would depend on how the existence of the internet would have altered the course of society in their views of people like us. Would we be more accepted or perhaps even more rejected? Hard to say. But I would have certainly realized that I was not possessed by desires and wishes that males are not supposed to have, according to traditional standards. That might have made intense rejection on coming out a bit more bearable. When I came out 5 years ago there was moderate acceptance, but 5 years ago society was very different than it was in the 50's and 60'. But I suspect if a site like this existed back then I would be on it, even if in secret.

[bridget thronton]

I tend to agree - simply knowing I was not alone would likely affected my life choices as I became an adult

[Nikki A.]

If there were sites like this and the internet back then, I'm pretty sure things would have evolved differently. Knowing then what I learned here, I probably would have dressed and presented more as Nikki. Maybe even considered transitioning if I was young enough for the hormones to make a real difference.

[CONSUELO]

I hope I would have learned a lot and come to a more complete understanding of myself at an early age. But I am not sure if my "then" self was sufficiently open to learning.
There were other ways of reaching out to people then but they involved personal interactions. In the late 1960's in Berkeley, CA there was a free "alternative" paper called the Berkeley Barb which carried a large section of personal ads.
Through those ads I found a cross dressing man and his bi-sexual girlfriend who lived together. I would visit them often and they would tell me that I was a true transvestite. However I would always argue back that no, I just had a fetish. So the lesson learned is that whatever the medium you are sometimes deaf to the message.

[GracieRose]

It certainly would have made a difference.
Just knowing that I wasn't alone would have saved a lot of angst.
And to have the confidence that I gained here, to venture out at a younger age.......
However, I'm sure that it would have changed the journey that I've been on for the last 5 decades. For the better?? Who knows.

[Judy-Somthing]

Up until two years ago I reframed from ever typing the word (cross-dresser) into a browser.
There's always talk of how computers have all types of files saved on them and server companies track of what users look at.

I felt the need to hide this side of me!
I only found this site two years ago due to the Pink-Fog hitting me like a ton of bricks!

[DIANEF]

Oh wow, forums like this, on line shopping, all the youtube tutorials, the mass of information at your finger tips.... I might have done things 20-30 years ago I've only recently started doing.

[Pat]

There's a story in my family that I once asked my Mom what would happen if a battleship cruised up our street and she kinda lost her composure with my questions. I tend to look at questions like the OP in the same light.

I imagine if we had the internet in the 60's my life would be different. I hope that my character would be the same or nearly so. There are many accomplishments in my actual life that I would probably never achieve in this imaginary one and, frankly from where I sit, clipping the coupons on my funeral insurance, I would not give up those accomplishments for anything. So if this alternate reality was voluntary, I don't think I'd go there.

It's also important to keep in mind that the internet brought a lot more than just information on being trans. We'd get all of that too. An internet built on cigarette ads, leaded gasoline and Gillette Blue Blades would probably look a lot different than what we know now. What would it have been like with the focus on Viet Nam? There'd be downloadable music instead of vinyl LPs (and I don't know about you, but sharing/handling physical records was a big part of my teen social life.) Film cameras and darkrooms would be gone that much earlier -- positing an internet in the 60's is pretty complex. Who knows? Maybe battleships would be cruising down residential streets....

[Dana44]

Oh my in the sixties we were talking about the future and how the those really big computers can down size with transistors. Those were bran new and as the future unfolded it got to nice laptops. Then the internet grew and it took a while. So sixty years ago. We had to be men. no if or ans about that. We had that beat into us. But as I reached 20 years old, I knew that I was different. So I beat to my own drum until I figured it out.

[tammy1]

Well, life was certanly different back them. The Berkeley Barb (I just might still have a few issues hidden away in an old box). So consertive in the 50s. If you were a boy - you were a boy - period. You wore Blue genes, basically bland colored shirts; for dress, cords and slacks with a crisp button down shirt. In the 50's most families went to church every Sunday. Started to loosen up a bit by '66 or so. THEN..."The Summer of Love" SF '67. Wow. The vietnam was was hot and heavy and we were protesting. Out here on the west coast of CA "Hippies" started popping up everywhere; long hair, groovy cloths, and an attitude change of "live and let Live' started to influence the attitudes of the people. In the Bay Area, things started to really loosen up. Gheridelli Square and the Cannery were being restored and turned into businesss shops. Carol Dotta (one of the first transxual transformations - i believe in the 50's ) was alive and kicking down town. San Francisco became the mecca of "Happenings". And believe me it was fun. I actually managed to survive with a few brain cells still intact; i think; i think i can still think. Cal Berkeley was having daily riots in '69 when Reagan was Govenor and starting screwing with the UC system, eroding social serivces, closing state hospitals for the mentally needy, outlawed LSD and having influence in Nixon (right after Art Linletter's daughter decided she could fly - so she did - out off a 52 story balcony - her wings didn't work too good) to place pot on the Schedule 1 drug list, encourage the war movement, the list goes on and on. As for CD life style, well it was very in the closet everywhere for the most part (SF becoming a blooming exception). A few Tgirls started popping outin public from time to time, but for the most part it was isolatedd to the Tenderloin area of SF, maybe the Mission district too down near the GreyHound bus station. As for me at the age of 4, wearing some of my mother's clothing in the early 50's and being allowed (not back then) to explore a little more, I might have gone all the way, not sure. Looking back years later, and seeing where I am now, I have just learned to not be shy about my feelings and desire to womanize myself and enjoy the sensual pleasures of my feminine feelings. Purrrrrrrr. However, I need to get out with the girls and explore a little more, as being in the 'no-fly-zone" can be a bit restrictive. So, i'm thinking "Wildside" in Vegas an hope to make it there this May.

p.s. Consider this as my first regurgitation of rememberanes from back then. i'll share more if interested.Send me a PM...

Tammy

[Stephanie47]

Back in the 1960's anything deviating from the norm was looked down upon. I don't think society would have been different with a computer. The content really only reflects what society inputs. Having access to a site like this would have let me know that I was not alone in the universe. I would have also been affirmed that I was not gay. Back then if you wore women's clothing you were thought to be a homosexual. Homosexual's were discriminated against, if not outright beat up in many areas.

Just reading the posts on this forum suggests the mindset of a man who likes to wear women's clothing has not changed too much for many of us. Still keeping the curtains drawn? Still concealing clothes in odd places? Afraid of being castoff by a wife, family and friends? Still not feeling able to fully express oneself? I admit to it. The Internet just affirms there is nothing "wrong' with me, but, I still have to deal with those around me who rather not see me.

Oh, the Internet has been a blessing for shopping for women's clothing. It's a lot easier to just click on a women's garment and wait for USPS to deliver it to the mailbox. I remember my first trip to Sears to buy an open bottom girdle. It was nerve racking. I have some nice panties arriving in the mail today from eBay!

[mykell]

ive always thought it would have moved things along faster for what we have to access now, as stated some still think of us as deviants.

i think for me it would have had a jumpstart on my acceptance, for society its hard to tell, they would have had access to push back things that concerned them about us so its all speculation for us at this point....one thing i would imagine my makeup skills would have been honed better but would we all have first pictures with that craze for blue eye shadow

[Sometimes Steffi]

I can't agree with what stephanie47 wrote, but I'd like to elaborate on it.

Having the Internet available would have been like brightening a single star in a constellation, or perhaps in the Galaxy. As stated above, a man who wore women's clothing was gay, or in the vernacular of the day, a faggot. There were no Lesbians, bisexuals, or anything else. There were no transgender or non-binary. Schools were racially segregated, in the South de jure (by law) in the North de facto (in fact). I don't think it was possible to be black and buy or rent a house in my town. Not because it was illegal, but because no one would sell it to you.

Think of the movie "Remember the Titans" about an integrated football team. That movie is about a true story that took place in Virginia in 1970. That school is still operating and I could drive by it if I were so inclined.

Heck, interracial marriage was against the law in (most of) the South. There was a Supreme Court case that invalidated all of those laws in the US. I think that same sex relations, even among consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes, was considered sodomy and a chargeable offense

In short, just adding the Internet to a Jim Crow society wouldn't have changed much of anything.

[docrobbysherry]

No! I would have gotten into online porn 30+ years earlier!

[Nikki A.]

I can't agree with what stephanie47 wrote, but I'd like to elaborate on it.

In short, just adding the Internet to a Jim Crow society wouldn't have changed much of anything.

Steffi in some ways you may be right, but with all the different voices and views going through the internet, maybe situations might have moved faster than they actually have.
I also wanted to add to my previous post. Although my life probably would have been different, on the other hand I am thankful for the life I have had, a good marriage (one of two) and two great kids that are wonderful adults. We will see what lies ahead.

[CONSUELO]

Several posts have stated that the 60's were a repressive desert and they may well have been in some parts of the US. But as referenced by myself and Tammy1, in some parts of the World such as the SF Bay Area, there was a lot of lifestyle experimentation. Gay men and women were becoming more open and even accepted there and I remember a fellow student going through with sex reassignment surgery at that time. It was quite a process and her doctors insisted that she live full time as a woman for a year before actual surgery. She was a TA at a certain well-known university not a million miles from San Francisco and all of her fellow students as well as the ones in her classes got to see her a lot through the entire transition.

So, yes indeed, some parts of the World were relatively speaking cross-dressing deserts but some of us luckier ones were able to dress, go out, meet fellow transvestites and even go to bars and clubs where we were accepted. The internet has made things a lot easier to join groups such as this one and online shopping is very easy, but in the late 60's there were lots of small lingerie and dress shops where one could browse and buy to ones heart's content.

Thinking of those times as the dark ages is not right. However if one looks at the relative openness and social acceptance of homosexuality versus that of cross dressing today when compared with nearly 50 years ago, it looks to me as if we cross dressers have not come very far while the gay community has forged ahead. As Stephanie47 states so well, we still operate behind drawn curtains. Why is that?