RANSVESTIA

so that when I became Virginia I had, in effect, to learn to cry. That is, I had to let go of the left brain inhibitions against emotional feeling and to give myself permission to not only have the feelings but to express them. Crying is all right for girls and women, they are regarded by our macho masculine society as being weaker material, less able to stand up to adversity, more emotional, intuitive and, in the minds of many males, less intelligent and capable. So, translated a bit, that comes out to saying that they are less able to function in the left-brained mode than males and therefore are not expected to. Because of that social directive females have more access to their right brained functions and their manifestation of them is therefore taken as a quality of their womanhood. Thus when the male adopts the dress and role of a woman he is enabled and appropriately entitled to participate in their mental-emotional life as well as the social role. This means that he can then get into his (her) right- brained potentials and functions which have been there all the time but which are continuously overridden by the left-brained training and expectations of his masculine role. Thus the above provides an explanation for my friend's remark about enjoying the concert more as "she" than as "he."

Now to many of you readers, a lot of the above is pretty heavy going, is highly philosophical and you are inclined to say something to the effect of "the hell with all that, I don't care about the brain, all I know is I like wearing dresses and heels." That is O.K. by me, I can't expect to reach everybody with the same editorial. However I write such pieces as this, and have done so since TVia #1, for two purposes. Firstly, there are others among you who like to delve into causes, motivations, processes and psychological mechanisms and you therefore may be stimulated to further thought and analysis by such pieces as this, and second because I can also use the Virgin Views column as a sort of permanent repository of my own thoughts and therefore as markers in my own growth and understanding. I find it very interesting to go back to some issue of TVia eight or ten years ago and read the Virgin Views column in it to find out what and how I was thinking at that time. So those of you who find it boring I beg your indulgence. This is sort of my corner to use for my own purposes and for those who like to go along with me for the ride.

Having inserted the above paragraph which may serve to excuse some readers from a further ordeal I feel moved to add some further thoughts that come to me right now while I am writing and I might as well commit them to paper right here.

86