Would we have cd'd 150 years ago?

[Kate Simmons]

One thing I know for sure is that when there was a will, there was always a way, regardless of the age or time period.

[Nicole Erin]

One thing I know for sure is that when there was a will, there was always a way, regardless of the age or time period.

Your generation looks at mine and thinks "These kids have it so easy compared to what we went thru"

OK true but over 100 years ago, none of us can begin to imagine how hard or at what price if we were caught...
They did not have the freedom to stroll into town like we ofte brag about. Unless they were REALLY passable, and how would they know? None of us look at ourselves and think "Wow, I pass perfect". Not even the ones that DO pass perfect.

I envy their bravery back then.

[Alice Torn]

After the north defeated the south, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, reportedly was captured in womens clthes, trying to pass through the Union authorities. The documentary implied it was considered very disgraceful. Can you imagine being caught, then, plus being who he was?

[celeste26]

Virginia Prince is a more modern person, I actually met her in a shop in the LA area around 1972. She could not have been alive 150 years ago.

Eonism is the name CD's were given due to the activities of the Chevalier D' Eon a French diplomat and very real person in the era of King Luis the XIV. He was sent as a spy to the court of Russia and spent his time in dresses since the ladies there had all the best information and he could send it back to France without suspicion. After he was finally "outed" he spent the rest of his life in dresses and finally retired to England.

While the term Eonism is not currently used, the source of the name is a person who was proud to wear feminine finery publicly and therefore not such a bad name for our activity.

[countrygirl]

I think it would be intersesting to be crossdressing back in the 1800's to experience the clothes of that time. I would like to be experience the female attire of that time period. It would include all of it.

[keena]

If interested (of course you are) there is a series of books published in England by a man named Farrar. His books primarily contain lettere from old magazines, circa 1880 on up to WW2 dealing with crossdressing. I myself love wearing old style long backlaced corsets common to that period. I would include a picrure if I knew how to post one.

Addendum. I just noticed that my thumbnail shows my ancient style corset. A full size one might be easier to view.

[LilSissyStevie]

I read an article a while back suggesting that the composer Richard Wagner may have been a crossdresser.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007...classicalmusic

[TxKimberly]

I really wonder, if the desire to crossdress, with ALL gg's wearing long dresses to their feet, would have been as strong, as it is in the past 60 years, with short skirts, shorter dresses, tighter, also, and so much more skin shown, as normal. Interesting. It was a different culture, vastly different, than modern society.

Oh HELL yes! Of course I have sort of a thing about those big beautiful dresses though! lol

[susan fuller]

Back in that time tere were treaveling salesmen of womans clothing. So a person could buy clothes to fit without wnyone knowing who they were for. I love the ball gowns they wore in that time.

[Nicki B]

You've never heard of Mollys??

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserve...tures.review27

In 1726 there were 40 molly houses in London. 'They weren't brothels. Men paid for their drinks - but there was cross-dressing, mock marriages, mock births.' Men would pretend to give birth to wooden dolls which would then become their children. This was presumably not for sexual gratification? 'No. There was a fascination with what the body could - and could not - do.' Ravenhill has read accounts of tea parties in the molly houses. The men would sit with their wooden children and report on their prowess. 'The men used to give themselves names,' Ravenhill reports with relish, 'such as Pomegranate Moll or Thumbs-and-Elbows Jenny.'

He wants it known that the molly houses were not for 'louche aristocrats... The men had occupations such as bootmen, cow-hands, upholsterers.'

[Tip or Ozma]

After the north defeated the south, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, reportedly was captured in womens clthes, trying to pass through the Union authorities. The documentary implied it was considered very disgraceful. Can you imagine being caught, then, plus being who he was?

I do not think he was one of us. At dawn on May 10, the Davis encampment outside Irwinville, Georgia, was awakened by gunfire. Union cavalry troops were seen approaching in the distance. Davis's wife, Varina, convinced her husband to escape while he still could. Inside the darkened tent, Jefferson Davis put on what he probably thought was his overcoat and departed for a nearby swamp. He had accidentally donned his wife's raglan (a cloak-like overcoat). Mrs. Davis threw her shawl over his head to obscure his identity, and then sent her female servant with a bucket to walk with her husband as if they were fetching water.

The Union soldiers probably thought at first that the two figures were both women, but then a corporal noticed the spurs on Davis's boots. The corporal rode over to the two, and pointed his gun at Davis, asking his identity. The Confederate president considered lunging at the federal officer and making a break for it, but his wife ran to her husband and threw her arms around him. The soldiers soon realized whom they had captured.

[CaptLex]

You must be thinking of Lord Cornbury... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_...l_of_Clarendon

Glenda

Now where have I heard that before . . . ? Hmmm . . .