ANSVESTIA

don't find the "Puritan tale from the dark ages" as being either a true or useful evaluation. I'd be interested to know in what way Eve's own life and activities are so much more up to date than my "dark ages" point of view. Having heard rumors but having no direct information upon which to base any comment, I can only guess that she regards herself as more modern than I am because she is into a lot of activi- ties and attitudes that I wouldn't care to be involved with. So let her have her little vanity, I couldn't care less and I am sure she needs something to make a stand on and I can't think of anything else it might be, having seen her publication several times.

As to Pudgy Roberts, he is mentioned in such glowing terms here that one wonders if he didn't write it himself and let it be published under Eve's byline. He doesn't suffer at all from modesty since he has for years billed himself as the world's greatest authority on trans- vestism. This isn't hard to claim when all you have to do is say it often enough, loud enough and in enough places. People will come to believe it. Fact of the matter is that Pudgy is an acknowledged homo- sexual (which is stated as a simple matter of fact, not as a put down) and wouldn't have much of any ideas of how wives feel about the phenomenon, could hardly identify even with the TV husband in a marital situation since he has never been there, and surely would have no basis for writing such a book himself. His writing style is forthright and frank as Eve says, but runs heavily to sarcasm and caustic remarks about all who don't bask in the light of his approval and this includes other gay impersonators as well as outsiders like myself. We have had our run-ins before.

Pudgy's knowledge about the subject as about the subject as far as first hand experience is concerned is primarily gained from being a female impersonator on the stage. Even there I don't think he has done much work in which he seeks to come across as being as authentic as possible. All the pictures I've ever seen of him are in one of his comical takeoffs of a female character. Thus he has little to offer the hetero, TV in either domestic situations or even in public behaviour. It was because his booklet, The Art of Female Impersonation (I think that was the title), was so woefully inadequate to the needs of the straight TV, that I was motivated to write the How to be a Woman Though Male book. This is much longer, much more detailed and much more applicable to straight cross dressers, especially those who might venture out on the street, than Pudgy's efforts. Pudgy knows about theatrical impersonations and he can (and did) write about it. I don't claim knowledge in those areas so I didn't approach the matter

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