Boys Will be Girls

From the Preface

This text introduces students and academicians to the social world of the male transvestite. . . Transvestites are often thought by academicians and laymen alike to be many things other than what they are. They are confused with homosexuals, female impersonators, bisexuals, transsexuals, and hermaphrodites. This book is organized to provide various facts of cross dressing behavior. Chapter 1 offers comparative data to aid in understanding the differential evaluation of cross dressing in various societies. In the second chapter we examine the transvestite's cumulative construction of his female self, his motivations for cross dressing, and the management of an identity that is stigmatized. The third chapter focuses on mate selection among transvestites, wives attitudes toward cross dressing, and parent-child relationships. Chapter four is an excursion into the subculture of transvestism in the United States. Here we examine transvestite organizations, making contacts in the subculture, and the means through which transvestite fantasies are enhanced. In chapter five we discuss and criticize the approach of psychiatry and suggest an alternative model of transvestism under the notion of minority. Chapter six explores the notion of the androgynous self and ascertains that, for may males transvestism may be an expression of an androgynous personality.


Table of Contents

Cross Dressing: Mythological, Historical and Cross-Cultural Aspects

Transvestism: The Construction and Expression of a Second Self

Managing Transvestite Life Styles: Married Heterosexuals Who Cross Dress

Transvestism: The Social Organization of Male Femininity

Transvestites: Deviant or Minority?

Androgyny and Transvestism