© 1996, Diane Kholos Wysocki.  All materials here may be used for academic purposes only.  I do not ask that you obtain permission before quoting from any of my work, however the use of the material for any other reason other than academic research is allowed only with my expressed permission which is obtainable by email.  If you cite this work, please send me a copy via wysockid@unk.edu.

Proper Citation

Citations of this work for academic purpose should use the following standard form:

Wysocki, D. K.  1992.  Construction of Sex, Gender, & Sexuality: A Look at the Lives of Male transvestites.  
Unpublished master's thesis, University of California , Santa Barbara (Sociology)

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Dedication and Acknowledgments

Abstract

Chapter 1:      Introduction

Chapter 2:      Literature Review

Chapter 3:      Theoretical Framework

Chapter 4:      Transvestism: Literature Review

Chapter 5:      Methodology

Chapter 6:      Results   The Life of a Male transvestite

Chapter 7:      Discussion and Conclusions

Chapter 8:      Bibliography
 
Diane Kholos Wysocki's Home Pages

There are a few people that were very important to the completion of this paper.

Dr. Denise Bielby, my chair.  Denise spent many hours on this paper with me.  She made time for me once a week for a long as I needed talking with me about ideas, helping me over rough parts, rewriting and more rewriting.  She was available for long distance phone calls from wherever I happened to be to talk me through a problem and was there for whatever I needed.  Thank you for taking being my chair so seriously.  I learned a lot on many levels.

Dr. Beth Schneider, for being the one who first suggested a MA on transvestites.  Way at the beginning while doing a paper for another class, Beth encouraged me to not waste time doing two different projects and to turn my work on transvestism into my MA.  She has given me valuable comments throughout the projects.

Dr. Ken Plummer, who has done quite a bit of work in the area of cross dressing.  I am glad he was visiting UCSB during the year of my project and willing to be part of it.  His knowledge of the transvestism literature was priceless and his summaries of books he thought I could use were an added plus.

Dr. Harvey Molotch.  We didn't spend much time talking about this project, but I had fun talking about it with him. He was so helpful.  His excitement about the project and his encouragement in future possible publications is truly appreciated.

And finally, to all my respondents.  I could not have completed this project without their willingness to give of themselves so completely.  Thank you.

   Three areas of individual identity - sex, gender, and sexuality - are used to study how transvestic males manage their lives.  By using men who impersonate women on a temporary basis, new avenues are opened into how these categories are overlapped, blended, recombined, and managed.  The data collection was accomplished in three ways: 1) a two part questionnaire 2) interviews 3) computer bulletin boards.  One hundred and twenty two subjects answered the demographic information which indicates that the majority of the subjects are in their 40's, married with children, are white, Christian, have completed college or higher, hold professional jobs such as engineers, scientists, and public health administrators, and claim to be heterosexual. Although the majority state they have told their wives or girlfriends of their cross dressing, most wives or girlfriends do not react favorably.
      In order to understand what parts of masculinity these men reject and how they manage cross dressing within their day to day male roles, the population used for the 2nd part of the study were only men who stated they were currently married and heterosexual, which resulted in 33 subjects being used for this part of the analysis.
     Findings suggest that the men in this study believe that gender roles are dichotomous and that they have no freedom to express any traits that they believe are feminine within the confines of their masculine role.  Yet, it becomes problematic because most of the men in this sample did not have a clear idea of what being a women really involves and therefore portray their feminine side often times as hyper feminine; passive, emotional, quiet, submissive, and sexual. Similarly, the majority of men have no desire to change their sex, which might indicate their need to "play" at being a women while retaining the privilege of being a male.

 
"The Discovery is, of course, that "man"
and "women" are fiction, caricatures,
 cultural constructs."
 
 Andrea Dworkin 1974
 

     Three areas of an individual's identity - sex,  gender, and sexuality    - will be studied within the framework of this paper.  I will look at heterosexual males, who choose to exhibit the gender of the opposite sex - men who consider themselves transvestites - to see how they manage their lives.  I believe that by using men who impersonate themselves as women on a temporary basis will open new avenues into how the categories; sex, gender, and sexuality are overlapped, blended, recombined, and managed.
    Gagnon (personal interview 5/92) states that, for transvestites, the roles of the biological female, quite simply, can be divided into two parts, "women's work" and "sex work."   "Women's work" includes the day to day duties of cooking, cleaning, and caretaking, which seem to be of little interest to transvestites.  "Sex work" in contrast, includes the more subtle aspects of femaleness; such as the "femininity" of being a subordinate, putting on make up, wearing high heeled shoes, and being more emotionally open.  This is the aspect of being a woman that seems to be of most interest to transvestites.
     Society strongly encourages men to converge their masculine identity is such a way that they must adhere to very strict guidelines of masculinity.  However, since transvestites are different because they choose to display what they describe as a "feminine" aspect of their personality, management of their two gender choices becomes an important issue and one that I believe must be investigated.  By studying males who state they are a transvestites, yet who retain the privilege of being males in this society, I hope to determine  1) what aspects of being a woman are borrowed, found pleasurable, and therefore portrayed, and 2) what parts of masculinity are retained while others are rejected.
       Given the degree to which sex, gender, and sexuality are constructed within this society, the purpose of this project is to:
1)  investigate what male transvestites are rejecting about masculinity and to find out how they reconfigure their gender identity;
2)  to see how transvestism is managed within their day to day life;
3)  to see how the need to manage and hide their transvestism affects their self identity and self esteem.
 

Chapter 2:  Literature Review

                                 "One is not born, but rather

                                   becomes a Women"

                                  Simone de Beauvoir

 

           Sex is understood to be a continuum of "ascribed biological features of chromosomes, gonads, and hormones" that fit into categories of either male or female (Lorber & Farrell, 1991:7).  Sometimes, an individual will not fall into one of the two categories (Lorber & Farrel, 1991), but instead is born with genitals that are neither or both female or male. It has been estimated that this condition, called hermaphrodite or intersex, occurs in only a few people, yet often enough to have been researched (de Savitsch, 1958; Martin & Vorhies, 1975; Talamini, 1982; Nanda, 1990).  In other societies, intersexed individuals live full productive lives within their communities, as is the cases of the Sererr of Kenya (Martin & Vorhies, 1975), the Hijras of India (Nanda, 1990), and the Nadle of the Navajos (Martin & Vorhies, 1975).  However, within our society it is unacceptable for a child to not fit physically into one of the two sex categories.  Therefore, medical intervention is frequently performed to rectify the situation, usually as a result of parents and physicians who are unable to deal emotionally with a "genderless" child (Kessler, 1990).
         While sex is the biological component of an individual, gender is the "cultural aspect of the differences between men and women" (Edwards, 1989:1).  Individuals learn, recognize, and reproduce masculine and feminine traits that are displayed through interactions with each other (West & Zimmerman, 1991:17), giving "gender appearance the key factor in social communication" (Woodhouse, 1989:7).  Based on Kessler & McKenna`s (1978) theory of gender construction, "gender attribution is a developmental process in which children learn culturally variable rules for categorizing by gender," which by approximately age of four or five (Laws & Schwartz, 1977), becomes "fixed, unvarying, and static" (West & Zimmerman, 1991:13).  In fact, Chodorow states (1989:168) that "gender is built right into our heads and divides the world into females and males."
         Sometimes the sex category, male or female, does not correspond with the gender portrayed (Garfinkel, 1967), masculine or feminine, but instead are conflicting (Thio, 1992).  In some societies crossing over the gender lines of masculine and feminine are not always seen as something negative, such as the Berdache Indians (Williams, 1992).  However, in our society it is often seen quite negatively and causes conflict for the individual with peers, siblings, and parents (Green, 1987).
         Traditionally sexuality has been explained by three paradigms - instinct, drive, and energy    - that assume that sexuality equals heterosexuality, making heterosexuality the norm (Fergunson, 1989).  Similarly, popular sexologists such as Havelock Ellis, Kinsey, and Masters and Johnson have constructed a model of sexuality that "reflects and reproduces male supremacy which then becomes seen as natural and universal", making "normal" male sexuality based upon control over women (Coveney, Jackson, Jeffreys, Kay, & Mahony, 1984:11).
         In contrast many researchers (e.g. Rich, 1983; Weeks, 1986; Green, 1987; Baldwin & Baldwin, 1989; Vance, 1989)  believe sexuality is socially constructed.  Jeffery Weeks (1986) in The Invention of Sexuality states that:
We must learn to see that sexuality is something which society produces in complex ways.  It is a result of diverse social practices that give meaning to human activities, of social definitions and self-definitions, of struggles between those who have power to define and regulate, and those who resist.  Sexuality is not given, it is a product of negotiation, struggle and human agency (Weeks, 1986:25).
        While many individuals are taught from childhood that the only acceptable sexual preference is heterosexuality, then one might question how men who sometimes choose to be "woman" view and enact their sexuality and how it becomes constructed.  By studying the social construction of sexuality we might determine if transvestism gives these a way of acting on homosexual tendencies under the guise of heterosexuality and therefore enabling them to perceived as acceptable?
        An essential aspect of the social construction of sexuality is sexual identity.  Sexual identity, the categories individuals use to locate themselves in relation to others (Michener, DeLamater, & Schwartz, 1990) begins to emerge, typically with the onset of puberty (Gagnon & Simon, 1973).  This emerging identity evolves around the individual's attempt to go along with sexual scripts that are made available to them (Laws & Schwartz, 1977; Simon & Gagnon, 1984; Doctor, 1988).   Laws & Schwartz (1977:2) describe sexual scripts as "repertoire of acts and status's that are recognized by a social groups, together with the rules, expectations, and sanctions governing these acts and status's." Similarly, Gagnon & Simon (1973:19) state that "without the proper elements of a script that defines the situation, names the actors, and plots the behavior, nothing sexual is likely to happen."  Scripts are a way of anticipating how behavior comes to be enacted (Simon & Gagnon, 1984). Sexual scripts occur on 3 levels - cultural, interpersonal, and intrapshyic    - and are available for most interactions among people, such as courtship, romantic love, flings, serious relationships, orgasms, marriage, cohabitation, and even swinging (Laws & Schwartz, 1977).
       Males and females learn very different scripts as they grow up.  By puberty, scripts for both sexes become "emphatically heterosexual and oriented towards marriage" (Laws & Schwartz, 1977:39), and differentiated by sex in their gender enactment of sexuality.  Scripts are learned from peers, movies, books, and magazines, in preparation for an individual to act within the dominant sexual scripts of society.  Although there are alternative sexual scripts such as, sadism, masochism, swinging, or transvestism, often times the individual is unaware of them (Laws & Schwartz, 1977).
           Given this conceptual framework, we might expect the study of male heterosexual transvestites will reveal how individuals manage challenging the rigid scripts that society sets up for sex, gender, and sexuality.  Moreover, by focusing on the recombination of identities associated with sex, gender, and sexuality, we will see how individuals mange that repackaging.  Although some societies have no difficulties accepting men whose gender is different from their biological sex and who are not heterosexual (Martin & Vorhies, 1975; Nanda, 1990) this society does.  Because the "norm" in our society views sex, gender, and sexuality as completely overlapping and dichotomous, investigating males who choose to "play" at being another gender, while not changing their sex, makes it possible to evaluate which elements of scripts for sex, gender and sexuality that  transvestites choose to retain, which they defy, and why.
 

        Given the total overlap of sex, gender, and sexuality in our society and the rigidity with which those categories are managed, variations on those overlaps are regarded as deviant. Society often demands that all of those categories must converge perfectly and when they don't, as in the case of transvestities, they are violating the "norms" of society.  That, in itself, makes transvestites "different", stigmatized, and needing to manage their dual identities as a "deviant".  Therefore the framework in which this study informs the identity and managment of transvestism is deviance.
         Deviance is most often defined as any action or behavior that violates or deviates from social norms (Fournet, Forsyth, & Schramm, 1988; Thio, 1992) and is used as a way of drawing boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate practices (Cloward & Ohlin, 1960).  Kelly (1989) suggests that the study of deviance can be looked at from seven perspectives  , however, for this paper I will look at the interactionist approach to becoming deviant.  This approach focuses on individuals, how deviant identity is developed while being managed through the deviant career, and how society plays a part in the stigma associated with considering oneself deviant.
        Studies by Becker (1963) Adler & Adler (1983) and others  show the transition of identity into deviant status.  Adler & Adler (1983) analyzed the career paths of drug smugglers to outline the process of becoming deviant.  They found that drug dealers went through three levels or stages of increased involvement with the deviant activity; low-level entry drug dealers, followed by middle level entry drug dealers, then  on to smugglers.  Many oscillate in and out of the drug trafficking, yet few, if any were successful in completely leaving the activity.
        Similarly, Becker's (1963) study on "marijuana users" emphasized the sequential model of deviant identity and the development of a deviant career.  This model views deviance of an individual as: "a sequence of movements from one position to another in an occupational system made by any individual who works in that system " (Becker, 1963:24).
       This model takes into account that behavior develops in orderly sequence that carries an individual into deviant identity.  The individual must first behave in some way that is considered nonconforming.  This act does not necessarily have to be consciously motivated, and often is done by someone who has no intention of committing the act, as in the case of Becker's marijuana "beginner" user.  In the second step, the individual is considered an "occasional" user, where use is sporadic and dependent on chance factors such as availability, secrecy, and/or fear of punishment from family, friends or employer.  In the final step in the deviant career becomes a "regular" user.  This often  includes involvement in an organized deviant group.  Participation in a subculture and minimal contact with nonusers is necessary to keep the deviant behavior secret.
       For a deviant behavior to continue, the individual must find ways to neutralize or distance themselves from the negative aspects of their careers (Levi, 1989).  For instance, Levi found that professional hit man were able to avoid a deviant ascription if the killer had the ability to detach or reframe from the killing.  Similarly, Hong & Duff (1989) investigated the neutralization process of taxi dancers, women who danced with men for money, to see how they cope with the unpleasantness of their job.  Findings indicate that if a taxi dancer remained after the first week of work, she was likely to develop relationships with other dancers.  Through them she learned neutralization techniques which could teach the novice various denial techniques, usually in the second and third weeks of work.  By the forth week the taxi dancer needed few neutralization techniques and developed a positive response to the job.
        Labeling theorists (Kitsuse, 1962; Becker, 1963) have found that most deviants are not solitary, but develop friendships within their social world, called subcultures, that have rules and regulations similar to the society at large (Millman & Kanter, 1975:260).  Subcultures, either large or small, successfully detach the deviant group from the larger society.  Groups communicate with each other, have at least one shared goal, and have specific expectations.  Group members develop a concept of themselves as part of a group which sometimes becomes central to their personal identities (Michener, DeLamater, Schwartz, & Merton, 1990).  These identities are often stable and long lasting (Becker, 1963).
         Individuals who are members of a subculture develop "complicated historical, legal, and psychological justification for their deviant activity" and have "self justifying rationales... that furnish individuals with reasons that appear sound for continuing the line of activity he has begun" (Becker, 1963:38)   People within the group have their deviant activity in common, where the entire subculture is organized around the particular deviant activity.  That organized activity increases the opportunity to interact with others who have similar interests (Laws & Schwartz, 1977).  Associating with others who share one's interests has a powerful impact on legitimizing one's activity and interests to one self.
         Schur (1984:22) believes that "deviance is a matter of definition .... and is in the eye of the beholder." Therefore, as the individual behavior increases to master status (Becker, 1963), societal reactions shift from deviant individual behavior, to the individual personally being deviant, with all of the individual's behaviors being viewed as something suspect (Tannebaum, 1975).  Once the deviant status of the individual has been established, reactions from society to the type of category label is applied to the individual.  Anyone showing traits of that category is also labeled.  However, it is not the behavior that causes one to be labeled as deviant, but the responses of others who interpret and identify the behavior as deviant (Kitsuse, 1962; Plummer, 1981).  Similarly, Klapp (1987) refers to self-typing as the way in which an individual sees themselves through the eyes of others, which means we depend on the responses of others in order to see ourselves.  The reaction of others to a  behavior depends on the characteristics of the actor, the characteristics of the audience, and the situational characteristics (Michener, De Lamater, Schwartz, & Merton, 1990:536).
         Once an individual is labeled as a deviant, the decision to conceal the behavior often occurs.  For example, Edgerton (1967) found that in order to pass as normal, mental patients must appear to others in society and to themselves as competent.  Being labeled as different or "deviant" is found to lower self esteem.  It is also humiliating and frustrating to the point that the "life of the person so labeled is scarcely worth living" (Edgerton, 1967:145).  Edgerton found that his subjects "passed" by denying they had been hospitalized, passing as "normal", by getting a job, and finding a "normal" mate.
         I believe that by using the interactionist perspective in this study I will show the process that transvestites go through affects how they perceive themselves as deviant and manage their sexual preference in that context.  I want to explore how they are reacted to by others, why transvestites often go into groups where transvestism is the central theme, and how they "pass" in their day-to-day male roles.

History of the Cross Dresser
       Although Hirshchfeld was the first to put a name to cross dressing, it can actually be traced back to the beginning of recorded history.  The ancient Greeks cross dressed on their wedding night.  The bride wore a false beard and her new husband wore women's clothes when they slept together for the first time as a way of enhancing heterosexual potency (Talamini, 1982)  The Greeks also used cross dressing as a way to trap their enemies.  Solon defeated the Megarians by having his soldiers dress as women.  The Megarians were allowed to disembark from their horses because they were thought to be women and were thus able to slaughter their enemies.
       Cross dressing has long been associated with the stage.  In Japan over 400 years ago, women were banned from the stage because women were not allowed to act in public, so therefore male actors, called "oyama," were used who specialized in playing female roles ("Transvestism," 1987).   Similarly, Shakespearean plays commonly used men in female roles (Case, 1988), but the Puritans tried to censure Shakespearean plays by quoting Dueterotomy 22:5: "A woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do are a abomination unto the Lord thy God."  Although they were not strong enough to abolish the plays entirely, they were able to keep females off the stage, thus making it necessary for the men to cross dress in order to play the woman's part (Tannahill, 1982; Ellis & Abarbanel, 1961).
          Cross dressing, identified as deviant behavior in our society is not universally defined as deviant.  The "hijada" or cross dressers of India have thought that because they cross dressed they were impotent at birth and some later had their genitals removed because it was not necessary to keep them.  They believe a man becomes a "hijada" because he receives the "mata's" or Gods command either in dreams or when one sits in meditation before her image (Talamini, 1982).
        Some societies accept cross gendered behavior because it is believed that some supernatural event makes people that way prior to birth or acquired through a mystical force or dream after birth.  One of the most interesting practices in connection with childbirth is know as "couvade."  When a women of the Erukala-Vandu, of Southern India, feels the first signs of labor, she tells her husband, who puts on her clothes along with a mark on his forehead similar to the one women wear on theirs. He then goes to a dimly lit room and lies down to be treated as the mother in labor.  This is to deceive the evil spirits away from the real mother.  This symbolizes the father as being the "second mother" (Talamini, 1982).

transvestites, Transsexuals, & Homosexuals
         Very often, when someone observes a transvestite, they assume he is homosexual and that wearing the clothing of the opposite sex is a statement to others that he is interested in "being the woman" in a homosexual relationship (Bogdan, 1974; Informal discussions with students).  Most homosexuals, however, do not dress as women.  Feinbloom (1978) states that few individuals of homosexual identity wear women's clothing and as Newton (1979:3) points out, most homosexuals never "do drag," never perform at "drag balls", and actually prefer masculine men.  Homosexuals who do dress in "drag" are known as "drag queens" and impersonate women for shows or prostitution (Newton, 1979).
          Another often misunderstood concept is that the transvestite is interested in surgically changing their sex and becoming a transsexual.  Feinbloom (1978:23) states that transsexuals are very different from transvestites, referring to both pre and post operative individuals who feel that their biological sex, male or female, is incongruent with their gender identity, masculine or feminine.  Often times they feel "locked inside" the body of the opposite sex (Bogdan, 1974; Questionnaire Lucy, 1992).
          A transvestite, on the other hand is different from either a transsexual or homosexual according to Prince (1967), yet Woodhouse (1989) realized that transvestites do not "fit into neat and tidy compartments" and that there is no " transvestite type."  Most have their first experience of cross dressing occur prior to age 10 (Bullough, Bullough, & Smith, 1983), and start off by wearing their mother's or sister's clothing (Prince , 1967). The majority of men who claim to be transvestites are rated as above average in intelligence and careers (Prince, 1967; Reinisch, 1990), with most being in professional occupations, such as managers, scientists, and engineers (Brierley, 1979; Bullough, et al, 1983).  Brierley suggests that transvestites take on masculine professions on one hand that enables them to "slip" into their feminine role, rather than undertake occupations typical of women, such as beautician and flower arranger (Whitam & Mathy, 1986).
        Almost all cross dressers adopt female names  .  Often times the names vary according to social class, age, and location of the man (Brierley, 1979).  Sometimes their male names are feminized, such as Ken might become Kay or Jim might become Jan.  Brierley (1979:32) states "there is little doubt that the transvestite choice of name aims to promote an image of extreme femininity - more royal than the queen!"
         The desire to quit cross dressing is often times very intense.  Associated with cross dressing behavior is many years of quilt, pain, rejection, and loneliness.  Often times during his life, a cross dresser will get rid of all of his clothing and female items, telling himself he will never do it again (Prince, 1967).  No matter how much money he has invested in his "wardrobe", he will "purge" by getting rid of it all, only to buy it all back again when the need to cross dress becomes too profound.
        Doctor (1988:189) states that "intense frustration upon cessation of cross dressing, or in response to the blockage of cross dressing, has been long recognized."  Although, Doctor did not ask the cross dressers how it feels to stop, he did ask their wives who report that the men become irritable, moody, unhappy, angry, and tense when they try to stop.
         As a coping mechanism, and a way of learning more about transvestism, an individual might decide to contact a transvestite organization.  Talamini (1982:38) states that transvestite organizations "promote adaptation to stigma and exist primarily to furnish activities for members" while "propelling them into some sort of public outspokenness, allowing them to divulge a heretofore hidden secret to a group of like-minded people" (Woodhouse, 1989:37).  This supports Sagarin (1969:21) who believes that people will join, support, and form groups because: "deviants always seeks to escape his stigma, but he does so by seeking either (1) to conform to the norms of society, or (2) to change those norms to include acceptance of his own behavior."
        Someone interested in cross dressing can find out about groups in various ways.  Through publications such as Tapestry or En Femme, or through clothing boutiques that cater to larger sizes, which often times is a signal to cross dressers that they are catered to and welcomed  and through an "underground" that seems to exist for all "deviant" groups (Informal discussion with Arizona police quite a few years ago).
        Talamini (1982) suggests that the "coming out" process is somewhat necessary for the transvestite to receive the support he needs to live his life.  The individual goes from isolation and concealment to a place where he is able to find role models and coaches who are able to advise him in all aspects of being a transvestite.

Wives or Significant Others
         The majority of "heterosexual" transvestites state they are married, or have been and are now divorced, and are parents (Prince, 1967; Brierley, 1979; Doctor, 1988).  Unfortunately, many of the wives of transvestites knew little about transvestism prior to learning that their husbands were interested in cross dressing (Doctor, 1988).  According to Talamini (1982), "the transvestite searches for an understanding woman who will encourage him, or at least accept his hobby," yet most wives did not know that their husbands were interested in cross dressing prior to marriage.  Often, the wife finds out accidentally sometime  into the marriage and as a result has a difficult time adjusting to the cross dressing behavior (Talamini, 1982; Brown & Collier, 1989; Woodhouse, 1989).
          Initially, wives believed their husbands were "gay", "peculiar", "had a harmless compulsion", or a "biological problem" (Doctor, 1988:170) and list transvestism as a significant problem in most of their relationships.  This results in overwhelmingly low self esteem in the wife, (Brown & Collier, 1989) many fears (Woodhouse, 1989), and/or considering herself "lucky that a man finds her attractive" regardless of his problems (Feinbloom, 1976:107).  Some wives believe their knowledge about their husbands cross dressing was a "secret" shared between them, that kept their mate from infidelity, while they denied and sacrificed their personal sense of self worth to avoid the possibility of separation or divorce (Brown & Collier, 1989).
          They worry about others finding out, and possible harm to the children.  This is very similar to wives who find out their husbands are bisexual (Auerback & Moser, 1987).  In order to keep the marriage intact some women are "acceptors" who participate in some cross dressing activities and others are "rejectors" who looked at the behavior with disdain and therefore criticized the cross dresser (Brown & Collier, 1989).  Yet, ultimately they learn that transvestism is a major part of their mates personality and "to get their sexual needs met, .... cross dressing is frequently necessry to enable their mates to function" (Brown & Collier, 1989:81), even though many believe that cross dressing has a damaging effect on their sex life.  Doctor states: "It is likely that the husband has come to prefer his erotic cross dressing to the marital sexual relationship.  Masturbation while cross dressed becomes  the favored sexual technique, and often, the almost exclusive sexual outlet" (Doctor, 1988:176).
          Doctor states that no matter how supportive she is, she is often turned off by the cross dressing and will demand that it not take place in bed (Doctor, 1988).  This is what Doctor (1988:185) calls the "isolation game", where there is a great deal of denial, an extensive amount of lying, and deception on the part of the husband, no intimacy, and both partners withdraw from the relationship.  Coping with their mates primping, working with makeup, and the amount of time spent in front of the mirror has been reported as being both very frustrating and difficult.   Many saw their mates as "self centered, insensitive and unable to compromise" (Brown & Collier, 1989:82).
         The most important source of information about cross dressing, directed at wives comes from books, magazines, and the literature of various organizations.  Unfortunately, most literature written for wives is by transvestites. Prince's (1967) book, The transvestite and His Wife, most commonly referred to wives of transvestites by their husbands, is a guide for the spouse of a transvestite on how to be the "perfect wife" for a cross dresser.   Prince (1967:39) believes it is important for wives to support their husbands, to not "let ignorance, intolerance, and selfishness" come between them otherwise, "she will loose."   Prince uses fear by suggesting to wives that it is impossible to get a transvestite to stop cross dressing. To try means to only "drive it underground".  Prince (1967:36) continues throughout the book to say things like "since you married this man and because you love him, you could hardly wish him to carry a burden of unhappiness, frustration, and guilt around with him the rest of this life.  You would want to relieve him of those burdens, keep him happy and healthy".  Prince (1967:53) also tells wives to "check your own emotional inventory to see whether or not your lack of understanding of this problems is not some measure due to your own load of emotional problems," and even goes so far as to put wives on an A-F grading scale.

Sexuality
        As previously stated, many researchers suggest that transvestites are heterosexual (Raynor, 1966; Prince, 1967; Doctor, 1988; Reinisch, 1990), however, Benjamin (Blanchard, 1989:321) believes that cross dressers are actually heterosexual only as long as they are in their male role, but often times respond homosexually when they are cross dressed.
         Numerous transvestites deny that cross dressing has anything to do with sexual feelings.  In fact, they state that they cross dress mainly because of the desire to "be like a women."  Yet, often times, men are ashamed to acknowledge any erotic or sexual feelings while cross dressing (Doctor, 1988:190).  To determine whether transvestites actually do have sexual feelings, Blanchard at al (1986) used penile blood volume, as the dependent variable, to determine if erotic response to cross dressing fantasies could be detected in heterosexual cross dressers who denied erotic feelings.  Results suggest that they do in fact become aroused and there is a discrepancy between self reports and physical response.
       Many accounts of males who cross dress, either in anticipation of sex change surgery or just to live full time as a woman do in fact, have sex with men (Kando, T. 1973; Bogdan,  1974; Fournet, L. M., Forsyth, C. J., & Schramm, C. T., 1988; Garber, M. 1992).  However, they justify it as not a homosexual act, since they are "a woman" rather than a man.

Studying Transvestism
       Surprisingly little research has actually been done in the area of transvestism alone.  Typically, any discussion of transvestism in the literature is grouped together with transsexualism, and homosexuality (Kando, 1973; Bogdan, 1974; Sagarin, 1965; Feinbloom, 1976; Koranyi, 1980; Whitam & Mathy, 1986; Doctor, 1988).  Often times it is discussed in the psychological or medical literature, within the realm of a disease that must be diagnosed and cured in some way (Green, 1987).
         Virginia "Charles" Prince (1967) has written at least three books, numerous articles, and is often cited within scholarly literature.  Although "her" views are by no means objective and research methods quite questionable, "she" does state four important reasons that are not discussed in the literature about why someone would cross dress.  They are:
1)  Men are only able to show "goodness" and "virtue" while dressed in female clothing
2)  Male clothing is rigidly constructed while female clothing is not
3)  Relief from the requirements of masculinity
4)  Relief from having to live up to male images.
     Other researchers (Benjamin, 1966; Brierley, 1979; Stoller, 1985; Master, Johnson, & Kolodny, 1986; Doctor, 1988) have done work from a psychological perspective that   classifies transvestites as a "gender identity disorders."   Even though all cross dressing behavior refers to wearing the clothing of the opposite sex, some tend to categorize (Benjamin, 1966; Doctor, 1988) and define (Whitam, 1986) transvestism with many variations and stages (Benjamin, 1966; Feinbloom, 1976; Doctor, 1988).  The distinction used by almost all researchers is between heterosexual and homosexual transvestites, where there is a somewhat "invisible line" that has been drawn between the sexual preferences of cross dressers.  Similarly, there are different approaches to studying transvestism between disciplines, where most previous research on the subject of transvestism can be separated into three distinct groups; Biological/Medical, Psychological, Sociological.  However, for this project I will add a fourth group, Feminist.

 Biological/Medical
        The biological/medical approach to transvestism assumes that there is a hereditary predisposition to cross dressing.  This can be genetic chromosomal anomalies, congenital maldevelopment, or some kind of postnatal imbalance (Ellis & Abarbanel, 1961; Doctor, 1988).  There is little evidence to support this idea, which seems problematic since it infers that a transvestite instinctively wears the clothes of the opposite sex.
       The transvestic behavior is often times brought out into the open when there is conflict between with the cross dresser's parents, spouse, or the law over their desire to cross dress.  With little knowledge about transvestism, the individual is often referred to a therapist (Reinisch & Beasley, 1990), indicating to them they are flawed and need to be fixed .
         The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) (American Psychiatric Association, 1987: 288), which is used by health care workers to diagnose "illness," places transvestism under the section entitled "Sexual Disorders," in between "Sadism" and "Voyeurism."  The diagnosis criteria is:

" A. Over a period of at least six months, in a heterosexual male, recurrent intense sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies involving cross-dressing.
B. The person has acted on these urges, or is markedly distressed by them.
C. Does not meet the criteria for Gender Identity Disorder of Adolescence or Adulthood, Non transsexual Type, or Transsexualism"

They add that while cross dressed, the individual usually masturbates and imagines other males being attracted to him as a woman while in feminine clothes.  The APA states that the diagnosis should be changed to "Gender Identity Disorder of Adolescence or Adulthood, Non transsexual" type, if the sexual arousal to the clothing disappears, yet the cross dressing continues.  Otherwise the label of "Transvestic Fetishism" is attached since the definition of fetishism is the "repeated, preferred, or exclusive method of achieving sexual excitement via the use of non-living objects or part objects" (American Psychiatric Association, 1989).
         The Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders states that there is no single treatment that is effective in treating the disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1989:637), yet treatment is still tried in many cases  (Tollison & Adams, 1979: APA, 1989).  Treatments include biologic, psycho dynamic, and behavior therapies, that take a very long time, often regress and fragment the personality and are usually unsuccessful (Kando, 1973; APA, 1989), which supports Prince's (1967) belief that treatment is a waste of time and money.

Psychological
          Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, believed that everything that happens in a child's life affects and  predicts their future as adults.  Nothing happens by chance, and childhood is actually a very traumatic time, during which any deviation from the "norm" can cause problems for the individual later on in life.
        Some researchers have worked on how to predict future atypical adult sexual orientation in children (Whitam, 1977; Whitam, 1980; Green, 1987).  Data for the early cross gender behavior of children comes from 4 main types of research: longitudinal, retrospective, observational, and reports of parents (Whitam & Mathy, 1986).  Usually parents become concerned when their male child show's what they would consider "sissy" behavior. The parents become worried that the child will grow up to be homosexual so they look for a "cure" to prevent this from happening.  Whitam & Mathy (1986:33) state:
"Playing with girl's toys, cross dressing, preference for girls' games and activities, preference for the company of adults of the opposite sex, and being regarded as a sissy by others are strong indicator of later atypical sexual orientation."
         Green (1987) studied 66 prepubertal "feminine boys" who showed signs of cross gender behavior and compared them with a group of 56 boys who matched them in all areas except they were considered "masculine boys."   The greatest difference between the two groups was the amount of time spent cross dressing.  Feminine boys did not want to do "rough" and "tumble"  games, wanted to be girls, were interested in their mothers clothing, and wanted to play with dolls.  Green attributes this behavior to "feminine boys" having spent less time with fathers, especially prior to the 5th birthday, and as a lack of parental intervention early enough to stop the behavior.  Most parents originally thought cross dressing behavior was cute or funny and considered it to be a passing phase.  Green believes that by ignoring the behavior the children thought it was a positive reaction to cross dressing and believed that "without parental interruption they (the children) would tend to consider the parental response as somewhat accepting" (Green, 1987:65).  If the parent had at least attempted to divert the child to something else or just forbid the child to cross dress it would have been considered a negative reaction that would suppress it.  Green indicates that therapy at an early age can somehow "cure" the cross gender urges.

Sociological
        Some researchers (Sagarin, 1969; Kando, 1973; Bogdan, 1974; Feinbloom, 1977; Newton, 1979; King, 1987; Talamini, 1982; Bullough, 1991) have studied transvestism from a sociological approach, one that does not look for something  "wrong" within the individual either biologically or psychologically.  Unfortunately, many studies are quite old and some have serious flaws.
        Sagarin (1969) included transvestites among other groups of individuals whom he believed were deviant, such as Alcoholic Anonymous members, gamblers, and dwarfs.  His data consisted of two transvestite journals, minutes to meetings (it is unclear whose meetings), police reports, and someone else's master's thesis.  He had no direct contact with transvestites as far as I can tell, yet based on his data, Sagarin stated that previous estimates on the incidence of transvestism was "probably fifty or one hundred times too high" (Sagarin, 1969:113).  He described the transvestite as someone who "shows scorn for homosexuals," as a way of affirming his heterosexuality, and stated there are no formal organizations for transvestites, only journals, because men who cross dress will not "form organizations or fight for the right to dress" (Sagarin, 1969:113). Unfortunately, Sagarin contradicts himself in many places, leaving his work inaccurate, and incomplete.
        Kando (1973) was interested in how transvestites who eventually changed their sex scored on certain tests in comparison to males and females who were not transvestites.  He found that transvestites scored much more feminine on masculine/feminine scale, attitudes towards gender norms, and role strain.  This suggests that while women do not actually accept traditional stereotypes of femininity, i.e. the statements "Women have a greater desire to have children than men" and Ultimately, a woman should submit to her husband's decisions", transvestites/transsexuals do.  In fact, they seem to become hyperfeminine.
        Bogdan's (1974) book is just one more case history, that gives some insight into the life of one transvestite, Jane Fry, by letting "her" speak about "herself" and "her" experiences.  The book relates Jane's unhappy life giving the impression that all the major conflicts in Jane's life are a result of "her" unacquired desire to be a woman.  Jane even goes so far as to get married, impregnate "her" wife, then flips out, and escapes by going into the hospital, claiming jealousy over not being able to have a baby.  Bogdan buys into this and tries to explain how mental hospitals misjudge "deviants", while stating "we can understand sexism.... in it's grossest form" thanks to Jane's story (Bogdan, 1974:223). I find Bogdan's conclusions very problematic and see that once again, coming from a white male perspective, the discussion is focused on Jane, and "her" escape mechanisms, rather than the desertion of the wife and baby when Jane could not handle his responsibilities.
          Feinbloom (1976) felt there was no information for the "lay" reader on the subject of transvestism that wasn't medically or psychologically grounded.  In the 70's, she became interested and started attending group meetings to investigate "the sociology of everyday life" of the cross dresser (Feinbloom, 1976:5), thus resulting in a interesting journalistic account of a transvestite and transsexual community.  An area of interest, the wives of transvestites was mentioned briefly, yet her conclusions about their participation rests in Feinbloom's belief that the wives have low self concept of themselves and the need for a "girl friend."
        To find out if transvestism is a result of an absent father and the lack of interest in typical male activities as a child as some literature suggests, Bullough, Bullough, & Smith (1983) studied 65 transvestites and compared them to transsexuals, gay men, and a control group.  Finding suggest that an absent father was no more common for the transvestite group than the others, which contradicts Green's (1987) study, and that both the transvestite group and the control group felt sports were very important as children.   The researchers concluded that transvestites learned quite early how to compensate for their cross dressing behavior by playing the masculine role well enough to avoid questions by others.  This compensation follows into their adult lives by affording them the "security of success in the male world," but the ability to escape into a feminine persona (Bullough et al, 1983:255).
            Fournet, Forsyth, & Schramm (1988) investigated the social processes to see how an individual manages his "deviant" identity.  The researchers found that homosexual transvestites, heterosexual transvestites, and non-cross-dressing homosexuals, "attempt to compartmentalize" their behavior, thus avoiding contact with other groups.  This permits each group to normalize themselves by denying their own stigma while disassociating themselves from a "negative reference group" (Fournet et al, 1988:181) whom the public has been conditioned to stereotype negatively.  Accounts, which are excuses and justifications about the behavior in question, protects self esteem and puts each group into a majority whose "values, abilities, or performances" are considered superior (Fournet et al, 1988:181).   The need to categorize oneself is interesting, although King (1981) believes it is a relatively new concept.  It wasn't until the late 1950's that Prince separated the definition of transvestite from both those of the homosexual and transsexual.

Feminist
         Unfortunately very few researchers have studied transvestism from a feminist approach. Although the book, Feminism and Theatre, by Case (1988) is not directly about transvestism, it is certainly applicable to my research and therefore deserves to be mentioned.  Case maintains that while men have had a public life available to them throughout history, women have traditionally been relegated to a private, oppressed, and suppressed life.  Men played the female role in plays, which allowed a fictional female to be invented and represented to society as the "normal women."  Case (1988:6) states that there are two types of female images that were portrayed; "positive roles, which depict women as independent, intelligent and even heroic; and misogymistic roles commonly identified as the Bitch, the Witch, the Vamp and the Virgin/Goddess."   She questions how men were able to portray women on the stage and states:

"Besides wearing the female costume and female mask, he might have indicated gender through gesture, movement and intonation...however it is important to remember that the notion of the female is derived from the male point of view, which remained alien to the female experience and reflected the perspective of the gendered opposite" (Case, 1988:11).

Ideologies such as the "battle of the sexes," uncontrollable sexuality, and women's ability to start wars, are seen time and time again as things women are capable and interested in doing.  It is no wonder that men think they know what "true womanhood" is about.
         Woodhouse (1989) states that "transvestism is a fantasy world, a means of becoming another sort of person temporarily while retaining one's own identity" (Woodhouse, 1989:52).  A transvestite believes in very rigid gender roles, where the only way he can show any feminine qualities is to be dressed in female clothing.  This fantasy permits some men to live two separate lives, and enable them to do some things in their female role that they would never do in their male role.  However, "the transvestite simply bends the rules to his own satisfaction, periodically 'slumming it'(by playing the women), but never relinquishing his claim to masculinity" (Woodhouse, 1989:88).
      Woodhouse takes a serious look at the wives of transvestites, from a feminist perspective, looking not from their husbands point of view, but realizing the importance of getting directly to the wives and letting them speak for themselves.  She has found that wives of transvestites are a very invisible group, often afraid or uncomfortable to attend transvestite functions, while "overshadowed by the 'other women in their men's lives" (Woodhouse, 1989:89).  The wives are often isolated, not able to tell anyone else about their situation, and many times believe that they are to blame for their husbands desire to cross dress. One women (and I would guess many others that were not interviewed) was so depressed and stressed she ended up in a psychiatric hospital to treat her problem, rather than the problem that was inflicted on her by her husband. Due to the economic situations women have traditionally been in, where they are dependent on their husbands support, Woodhouse suggests that adjustment to their husbands cross dressing is often times found to be their only solution.
       Finally, the most current writings on transvestism from a feminist perspective is Vested Interests: Cross Dressing & Cultural Anxiety (Garber, 1992).  Grabber gives an in-depth excellent exploration of many aspects of transvestism.  She looks at costume, fashion, the arts, medical discourses, movies, and much more.  Still, Garber concludes that even though transvestites take on female names, wear female clothing, and act as they think women act, "it is clearly not female subjectivity, it is a man's idea of what a women is; it is male subjectivity in drag" (Garber, 1992:96).

Hypothesis
    As I have stated the goal of this project is to gain information regarding the construction of sex, gender, and sexuality of self described male transvestites.  I hope to learn to what degree the subjects' conception of traditional male roles influence their desire to cross dress and to establish what they feel are negative qualities of one gender and positive of the other.  I hope also to learn how they manage their dual gender identities on a full time basis.   I will explore these objectives by examining the following relationships.

First, given the rigidity of the self-perceived sex role stereotypes acquired in males' upbringing, I expect they will have harder time blending those sex roles.  Because of this many will use cross dressing as a way to show the more feminine traits by cross dressing rather than add feminine qualities to their masculine identity.

Second, the earlier that a male starts cross dressing, the more likely the formation of his "deviant" identity goes through more stages, as outlined by previous researchers in other studies.

Third, after years of cross dressing within the privacy of their own home, the transvestite will venture towards a transvestite organization which provides a way of lessening the stigma attached to being a transvestite.

Forth, once a transvestite is established within a social organization and is able to be around other transvestites, he learns the role and vocabularies associated with his cross dressing behavior.

Fifth, upon growing up, men learn scripts that tell them heterosexuality is the "norm" and anything else is unacceptable.  Therefore, transvestites try to conform to those ideas, but find them problematic. Similarly, they learn new scripts upon associating with other transvestites.

Sixth, transvestites go through similar steps as they take on a deviant identity, as has been described by others researchers (Becker, 1963; Adler & Adler, 1983; Levi, 1989; Hong & Duff, 1989).

       One of the goals of this project is to document how transvestites come to understand themselves, look at their biography, and understand how they present themselves to others while maintaining a perceived "deviant" identity.  Goffman (R & W, 19:105) states: "an important aspect of every career is the view the person constructs when he looks backward over his progress."   In order to let my subjects look backward and obtain the information about their lives, it was necessary for me to get directly to the source of this information, the transvestites themselves.  The data collection was accomplished this in three ways: 1) questionnaire 2) interviews 3) computer bulletin boards.  I will first give a brief description of each source of data.
         Although it is impossible to foresee all possible problems that can arise while working with subjects, I feel that it is necessary to describe one that did occur.  Prior to doing this project, most of the transvestites I came in contact with seemed to be quite experienced at telling their stories.  However, I could not have anticipated how traumatic it can be for the person who has never "come out" to anyone.  I met with a subject, who was coming into town for work, in a restaurant in Santa Barbara.  Equipped with a recorder and notebook, I listened as the man told me about his life, how he needed to keep transvestism hidden from everyone around him including his wife, and the stress it was causing him.  He was very tearful and told me he was suicidal.  Although, much of the literature states that researchers should be unbiased and uninvolved with their subjects, I felt I needed to intervene.  I believed that it was unethical for me to have just thanked him for his help and leave knowing how much stress he was in.  I referred him to both a counselor who dealt in gender issues in his area and also to a support group for transvestites.  I believed that on one hand he needed immediate help in dealing with his suicidal feelings as a result of isolation and anxiety about his transvestism, and he needed the opportunity to learn that some transvestites do manage their lives quite well and who could offer him the support he needed during this transition  .  He contacted me later, by letters, to thank me, tell me he had acted on my suggestions, and was doing much better.

The Questionnaire Data
         During the Summer, 1991, I wrote a letter to 102 organizations advertised in the The TV-TS Tapestry, a journal for people who are interested in cross dressing and transsexualism.  The organizations in the journal are listed by state, with the name, address, and the other relevant information about the organization. In my letter I stated who I was, where I was from, my interest in doing work on transvestism, and asked the organization to place an ad in their newsletters asking for people willing to answer a questionnaire to contact me (See Appendix 1).  Of the 102 letters, some came back unable to be delivered by the postal service (4), others responded but said they had no newsletter (3), they were only a store front (1), out of existence (1), or were for TS only (1).  From the remaining I received correspondences and requests for a questionnaire from 28 organizations.
       Once the organization had placed my ad asking for respondents into their newsletter, the willing subject would write to me asking for a questionnaire.  I would give that subject a number at that point, in order to ensure confidentiality for their responses and send out a questionnaire, with a cover letter, and a consent form (See Appendix 2).  Upon receiving the completed questionnaire, I checked it in adding the subjects number to all parts of the questionnaire, noting how long it took to receive it back, and added the demographic information of all who replied into a data base for analysis.
 
The Interview Data
       This was not the major focus of my research project, but some interviews were done in order to get into a little more detail than the questionnaire provided.  Within the questionnaire, the subjects were asked if they would be willing to be interviewed by phone and asked for their phone numbers and best times to call.  There was no real method for how I chose who I would call.  However, one thing I looked at was how much detail they went into on their questionnaire, thinking that the more detail they went into, the more open they might be on the phone.  I also chose depending on the subjects availability and the part of the country they were in, which would fit best into my time schedule and theirs.  All in all, there were 9 phone interviews and one face to face interview.
        All the subjects that I interviewed were quite willing to open up and "tell their story."  There was no guidelines that I followed during an interview.  I would ask questions and then asked new ones depending on the interview itself.

The Computer Bulletin Boards
        Although there a many computer bulletin boards geared towards transvestites, I put a questionnaire on only one.  I was not sure how it would work as a way to collect more demographic information, but thought I would try anyway in order to increase my sample size.
        The bulletin board I accessed was call Fem Net, is listed as "a BBS supporting TV's, TS's, TG's, their significant others, and those interested in the gendered lifestyles and transgendered persons.  Though not a sexually oriented board, there are no bounds on the nature of the subjects discussed here..." (Fem Net, 5/92).  I placed a copy of the demographic part of the questionnaire in an ad and asked people to respond either on the BBS, by Prodigy (another bulletin board), or by sending their answers to the University address.  Although the response was not overwhelming, I did get some by way of both bulletin boards and see computer bulletin boards as a feasible way of obtaining data in the future.

The Data
         Although data was collected using three different methods, all three have some inadequacies (Jenness, 1987).   It must be noted that the subjects in this sample do not represent all transvestites.   The subjects that responded to my ads are ones who are not totally isolated from other transvestites.  Although they are "out of the closet" to quite varied degrees, they are not completely secluded.  They do know that they are not the only ones, they have some sense of group cohesiveness, even if it is just receiving a newsletter or buying a journal like Tapestry.  This does not however represent the many people who did not answer my ads from other races, and socio-economic class, who are possibly very isolated, who manage their transvestite identity in a much more secluded way, and who we know nothing about.  But who are definitely out there.
 
Subjects
         To date, 6/30/92, I have received requests from 156 people requesting a survey, with completed questionnaires from 122 subjects.  Subjects represented 28 organizations, with 29 subjects the most from 1 source.  Ages ranged from 20 to 74 years with most (39%) being in their 40's; 58.2% were married, 21.3% single, and 20.5% divorced/separated/widowed; 68.03% claimed to have children who ranged from ages .5 to 43 years old. The majority 92.6% were white; 74.6% claimed to be heterosexual, .8% homosexual, 18.03% bisexual, and 6.6% were either asexual, transsexual, not sure, or did not answer.  Forty percent state that they are/were Christian, 29.5% are/were Catholic, 9.8% are/were Jewish, and 20.5% state they have either no religion or do not answer the question.  Sixty-three percent have completed college or higher, with only 15.6% just completing high school or less.   Sixty-three percent of the subjects hold professional jobs such as engineers, scientists, and public health administrators, while 28.7% held non professional jobs such as bookkeepers and mechanics, and 8.2% were unemployed or students. The mean salary for subjects is ??3 with a median of ??.  Sixty-nine percent claimed to have told their wives or girlfriends of their cross dressing, of those 20.5% react favorably, 34.4% not favorably, 8.2% have some reservations about the subject, and 36.9% did not answer the question.

The Study
        Since the purpose of this study is to investigate male transvestites in order to understand what parts of masculinity they reject and how they manage cross dressing with their day to day male roles, the population used for this study must have some criteria.  The men who actually answered my advertisement for transvestites is a very limited group of men, yet, within this group there is a vast range of characteristics.  Some never plan on changing their sex, while others can't wait to be able to afford sex reassignment surgery, and other's cross dress in order to let loose "the woman inside", while others cross dress for sexual purposes only.
        For the purpose of this study it is unrealistic to analyze all 122 subjects.  Therefore, the sample to be analyzed must fit some required conditions for inclusion in the analysis part of this study (All are included in the demographic part). The reason for this selection process is to look at men who are as close to living traditional masculine lifestyles as possible in order to see how they manage their dual identities.  If an individual states he is homosexual or bisexuality, then he has already accepted and is managing a different identity for himself.  My desire is to pick a subgroup of men who fit the profile within this group.  Subjects will be included who state in the demographic section of the questionnaire that they are:
1.   heterosexual
2.   married
Finally, due to lack of time and the amount of data received, if the questionnaire was answered by computer or typewriter and therefore able to be computer scanned or else had been previously transcribed were included also.  The final result is 33 completed questionnaires used for this part of the analysis.

Sample and Sample Characteristics
         To begin the demographics section of this questionnaire, the first question asked the respondents  where they heard about this project.  The 122 subjects whose answers are represented in this section, represent 28 different sources as shown in Table 1 below.  The majority of respondents stated they heard about the project from Tapestry, a magazine for cross dressers, that most people get from adult bookstores or other anonymous sources.
          Six respondents originated from a computer bulletin board called Fem Net.  This source was only used for a very short time, about a week, but I believe that if I had pursued it or other bulletin boards had been tried, the responses would also have been quite high.  Both Tapestry and Fem Net insure anonymity for the subjects.  Unless they wanted to give their names and home addresses (many did) they didn't have to.  This could possibly substantiate the fact that most respondents found out about this project through anonymous sources and that transvestism is a "hidden phenomenon."
     The second largest group of respondents belong to various groups or sororities that are under the "mother" group of Tri Ess,"The Society for the Second Self".  Typically, men who belong to Tri Ess groups have found out they are not alone by seeing members of Tri Ess on television specials or seeing it advertised.  These men have "come out" to some degree and are learning to live quite active lives as male cross dressers.

Table 1: Sources of Respondents
 

Source and State Club	Number of Respondents
Alpha Chapter-CA	1
Alpha Zeta-AZ	1
Androgyny-CA	1
CDI-PA	3
Central Illinois Gender Association-IL	2
Chi Chapter-IL	4
Chi Delta Mu-NY	2
Connecticut Outreach Society-CT	5
Crossdresser Heterosexual Intersocial Club-CA	8
Jennifer & Friends-NV	1
Kappa Beta-NC	1
NY Gender Alliance-NY	1
Outreach Institute	1
Phi Epsilon Mu-FL	6
Phoenix Rising-CA	2
Phoenix Transgender-NC	2
Pink Flamingos-MA	2
Renaissance Education Association-PA	12
Serenity-Fl	3
Sigma Chi-CA	1
Tau Sigma Beta-Fl	1
The Butterfly-AZ	2
Tiffany Club-MA	1
Transgenderists Independence Club-NY	2
ETVC Information	8
Tapestry Magazine	29
Femme Mirror Magazine	7
Fem Net Computer BB	6
Unknown	7

 

    The respondents shown also represent 29 different states as shown in Graph 1.    Most (21%) of the respondents are from California and the next highest (14.8%) are from New York.  Although this was not a direct question on the questionnaire, it is interesting to note that this sample is more diverse than some of the other studies previously discussed (Feinbloom, 1976; Doctor, 1988; Brown & Collier, 1989).

Graph 1

Age
   As shown in Graph 2, the ages of the subjects in this sample are between 20-74 years old.  The average age is 45.5 years.  This is similar to the subjects in other studies (Prince, 1967; Feinbloom, 1976; Talamini, 1982).

Graph 2: Age of Respondents
 

Religion and Race
     Although other studies have been done on transvestism, none have addressed the subject of race.  For instance, Talamini (1982) mentions that his subjects were all Caucasian, yet never mentions why there are no other races represented.  Similar to Talamini's study and as shown in Graph 3 the majority of subjects in this sample are 93% white, with 40.2% stating they are Christian, 29.5% Catholic, 14.8% consider themselves not religious, and 9.8% Jewish.
 
Graph 3: Religious Preference of Respondents
 

Education, Occupation, and Income
    Most characteristics of the transvestites in this sample are similar to previous studies done on transvestism, with  few exceptions as can be seen in Graph 4.   In Brierley's (1979) study, he states that 13% of his subjects had high school degrees and 37% had college degrees.  The results for this study are similar, 12.30% and 38.52% respectively.  However, data stated in this way does not give the reader the complete picture about the high socioeconomic status of most transvestites.  In this study all subjects except 15.57% had more than a high school education and 25% state t