RANSVESTIA

ter articles. For the moment let us consider the dead ends most of us reach in seeking the reasons for our femmiphilia.

Is femmiphilia inherited? If there is a genotype particularly suscep- tible to FPia it would be inherited. There is a possibility however that it might be fostered by a genotype which has undergone mutation. This is not too far-fetched, as one in five individuals born carries newly arisen mutant genes. In this area natural selection will either support or destroy femmiphilia as a mutation without much guidance from us. We know that the presence of a Y-chromosome makes an individual male, while the X-chromosome carries the gene for femaleness. Normally, one Y and on X make a boy and two X's make a girl. Abnormal chromosomal com- binations are relatively rare, and do not seem to consistently show ten- dencies toward cross dressing. Biology and genetics are currently not ad- vanced enough to give us definite answers as to the reasons behind femmi- philia. (See "Mankind Evolving" by Dobzhansky.)

Is femmiphilia caused by environment? There are environments which no doubt foster its development. It appears that one factor alone is not enough to cause femmiphilia.

Is femmiphilia fostered by mal-imprinting? There is evidence (see "The Naked Ape" and "The Human Zoo" by Desmond Morris) that imprinting is an important factor in sexual development. Sexual imprint- ing is an important factor in sexual development. Sexual imprinting is the association we make at the moment of the first ejaculation. This stays with us apparently through life. In my case, my first ejaculation was associated with girls' clothing, not girls. Of course, I had been wear- ing girls' clothes previous to this time, but this does not negate the fact that mal-imprinting has had an effect on my development. The difficulty here is that animals do not wear clothing, and thus observation of animal behavior is of limited value to the study of femmiphilia.

Is there any satisfactory psychological explanation of the phenomenon? The answer here is a very qualified yes. Certainly the schools of mechan- istic and behavioral psychology do not offer much help, even though they claim to understand all deviations in human behavior. The admin- istration of an electric shock to an FP while he is looking at pictures of feminine clothes is just another form of barbaric brain washing. I think there is, if not an explanation, a workable definition of the experience of femmiphilia to be found in the work of Carl Jung and his disciples, particularly Erich Neumann. Otto Rank also contributes to an under- standing of how it might be a culturally valid expression.

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