Ever wonder what i was like to be a CD back in the 1950s or 1960s

[darla_g]

So overall we have it pretty good these days. One can get all dolled up and go to a club or restaurant and you won't get thrown in jail! How nice. Ru Paul's drag race is even on TV

I ran across a few things i wanted to share about how things used to be.
Back in the 1950s in a place like Columbus Ohio something like this could happen. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/...ssing-laws-u-s

https://www.history.com/news/stonewa...e-article-rule

But it wasn't all bad, if you never heard of Casa Susanna this seems like it would be a great summer getaway https://www.thestar.com/news/insight...-was-safe.html

https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/...fe/susanna.jpg

Its good to know where we have come from, so never forget. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histor..._United_States
I remember back in early 80s meeting someone who was much older than me who told me scary stories of what the scene was like in NYC. horrifying

[Geena75]

I think of the 1967 film "The Producers" in the sequence when they go to get a director for their show. The guy comes out in a dress, and Gene Wilder's character just freaks out over it. Crossdressing was obviously not considered acceptable behavior.

I suppose it's no wonder the shame I felt in the 60's when trying on my sister's thrown out pantyhose.

[lingerieLiz]

Henry III was a crossdresser



It is being suggested that Joan of Arc wore mens clothes and in that time women were burned at the stake for dressing as men.

[Sometimes Steffi]

I'd like to change my answer. Being a crossdresser in the 1950's was probably better than being a black slave in the 1850's, but not much better.

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It is being suggested that Joan of Arc wore men's clothes and in that time women were burned at the stake for dressing as men.

Joan of Arc was in fact burned at the stake (according to Wikipedia).

[NancyTO]

Fashion wise is was great for CDs. As in 50's and early 60's women would commonly wear makeup and mainly dresses, hose and heels. Petticoats were common and bullet bras literally reaching their peak. Not too many females wearing slacks or pants. Big bouffant hairdo as well.

[Felixkoch2312]

Blame and dread of disclosure. I've lived with both.

I don't feel the blame such a lot of any more. Yet, dread of disclosure plagues me.

[Teri Ray]

Ahh the old days were special. Without the internet I recall absolutely believing I was the only male who had a desire to wear female clothing. This desire I could not shake no matter how guilty I felt. It was quite a feeling of being alone. I recall looking at the Sears Catalog viewing women's lingerie I dreamed of being able to buy the pretty bras, panties, and nighties I could see there. Not until I found the internet did I come to find that the world was full of others who had similar feelings. Now rather than just see what the Sears catalog had to offer the whole world of stores and pretty things is at my finger tips. This forum has been a blessing to me to share thoughts and feelings and to learn from others how they deal with this desire.

[alwayshave]

Darla, Thanks for posting. I really liked the history.com article.

[SarahBJackson]

I think that it would be very difficult to CD in the fifties or sixties because the clothes and shoes were not big enough for me.

[lingerieLiz]

I lived it!!
I didn't know back then you could get in such trouble. I was out and about. I was stoped once and scared I would go to jail.

[darla_g]

What i found interesting is that Female Impersonators seemed to be quite popular dating back to the 1890s. So that was acceptable but god forbid someone showed up at the theater that way!

https://wellcomecollection.org/artic...DpbxAAAItBfFd8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego..._impersonators
https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/...t=history_pubs
https://news.sfsu.edu/when-cross-dre...-francisco-law

[LelaK]

It was often considered funny back then to crossdress, i.e. a male dressed like a female. Ralph on Green Acres was a female dressed like a male, but that didn't seem outrageous, just kind of funny. I started crossdressing back then, about 1958. I didn't do it much, but I enjoyed it guilt-free when I did. I got to crossdress in plays a couple times, which was considered funny. But I enjoyed the feeling.

[Wen4cd]

Everything i know about CDing in the 50's and 60's I learned from Pink Floyd. :O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQkzb78pMg

[Karren H]

Hey! I started dressing in the 50's! lol And had my first trip out of the house enfemme in 1966... Those were the days... Before pantyhose were invented... all the women wore girdles and dresses (no jeans!!) I remember finding a Look Magazine with an article about transvestites of New York city and it was that moment I realized I was not alone...

Thanks for sharing, Darla... and reminding me how old I'm getting.... sigh....

[Beverley Sims]

In the 50s and sixties you could be had up for carrying articles of disguise.

Don't carry a wig and a dress in your satchel, let alone a bra and panties.

I had support then and went on many forays with the girl next door and her parents.

Never had proof but I think they were a bit weird.

Like early hippies I think, just a little more liberated in their thinking.

[Lydianne]

Occasionally, an in-practice-depricated law shows up in times it wasn't written for, and it leaves you thinking: "What the...?!" 🤨.


Attempted misappropriation of an inapplicable law on a person that was dressed unisex ( and had clothing receipts to prove it ), and then when that didn't work, leaving the person at the mercy of a street gang..... all in the name of "appropriateness". Awful!

How good they looked though! 👏. It's not as though you could just browse a billion different styles, products and tutorials per minute from the comfort of your own living room back then.


Linda P. sent me this one around a year ago. A bit more cheerful than the history link ( the end is a bit sad though ):

https://archive.org/details/UCLABehindEveryGoodMan

"Produced several years before the historic Stonewall uprising for LGBT rights in 1969, director Nikolai Ursin's gently-activist short Behind Every Good Man (c. 1967) provides an illuminating glimpse into the life of an African-American trans woman. In strong contrast to the stereotypically negative and hostile depictions of transgender persons as seen through the lens of Hollywood at the time, the subject of Ursin's independent film is rendered as stable, hopeful and well-adjusted . . . "

- L.

[susanmichelle]

I found out when I was around 10 years old my great grandmother was a opera singer with the highest vocal range in the world could hit high c and break glass plus sing just like a canary. Main thing was she played vaudeville and dressed in beautiful gowns as well. Funny thing is I wasn?t dressing then didn?t start until 1982. When I was 10 it was 1962. Thing is when I look back at pictures of her afterwards I wondered how I?d look in the beautiful clothes she wore back then.

[mbmeen12]

Attachment 318922

Brave folks they were....

[MysteryWoman]

The biggest difference between then and now, of course, was the lack of an Internet, which is a gold mine for CDers. The term crossdresser was not in common use, so when I went to the libarary for information, I had to look for material about transvestism. And there was no on-line shopping or companies like Amazon to relieve me of the stress of going into a department store to buy women's clothes. I bought a lot of "gifts" for fictional girlfriends.

Occasionally the Ed Sullivan Show featured performances by the Princeton Triangle Club, an all-male musical troop that featured guys in dresses, heels and fishnets doing chorus lines. Whenever they were on, I had to fake disintetest in the performance so that my parents didn't catch on. I actually thought about applying to Princeton, but we couldn't afford it.

Bottom line: Things are infinitely better now.

[Krisi]

I once saw part of an old movie in black and white, set in the 1920s where two out of work male musicians dressed as women and joined an all female orchestra (band). I didn't get to see it all so I don't know how it turned out.

I imagine crossdressing was much more difficult in years gone by, but apparently it has been going on for a long time. I also wonder if there are crossdressers in the mid east where laws are much different than in the western world.

[KrissyTN]

Krisi,

The movie is "Some like it hot" and it stars Jack Lemmon & Tony Curtis. It is a great film! The men witness a St. Valentines day massacre type of event and need to go under cover, so they end up joining an all girls band heading south. They meet Marilyn Monroe along the way, and one of them falls in love with her. The other is courted by an old rich man when they get to FL. I highly recommend it!

I once saw part of an old movie in black and white, set in the 1920s where two out of work male musicians dressed as women and joined an all female orchestra (band). I didn't get to see it all so I don't know how it turned out.

I imagine crossdressing was much more difficult in years gone by, but apparently it has been going on for a long time. I also wonder if there are crossdressers in the mid east where laws are much different than in the western world.

[SaraLin]

I don't have to wonder. I only have to remember.
The memories aren't pleasant.

Well - let me rephrase that a bit... The dressing part brings some pleasant memories, but discovery by the outside world was definitely unpleasant.
It was a time of desperate need, abject fear, and self loathing - all wrapped up in one skinny little body.
I don't miss it.

[Aunt Kelly]

I once saw part of an old movie in black and white, set in the 1920s where two out of work male musicians dressed as women and joined an all female orchestra (band). I didn't get to see it all so I don't know how it turned out.

That sounds like "Some Like It Hot, a 1959 Billy Wilder film starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe. The reason for their joining the band is a little different (no spoilers here), but the very same plot.

[AngelaYVR]

This thread topic is why I get irritated with people on here who say things like “it’s not fair that I can’t wear a skirt in public and women and can wear trousers!” Gay people and crossdressers of yore made the sacrifice to get where we are today, which is a giant leap forward for which I am grateful (for the CD part myself and for my gay friends the other). It takes courage and sacrifice to shift opinions and laws.

Now, if we are talking about the access to great clothing back then, for that I would definitely take a trip in a time machine!

[Star01]

I was born in 1951 and I can concur that the 5o?s and 60?s were different times. The first time I got into women?s clothes at 13 I had no idea that people actually did that, I thought I was alone. I live in a typical Midwest smaller town and have never seen a crossdresser in public here. I would guess that we would prefer to go to the closest big city where it tends to be more welcoming.

These smaller towns are still not very welcoming and I doubt they ever will be.