Transvestia

1)

The urge to create a different face in the mirror. This is a desire for change, a rebellious act against the monotony imposed by custom upon the physical appearance of the male. A blast directed against the "Thou shall not's" hung by society over a man's head. This includes, for instance, the freedom to dye your hair in a different color from week to week if one so desires...to wear it long or short...to redden or not to redden your lips...to bare your neck or to adorn it with glitter...to cover or not to cover our arms...etc...Girls are granted this freedom to transform themselves visually in a great many different ways. Man is restricted as to modifications he is allowed to make in his appearance. This desire to see ourselves as somebody else in the mirror, in a radically different guise, is one of the drives that push us over the dividing line and makes us become "girl-for-awhile". I compare it in some ways with the desire of a fat person to slim down and thus a ter his silhouette, or a skinny one, to gain pounds...or a pale individ- ual longing for a tan...or a bald one purchas- ing a toupee, etc. The difference lies in the fact that these latter urges do not violate a social taboo. Ours does.

2) Somewhat connected with No. 1 - although

different- is the urge to see ourselves as esthetically pleasing...to ourselves, and hope- fully, to others. To a TV a woman's face and a woman's body are infinitely more pleasing and attractive, than a man's. This is the urge to undo in order to replace. To erase something esthetically unpleasant and to create an image that to the TV--is nicer looking than the one that he is forced by nature to exhibit to the world throughout his life. This urge contains obvious narcissistic elements. The TV wants to be able to say to himself "I am prettier this way"...and naturally longs to make the same

64