RANSVESTIA

Our society, parents, peers, and ourselves in particular have limited our experience to one type the masculine. It was expected for us to play football, develop mechanical skills, sow our wild oats, and be the "men of the world." We overdevelop this area. The feeling of lack we experience now is the realization of the feminine side of our personality that has been with us since birth, but idle for many years.

Putting on a dress or wearing panties and a bra doesn't fully fulfill our longed-for desires. Dressing is one type of learning experience through which we can fulfill some of our feminine desires and aspirations. But if we just dress then we are in danger of limiting ourselves to one select type of experience (dressing only). I think that we need to broaden ourselves.

How? Try different things. Cook a meal once in awhile. Try to learn to sew or knit, then make something and wear it. Increase your sense of beauty by being more aware of it. Be sensitive to color, architecture, people and nature. See someone (a fellow worker or friend) with a new dress or just a flattering outfit and say aloud, "That's a cute dress," and then be able to talk intelligently (fashion-wise) about it to your friend. Follow the Women's Liberation movement and really understand it, then talk to others about it. Buy yourself some flowers and if anyone aks, tell them they are for yourself.

Feel the feelings that you've never felt before. Read a book or see a movie and identify with the female lead. Really try to empathize with her. Feel what she feels. It's a different gratification you'll experience, with some carry-over values for your daily life, too.

I really believe that if you will do these things you'll develop an in- ner happiness on a level that you've not felt before. That's because you're satisfying some of your feminine personality dreams and am- bitions. Experiencing things from your feminine side.

This inner contentment and added self-confidence will be felt by others and they will respond to it. Your self value (total self-feminine side plus masculine side) will increase 100 percent. You'll start to com- plete yourself by expressing the missing experiences that will make your personality a total one. Your feminine side and your masculine side will both be developed and you'll discover the inner you.