RANSVESTIA

grab the vacuum cleaner, the broom or the mop and get at the housekeep- ing? How many of you have ever soiled your pretty little hands when “en femme" by getting out the silver polish and cleaning up the family sil- ver? How many of you have taken the dust cloth and dusted (as your wife does it) the whole house? How many of you not only can sew but who in- stead of making a cocktail gown for yourself undertake to mend torn cloth- ing, darn socks, shorten or lengthen a hem or even more important make a dress for your wives? There are some who can answer yes to this last question I know, because I've talked to them and in some cases seen their handiwork and that is grand. But as my old professor used to say "be- ware of the conspicuous exception." Such FPs are rare and don't dis- prove the points I'm trying to make at all.

What I want to call to your attention is what all this looks like to the long suffering wife. To begin with not only has the FP put great pressure on her view of him as a husband as outlined in No. 77 but now he is in a sense presenting a ridiculous view of women in general and of her in par- ticular. Now I don't mean that he looks ridiculous as a woman-he may make a living doll as a girl. What is ridiculous is that he sees women as beautiful creatures that have lots of time to kill and just lay around read- ing or doing their nails, or going out shopping etc. Sure they do those things, but they also work, shop for food, sweep, mop, vacuum, dust, pol- ish, change beds, do laundry, pick up, darn, iron, cook, take care of sick children or husbands, keep the kids fed, clean, healthy, happy and out of Daddy's hair, etc. When the FP "Princess" then comes forth and does none of these things it is like saying that a real lady (like him-herself) doesn't stoop to such tasks. That hits friend wife right where she lives. It's an unrealistic presentation of womanhood.

Is it any wonder then, that in a lot of cases after several years of trying to understand and to accept the idea that men have a need to express their femininity as women do their masculinity, that she gets a bit fed up with seeing what his concept of femininity is? She becomes increasingly annoyed about it tho in the beginning the annoyance may not even be on a conscious level because the FP husband communicates the same message everytime he gets dressed of what his concept of a woman is as evidenced by the things he does and the attitudes he takes when is is "she." Pretty soon it comes to her that, “if that is the way he views women then that's the way he views me and he doesn't really see all the hard work that I put in to make a home for him and keep him and the children clean, fed and happy." Nat- urally this breeds growing resentment and a consequent fall in her tol- erance or acceptance from maybe a B plus wife to a C minus one.

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