logically naughty, wrong, bad or immoral about sex. It is just one of the aspects of being alive. These words are value judgements invented by man through his social conditioning. Once we recognize this down deep we can deal with sex on a frank, open, above-board and straight- forward level - calling a spade a spade and not cowering at the use of the word or at thinking the thought.

The sad thing is that the M.D.s who see patients and listen to them relate how they become erotically excited by dressing, have come to see this eroticism as the principle hallmark of transvestism-femmiphilia and you can read it in the literature and medical dictionaries over and over again. What they never learn, because they never get a chance to see it, is the development of the gender-personality aspect of the indi- vidual and its greatly overshadowing the erotic aspects. People who have achieved sufficient acceptance of themselves to have developed at least the beginnings of a feminine personality have already begun to overshadow the erotic aspects of cross dressing. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I would be willing to bet that persons who have attended as few as six FPE meetings will already have less- ened considerably the erotic aspects of dressing and probably have a reduced incidence of orgasmic episodes related to the dressing at meet- ings relative to the period immediately prior to their joining. The more opportunity the individual has to express his femmepersonality in the presence of others the more that side of him will overshadow the erotic aspects of the experience.

So, in conclusion, let me say that I don't think that there should be any fear connected with the admission and discussion of the erotic aspects of cross dressing. If there were none there would have been no original motivation for doing it. But having started cross dressing, and if circumstances permit, the individual develops some degree of gender awareness. He is branching out on the more psychological limb and eroticism will begin to lose its significance. It is interesting to note that on a great many FPE applications where there is a question "Dressing in feminine attire is sexually thrilling _?" a large number either say No or do not answer at all. I suppose that they assume that Fran and/or myself, in reviewing the application, will be negatively impressed if he answers “yes.” In actuality a no or a non-answer gives me the impression of fear, guilt, and dishonesty whereas a “yes” an- swer is a simple statement and admission of what we would presume went on in 95% of the applicants anyway. So perhaps this little dis- cussion will indicate that we might as well be candid about the exis- tance of an erotic aspect to cross dressing and recognize it as "normal" On the other hand it does not have all the significance that the psychia- trists would have us believe.

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