Transvestia

without having sufficient data.

And how do we go about gathering information? Those of us who have been lucky to meet many TV's and TS's have been able to gather information, make comparisons and learn a great deal about ourselves. We are in possession of enough data so that we can say: I'm a TV and not a TS. But, let us stop and consider that there are many TV's who have not been so lucky and therefore they do not really know wheth- er they are TV's or TS's. I dare say that there are some TV's who are really TS's and they do not know it, just as there are some who think they are TS's when they are really TV's. The problem is then a matter of self-knowledge. I realize some of you may reject my assuption. You may say: "Come on, Susanna, how can one be a TS and not know it, isn't it pretty obvious?" The trouble is that it isn't as obvious as one may imagine, at least in some cases. I have known TV's, convinced that they were extremely fond of cross-dressing and nothing else, who, over a per- iod of time, experienced emotional changes which led them to a TS level. The answer here could perhaps be found in the fact that they had been TS's all a- long but didn't know it. That is, the TS drive was dormant, repressed, or just budding...and it took a certain amount of time in TV experiences for the TS urge to appear.

Some schools of thought contend that basically the TV is very fond of his male sex and extracts a great deal of pleasure from it, while the TS actu- ally hates his male sex organs and can't wait to get rid of them. These diametrically oppossed attitudes are suppossed to underscore the main difference be- tween a TV and a TS. But, there are those who be- lieve that there is not much distance separating love from hate and that it is not too difficult to learn to hate that which we love. Anyway, these are all theories and it is not my purpose to prove or to disprove them. All I know is that I've known about a dozen TS's who have had the operation. I

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