VIRGIN VIEWS

BY VIRGINIA

53.

The one question that haunts all transvestitęs is, of course, "What made me this way", or put in a more gen- eral way, "What is the cause of Transvestism"? Now, any answer to the latter generalization should provide within it a satisfactory answer to any specific individual who asks the first question. So let us examine the problem!

In previous issues of TRANSVESTIA we have had medical artiles for the purpose of revealing the extent of current medical knowledge From these articles and other reading we can list the principle causes commonly advanced as ex- planations for this condition:

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Parents wanted a girl and treated boy as though he was a girl, thus conditioning him early to feminine ways.

Parents kept little boy in dresses and long curls to a relatively advanced age, thus again giving him what might be termed a feminine start in life. Small boy is punished by being forced to wear some sort of feminine attire, comes to like it, links it with sexuality and has a fetish for fem- inine clothing (particularly the kind worn in the punishment) the rest of his life. Lack of an adequate father image around whom a young boy could build his own masculinity. A father who demanded more masculinity than a shy, sensitive, delicate boy could provide, thus driving him away from masculinity to seek refuge in femininity (transvestism or homosexuality) Glandular imbalance tending to throw a boy to- ward a feminine type of development

Various special cases such as mother fixation (desire to be like her), antagonism toward the father (desire NOT to be like him) etc.

8. Various complicated psychoanalytical theories in- volving "castration compleses", "phallic women" etc.