RANSVESTIA

tite and his Wife", said "Virginia is not married so her views on marriage may or may not help you. But then, most books written are writ- ten by un-married persons." (I suppose he means books written on the subject of marriage though he doesn't say so.). Now is is true that I am not married at the present time but I daresay I have spent more years as a married person than the writer of those words since I have been married twice, 9 years to my first wife and 11 to the second. The writer of the quo- tation is not too many years older than the sum of those two-20 years. His last observation, however, is interesting, namely that most books (on marriage) are written by un-married persons. One has to have been somewhere before they can write about it, and those who are happily mar- ried have little reason to be writing about it, tho there are some conspic- uous exceptions in literature, so the observation is not only probably true but could hardly be expected to be any other way. Hopefully those who were in marriage and then out of it would have learned something by the experience that could be helpful to others undergoing the same experience so it is not unreasonable that they should share their experiences and les- sons learned with others still within the experience. While it is true that I am presently unmarried, I have some back ground for my observations from personal experiences and from a great many interviews and con- versations with wives of FPs. With that commentary on my qualifications let's move on.

The book The Transvestite and His Wife was written to help those wives willing to learn to find out something about the subject and have more to base their decisions upon than just what their harried spouse might tell them or that they could observe for themselves. I did not by any means write it all myself. A doctor, a catholic monseigneur, two other FPs and about a dozen wives contributed parts of it. But in any case, it was written to help wives understand their husbands. This editorial is written to help husbands understand their wives. The Virgin Views edi- torial in TVia No. 77 began the subject by trying to get FP husbands to see something of how their wives look upon them and why acceptance is difficult for all and impossible for some. This time I want to continue the subject with a discussion of the obligations of the FP husband toward an accepting wife.

It has become increasingly clear to me during my last five years of living as a woman and of joining Womens Liberation etc. that a man's idea of a woman is considerably different from a woman's idea of herself or of other women. This isn't surprising as we are thoroughly polarized into mas- culine and feminine points of view during our bringing up that it could

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