Flashback: Ann Landers and my first mini skirt

[StacyG]

I just got a denim mini skit I bought of of ebay. I put it on and I love it and then had a flash back to when I was in my early teens in the early 80's. A frightened mother had written in to Ann Landers, that she had found a mini skirt her son had made by cutting up a pair of jeans or cut offs. Of course, I promptly ran to my room and got a pair of cut offs and cut the remainder of the legs and crotch off and made my first miniskirt. I loved wearing that miniskirt while wearing a pair of my mom's or sister's panties. What a fun flash back.
I can't remember Ann's response to the mother, but it was along the lines, of don't be afraid and he's not hurting anyone and is just exploring.
I work alone and wish I could wear my new miniskirt all day, but I'll be cutting steel and I tend to get oil all over everything.
Did you ever make your own miniskirt or did Ann landers ever influence you? To you younger folks, before the internet, we had news papers and Ann Landers and her sister Dear Abby. We could write and ask them questions and they would respond in the paper. Kinda like google today lol.

[Patience]

No, nothing like that.

I like that a parent's concern about their son's jeans miniskirt inspired you to make your own. I wonder how that parent would have felt if they knew. Lol.

[Sallee]

Never made a mini skirt out of old jeans but I use to read Ann all the time looking for the cross dresser question and answer columns

[Michala]

Back in the 60's I read an article by Ann Landers and transvestites. At the time I was in my early teens and had experimented with dressing in my mom's clothes. Always wondered what was wrong with me for enjoying that as I was all boy otherwise. She assured the mother who was concerned that it at least, it wasn't abnormal. For me I realized that I wasn't the only one even though it certainly wasn't as common as today. Shortly after that I read about a sex change operation. I knew that wasn't for me, I just sometimes liked to dress like a girl. Still do for that matter.

[Stephanie47]

Over the years I have read her column and others about cross dressing. If my memory is correct I have not read a negative response to an inquiry. If you "Google" Ann Landers + Cross dressing" or some other combination of words you'll come up with some old columns. I just did that before responding here and found one column and without going further I left my search. In that one column it was the usual questions and horror of a wife discovering her deceased husband had a vast wardrobe of femme attire. So, it was the usual issue of secrecy, gay, the horror of finding; don't let their kids know. I guess it brings out the big issue of sin of omission; not revealing to a wife, the secret. I always wonder when reading her responses, if there was opportunity for discussion between husband and wife, whether she would have told him she would not have married him, and,whether she would have divorced him. I am a child of the sixties, so those columns were of importance to me. However, I did get the initial response from my wife, she would not have married me. I bet it's the same in this "age of enlightenment."

Amen, alwayshave!

[alwayshave]

I remember the Ann Landers & Dear I Abby columns on crossdressing. As teen in the mid 1970s it let me know I wasn't the only one and that I was not a freak.

[Leslie Langford]

My recollection of Ann Landers' and Dear Abby's columns (they were actually twin sisters) date back to the 1960's, when I was still a teen. Like others here, I was always on the lookout for letters from "transvestites" as we were then called, since those columns were often among the very few sources available at the time for any meaningful information about this topic. All the others typically fell into that questionable category dominated by the sleazy tabloids of the time, which delighted in mocking our community whenever the occasion arose...and well before Jerry Springer jumped onto the same bandwagon with his "reality" television show.

In her early years, Ann echoed the temper of her times ("transvestites" were freaks and an abomination), and often gave unsympathetic and dismissive answers to people writing to her for advice on how to deal with their proclivities (or that of a crossdressing partner, as the case may be). Flippant phrases that she used such as "...just hit 'em with your purse, dearie" in response to a crossdresser asking how to react if a man tried to hit on "her" when out in public still remain etched in my brain after all these years. By contrast, Ann's sister Abby always seemed more sympathetic to our situation and often gave more meaningful and useful advice...usually along the lines of seeking professional help in dealing with their existential gender dysphoria (and relationship-related) crises.

To her credit, Ann eventually came to see the light in subsequent years, and at one point actually offered a sincere public apology to the crossdressing community, admitting that she had experienced an epiphany after researching the subject more deeply and consulting with professionals. As a result of this greater understanding, she stated that she no longer held the negative and unhelpful views that she had previously embraced. Her later columns began to reflect that change, and took on a much more balanced and nuanced tone when dealing with this subject.

[Crissy 107]

I use to read Ann all the time looking for the cross dresser question and answer columns

Me too, maybe that confirmed we were crossdressers back then even if we did not quite know it yet.

[docrobbysherry]

Of course I read Ann and Abby back in the day. But, that was WAY before I began dressing and having gender issues. I read because I learned about how people operate and how to react in uncomfortable situations.

I still read Ask Amy in the paper and continue to learn!

[Karren H]

I hated women wearing denim even back in the 60s! Lol. Never made one.