Transvestia

it we know a good deal about it's highways and byways, it's customs and points of interest.

But let us not be taken in by those who don't under- stand, who say we are "escaping from masculinity" with the implication that we are unable to face the challenge of it. I think our statistics show that we face that challenge pretty darn well----at least as well, I should say, as any other segment of the population. But masculinity today is a very narrow concept, with sharp lines demarking it from femininity and great fear on the part of most men lest they should inadver- tantly step over the border and thus be accused of something that they are not guilty of. Thus the re- strictions on free expression by men today are much more marked than most men realize. They are much more prisoners of their gender than they think. Those of us who, through one circumstance or another, have learned something of what lies outside the walls are better able to understand these limitations of customs and conformity. We are better off in the broader sense (no pun intended) than they are because we have learne to breach the wall, to partake of the forbidden, and to realize that being a human being means more than just conforming to the local, temporary and arbitrary dic- tates of our contemporary society. Appreciation of colors, textures, materials, ornamentation, design, cut, odors, tastes, attitudes, philosophies, feelings, and personal expressions that have been masculine in the past and will be again, certainly make us non-con- formists but it doesn't except to the narrow minded and over conforming person make us perverts or depraved

persons.

Of course, saying all this we must remember that it is not just the clothes per se that we are adopting and enjoying. It is the inner humanity of the women that

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