ARTICLE

THE CULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TRANSVESTITE

Paula Wyoming

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I would like to present a thesis which may startle some of you, but which if reflected upon might help you integrate your feminine side into our culture. I believe that given all we can presently know about the reasons for and meaning of transvestism, we are left with only one con- clusion, that the ultimate meaning of FPia rests in its relation to the cul- ture in which it is found. Put simply, the transvestite has a message for the rest of the society in which he finds himself which needs to be actively lived out for his meaning to become clear. My fellow FPs, it's about time we discovered that whatever guilt we feel must in fact be borne by our culture and not ourselves. If we hide our feminine side we do an injustice to ourselves, but we do an even greater injustice to our society by robbing it of our meaning to it. One may truly say that our lives have not been easy, but let us not dismiss our suffering as meaningless. I say our lives have a purpose which most of have not brought to light, and to this end I hope this article will contribute.

We are not sick, and indeed the only reason most of us have any prob- lem at all is that in our culture it is not accepted for men to dress in wo- men's clothes. The natural reaction of the FP is to think that there is something wrong with him in exhibiting desires which are not culturally acceptable. I say there is something wrong with our culture for not being able to integrate the FP into it.

Our meaning is not to be found by ourselves in locked rooms but in open contact with all those around us. The fundamental expression of our meaning is in wearing feminine clothes, but this expression is pri- marily a symbol for a deeper meaning. I will explore that meaning in la-

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