A HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE

Are CD's just tourists? Diane Frank thinks there is more to it than that!

RECENTLY, I learned of someone (A sexlogist who on further investigation turned out to be a female-to-male transsexual) comparing crossdressers with tourists. There is a certain amount of appeal in this analogy, and I’ve used it before myself. But I think extending the analogy is more useful. What other kinds of movement do people undertake that might be considered analogous the various kinds of trans* people out there? I shared this idea recently on the My Husband Betty discussion boards, and I’d like to acknowledge Andrea for a couple of the ideas here.

What got me thinking about this analogy is our experience visiting Maine. In Maine there are four categories of people. The Natives or Mainers of course. In the context of crossing gender divisions that category is pretty clear. People assigned female at birth. There are also "Impawhts" or Immigrants. These could be considered the various categories of people who live full time in their target non-birth sex/gender. This part of the analogy can be further extended to permanent residents (legally changed names, hormones) vs naturalized citizens (sexual reassignement surgery). Depending on the story involved some transsexuals may be like political refugees or displaced persons, people whose lives would be in danger if they were to stay male, while others are more like economic refugees who come seeking a better life. Some might quibble about exactly where those lines are drawn.

And of course there are Tourists, who come for a few days, gawk and leave. Tourists do things like see the sights, stop in for dinner and buy a souvenir or two. They might remember the hotel keeper's name. And of course, the Natives can observe them. I think this that this analogy isn’t far off in describing the behavior and goals of many crossdressers who leave the house.

But most crossdressers are Armchair Tourists, reading about the travels of others and never setting foot outside their native land. The travels of others is something we often provide for the Armchair Tourist here in our newsletter.

Andrea added another category of tourist, one we don't like to talk about but clearly is part of the mix - the Sex Tourist. From my observations of the internet, a lot of crossdresser's behavior is strongly analagous to the Sex Tourist.

There is one more category of people not native to Maine: Summer Vistors. Summer Visitors stay for extended periods of time. They come back to one place. They know the local residents, patronize local businesses regularly and participate in local civic affairs. They incur obligations to the local community. They do however, have homes and lives elsewhere. They may take working vacations, but their time in Maine isn’t the principle focus of their lives. They could perhaps take their extended summer breaks somewhere else.

A similar category (thanks again Andrea), is Commuter. Commuters have regular schedules on which they shuttle back and forth between on community and another. (Work and home for example). Their stays can be longer or shorter, but they are heavily invested in activities at both ends of the commute and need them in order to survive. Losing the job or a home is often a traumatic disruption of their lives.

Having considered the analogies of Summer Visitor and Commuter, I’m not entirely sure anymore which I fit into. There is a certain amount of regularity to my visits to Women’s Country. But I like to think that I could survive without such journeys and not have it be a major disruption in my life. I cherish the relationships I’ve built in my time spent there. I would not willingly abandon them. But I don’t think it would be as bad a losing a house or a job. So I’ll stick with Summer Vistor, and leave others to describe themselves as Commuters. Oh, and I can't think of a parallel to economic refugees or migrant workers, can you?

Diane