full advantage of all the whims, caprices, variations and freedoms available in feminine attire, makeup, per- sonal adornment and behaviour. His ambition is to be able to fall so completely into the feminine role in clothing, makeup, hairdo, gestures, walk, etc, that he can melt into a crowd on the street and be just one of the girls."

Being just a woman with women is an end in itself. For now in this world the individual can "let himself go." More than that, he can get rid of HIMself entirely and give expression to HERself--to all the emotions, actions, mannerisms, etc. that he was forced to suppress long ago. He can be gentle, graceful, loving, and all the things he must not and cannot be in the male role. This release from that repression and control is enormously relaxing and satisfying, and accounts for the general failure of the psychological and paychiatric professions to "cure" such people. It is not easy to be a transvestite in terms of social and domestic disapproval, fear, guilt, extra ex- pense, etc. but to give it up is even harder because it deprives the individual of some satisfacations that are basic. Basic in the sense that they are deeper than, and beyond any current social conventions.

This desire to experience the feminine is not accompanied with any ideas of surgery nor any yearning for sex ex- perience with a male. Unfortunately the word " trans- vestite" has been applied across the board to any male adorning himself with feminine finery without regard for the intent and desire behind such activity. This fact, combined with the public misconception that all homo- sexuals favor feminine attire, leads to the false conclus- ion that any male enjying feminine attire must q.e.d. be a home sexual. Thus, it becomes difficult in both lay and professional literature to distinguish the hetero- sexually oriented male who seeks expression for his inner femininity, from the homosexually" queen" whose moti- vations are on the sexual level, when both are termed transvestites.

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In an attempt to clarify the motivations of the non- homosexual male who enjoys feminine clothing, etc. I have coined the word "FemmePersonator, admittedly not an entirely satisfactory term, but in the absence of

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