Virginia "Charles" Prince - The Transvestite and his Wife

1967, English, Virginia Prince,

Full title: "The Transvestite and his Wife" by Virginia "Charles" Prince.

We can read on the cover of the book: "Virginia "Charles" Prince is an authority on the subject of transvestism. She has been invited to speak before many service organizations, medical classes and other interested groups, has appeared on several national radio and television broadcasts, and is a prolific writer on the subject of transvestism."

Dallas Denny wrote an interesting article about Virginia Prince - "Heteropocrisy: The Myth of the Heterosexual Male Crossdresser" where she addressed some of the ideas elaborated by Virginia Prince in the book: "Virginia, who is sometimes referred to jokingly by some (and devoutly by others) as The Godmother of Crossdressing, formulated a philosophy which has been carried to the four corners of the world by FPE and its successors, which include The Society for the Second Self (Tri-Ess) in the United States, the Seahorse Clubs of Australia, and the Beaumont Societies in Europe."

"Virginia's message was that most crossdressers are heterosexual. and crossdress not as a function of their sexuality, but to express feminine aspects of their personality that they do not otherwise feel comfortable expressing because of societal disapproval of feminine behaviors in males. Virginia postulated that the crossdresser has a "woman within" who must be released from time to time. In a society which insists on rigidly defined gender roles, she argued, crossdressing provides a safe release.

This theory acknowledges the sexual arousal which usually accompanies crossdressing in heterosexual men, but relegates it to an early developmental stage; masturbation is the route into the crossdressing experience, but becomes unimportant or disappears altogether once the crossdresser gets in touch with his feminine side."

"The world has listened well to Virginia's theories. As a matter of course, the newsletters of the transgender community, the mainstream press, and even the gay press routinely proclaim that most crossdressers are heterosexual. It is taken as gospel. Except for the occasional behind-the-times psychoanalyst who refuses to believe that it is possible that someone who crossdresses could be anything but homosexual, practically everyone, from Geraldo to Dan Rather to Ru-Paul, has heard and come to believe that the majority of crossdressers are heterosexual, just your ordinary straight guy from the corner tavern who likes to put on a frock to express his inner femininity and cavort about town, but who never gets chubbies while doing so, has never had sex with another man and would never, ever even fantasize about doing so, or ever think about having sex reassignment."

Available via Amazon

Chrysalis Quarterly

Photo via Wikipedia - University of Victoria Libraries, Transgender Archives