"SUSANNA

SAYS..."

Hi Everybody:

Here we go again. This time Susanna writes with a feeling of guilt. But since confession is good for the soul I must explain. Sure enough I missed last TRANSVESTIA. This has happened only twice in the entire life of our magazine, both times because of a terrific accumulation of work. This time however, there were other factors which make me feel guilty. The truth of the matter is that I had no time to write for TRANSVESTIA but I did manage to write an article for THE LADDER, the lesbiar magazine. It is the second such article that I wrote for the girls. The first one published in the May issue under the title I HATE MEN.

In this article I tried to show our lesbian friends that just as they rebel against the official definition of femi- ninity that society has imposed upon women, so do we rebel against the official definition of masculinity inpose by society on all men. The lesbians accuse men of having invented a standard mold or ideal into which every woman must make herself fit (whether she likes it or not). She must be somewhat helpless, must look up to a man, must be eager and willing to accept motherhood, musn't be aggressive, etc......I simply pointed out to the readers of THE LADDER that it is women who have invented to- day's Masculine Role. Women insist that we fit ourselves into a pattern which they themselves have created for us. Women are the ones who have decreed that men must stay within the rigid frame of that mold while women keep for themselves all the freedoms they want. (Slacks are comfortable, they say, that's why I love to wear them). As you well know, all hell breaks loose when a man dares

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SO