Home Up More Bloom Bloom on Web CON MEN SPEAK NO EVIL Fiction's Comfort Interview Normal-A Review Nangeroni

I've been keeping watch for comments on Bloom's article.  Here are a miscellaneous set of sections, each with source:

From Upstream:

The link below doesn't work any more...but this was the original source

http://www.mugu.com/pipermail/upstream-list/2002-June/004404.html

Introduction

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Cross-dressers Amy Bloom ("Conservative Men in Conservative Dresses," April Atlantic) says she doesn't "want to demonize or pathologize any sexual preference or behavior that doesn't hurt anyone." But cross-dressing does hurt people! It hurts the women who were lied to, and who are abandoned when they cannot respond sexually to their cross-dressing mates. It hurts children of the divorce, many of whom will never understand why Dad left. Both Mom and Dad will keep Dad's secret, assuming that it is something the children should never know. Research from East Tennessee State University indicates that the women involved with cross-dressing partners are usually first-born children, and tend to be more liberal and more highly educated than average. They are, as Bloom points out, not lacking in self-esteem. In fact, it is their strong self-esteem that allows them to accept relationships with their cross-dressing mates. This may, however, become a threat to the cross-dresser, posing a contradiction--the need for a woman strong enough to accept his cross-dressing, but one sensitive to his sexual needs. Cathy Connellan Sterling Heights, Mich.

As a married heterosexual cross dresser, I must take issue with Ray Blanchard's heated (to use Amy Bloom's characterization) assertion "Of course it's not relaxing. Heels and makeup and a wig and a corset? It's preposterous." For me, wearing these and other associated habiliments is indeed relaxing, if not physically then psychologically, and I know from their personal attestations that other cross-dressers agree. Blanchard would be surprised at how truly comfortable a properly fitted and laced corset is! For the record, and contrary to Bloom's composite portrait, my wife is a professional with a master's degree, and in the thirty years I have been a registered voter, I cannot remember once voting for a Republican. Jamie Roberts Lightfoot, Va.

MEDIA WATCH 

by Jim Edminster

http://www.wctimes.com/0outlines/mar27~02/mediawatch.html

(A gay/Lesbian publication in Chicago)

The Atlantic (4/20) offers a story for the "Not-Quite-Sure-About-The-Department" Department: "Conservative Men in Conservative Dresses, which details the lives and times of heterosexual cross dressers. The article is more or less sympathetic to this group of mostly Christian Republican men, but does point out that they all know if their supportive (but unenthusiastic) wives decided to do male (hairy legs and 3-piece suits) drag, their marriages would be over.

and last, from Libido...comes another Gay take on Bloom's article:

http://www.libidomag.com/nakedbrunch/archive/gayvue09.html

Cross-dressing, which is not a gay thing, always is shown for comedy, as in La Cage aux Folles, the stage play, later turned into the movie Birdcage; the movies Priscilla Queen of the Desert and To Wong Fu, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Many, if not most, of the men who cross-dress are heterosexual and tend to be Republican, fundamentalist Christian and corporate executives, including a hefty number of retired military officers. Amy Bloom in an excellent article in The Atlantic Monthly (April 2002) titled "Conservative Men in Conservative Dresses" captures the pain that these men cause for their wives, who outwardly accept and support them. One of the men she interviewed is in fact a Baptist preacher. The fulminating Bible thumpers would be surprised if they knew how many men in their congregations were wearing frilly underthings and got up in fully female regalia with makeup and wig.