Relaxation

got an idea the other day that I would like to share with you. You have all probably expressed the feeling yourself or read it in letters or histories of other Tv's or even found it in pro- fessional reports of Doctors who have dealt with cases of crossdressing that the act of dressing in feminine cloth- ing is very relaxing. I used to say that as well as write about it in my books and articles and I did so, thinking that I knew something of the reason

In

"DRESSING"

BY

Virginia

Prince

why. I remember writing some- where that the tired business man can relax by playing golf, going bowling, watching tele- vision or some-such, and that it was relaxing because, for the moment, he wouldn't be con- cerned with the problems that he usually faced during the day. But then I said that, "there is no relaxation like becoming a different person" and left it there, as though that were the answer. In those days I thought that it was an adequate answer and sufficiently detailed. But of recent days I have begun to

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probe more deeply and there is something more to be said.

We can all agree, I am

sure, that dressing as a girl or woman is relaxing. We can take that as a given. Next then, what is relaxation? To begin with, we have to say that "relaxation" is a change from some other condition that existed - Webster gives several terms in its definition "To make less tense, or severe, rigid or strict, to lessen the stringency harshness of, to mollify or release from restraint. Now all of these words fit the case and they all imply a pre-relaxed condition of exact- ly the opposite tight, tense, strict, rigid, harsh, etc. So the person who does something to relax is attempting to escape from a severe, rigid and tense situation.

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So look at men today, whether executives or blue collar workers. They are hemmed in by requirements, rules, expectancies and ambitions, and the tense- ness that comes from the fear of becoming unemployed or not making enough to stay even with inflation, payments due, etc. On top of which they live in a very left-hemispheric world in which logic, reason, analytic reasoning and cause-and-effect principles rule supreme. Natural- ly there is tension and, natur- ally, one can't go on indefinite- ly coping with it. One way out, of course, is to get a heart attack and relax permanently; another is to develop ulcers and thereby divert ones attention from the boss and the job to the fire in ones stomach. When we go bowling, golfing and the like, we say that we are re- laxing because at the moment we are not dealing with the prob- lems of the job, the office,