to copy what GG's look like, we spend hours and hours learning makeup technique so that the image in the mirror will look as good as possible ("good" in this case meaning "feminine"). We spend money and time in creating as presentable a feminine figure as pos- sible.
Are we to
Let's assume we've succeeded. And then, what? stop right at that point? We see a girl in the mirror, our friends also see her, esthetically she is quite acceptable... that is if she stands frozen, without moving... Here comes the big question-should she move as the rest of the world would expect her to move? Or, should she move as a man? Should she maintain the picture so lab- oriously created, or should she immediately destroy it in one single movement? And when I say move, I include posture, gestures, walk and voice inflection. Unfortunately many TV's choose the second alternative. They destroy in one single gesture the entire picture - they actually commit murder, wanton destruction of something that could be beautiful but is not allowed to develop into beauty. Then, I say, the entire process of creation so carefully pursued, becomes a stupid waste of time, an idiotic masquerade which ends at the very moment it begins. If the image created has no life of her own, then all the care put into making up, dress, shoes, etc., makes no sense. If we are responding to an inner urge which demands express- ion, then, why strangle that urge before it has a chance to acquire a body and a life of its own? The TV who stops with just dressing is like store mummy, nice to look at, like a snapshot, but devoid of all expression.
I have talked about this problem with many of my friends and have collected quite a few viewpoints. Some say that all the care they put into dressing is due to the obstacles placed before them by the law and society in general. If society and the law should not object to cross dressing, then they would not bother trying to "pass" I picture them in skirts and high heels while sporting a flowing Castro-like beard! Still others will admit that to them TVism is only a game in which the TV tries to "fool" the public. The more they fool the happier they are. But as to inner femininity, ZERO!!! If fooling others is the ONLY object of our activity then we should keep in mind that you can't fool all of the people all of the time and that it would make no sense to have friends who know about our activity--we expect them to like us not because we successfully fool the public but because of what we are, because of our personal- ities. I am not implying here that I don't enjoy "passing". Of course it's nice. But there's more than that in TVism..more than just being a successful masquerader. It is hard to define that "some-
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