Pretty in Pink : Lifestyles: A cross-dressing convention in Burbank draws 200. Emotional support and fashion hints are in abundance.
Rachel strolled the aisle of the Amtrak train, asking if anyone had an extra hatpin. None of the passengers were startled by the voice that growled from beneath this man’s wig of platinum curls. No one so much as blinked at the thick physique beneath his pink dress.
Like him, they were all cross-dressers.
This week, 200 of them have gathered at a Burbank hotel for the annual convention of the Society for the Second Self, a nationwide group of about 1,200 men who like to wear women’s clothing on a regular basis. Most are in their 30s and 40s, although ages range widely.
All are, as they tend to mention within the first minute of conversation, heterosexual.
Tri-Ess, as the organization calls itself, provides emotional support as well as fashion hints. Thursday was the convention’s first full day, and more than 50 attendees took the train to Santa Barbara for a day of sightseeing and shopping.
For some, it was not unusual to venture out dressed as women.
“I go lots of places en femme ,” said Jane Ellen Fairfax, a Houston physician who, like others, uses a feminine name when cross-dressing. “This trip is particularly fun because we can all talk girl-talk. We can talk accessories.”
For a few, the outing represented a first, shaky step. Rachel, for instance, is a 40-year-old Los Angeles truck driver who had hidden his cross-dressing until recently.
“I’m very excited because I was looking forward to being all in pink,” he said. “I have more courage today than I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
Although many people would refer to the group’s members as transvestites, gender researchers say that there are various categories of men who wear women’s clothing.
Some do it for sexual arousal, said Walter L. Williams, an anthropology professor at USC’s Program for the Study of Women and Men in Society. The definition of transvestite applies to them.
Others see themselves as females in a male body. Still others--who tend to come from the gay drag community--seek to defy society’s gender codes.
Tri-Ess members offer an altruistic explanation for their behavior, saying that wearing women’s clothing helps develop such traditionally feminine qualities as tenderness and the appreciation of lace. These qualities, they insist, augment traditionally male traits, such as aggressiveness, that society has instilled in them.
Still, they recognize that they go to extreme lengths to develop these traits by wearing girdles and pancake makeup. When in a group, they refer to each other as her and she.
Some speculate that their behavior is founded on a genetic predisposition. The group’s co-founder, who goes by the name Virginia Prince, suspects that the penchant for feminine traits and feminine clothing exists within all men.
“Whether or not this potential gets discovered, and whether or not you enjoy it when you do discover it, is a matter of personal preferences,” said Prince, a retired college professor.
But whether this discovery is accepted by family and peers is another matter. Rachel is fortunate. He said his wife, like some others, is attending the convention. She agrees to call him by his feminine name, but will not let him wear her jewelry.
