Bizarre as this may sound, there
was once a fad for what was called "petticoat punishment" –
humiliating unruly boys, and teaching them refinement, by dressing them in
girl's clothing until they mended their ways.
This seems to have occurred principally in England and Europe during the
nineteenth century, but was never widely practiced in the U.S. Eddie gave
friends a dramatic account: "My mother was punishing me. She didn't know what the hell she was doing
to me." Young Eddie's desire to dress as a woman went far deeper than
masturbatory fantasy. Like many men and
women in what is currently known as the transgendered community, young Eddie
had a strong need to dress as, and be accepted as, a member of the opposite
sex. (Many artists and performers have
shared similar impulses – among them the macho Ernest Hemingway with his
predilection for donning frilly garments and then playing the passive role in
bed.) In Eddie, this impulse was so strong that by the time he turned twelve,
he was already sneaking into his mother's room, "borrowing" her
clothes (particularly her underwear) and trying them on. Having discovered
proof at an early age that he would have made a beautiful girl, Eddie began to
fantasize about what his life would have been like if he had actually had the
good luck to be born female. As with
others in the same situation, young Eddie's need to let his (or her) female
self out was so overwhelming, s/he began to look for opportunities to publicly
dress as a girl safely and without anyone suspecting his/her actual
motives. First, s/he started joking
about it with the neighborhood kids. If
a girl took off her shoes or a sweater, Eddie might swipe them and put them
on. The stratagem appears to have
worked. Most friends of the time
recalled young Eddie's clowning around as "strictly for laughs,"
"a lark," "tongue-in-cheek," and "camp." Almost no one, at least during his/her
childhood and teen years, seems to have suspected anything more.
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