Virginia Charles Prince (November 23, 1912 – May 2, 2009) was an American

transgender woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

and

transgender activist The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health c ...

. She published '' Transvestia'' magazine, and started

Full Personality Expression Full Personality Expression (FPE), also ''Phi Pi Epsilon'', was formed in 1962 by Virginia Prince as an organization for heterosexual male Cross-dressing, crossdressers, based on her earlier ''Hose & Heels Club.'' The Alpha chapter was located in ...

, which later became

Tri-Ess Tri-Ess (Society for the Second Self) is an international educational, social, and support group for heterosexual cross-dressers, their partners, and their families. History Tri-Ess was founded in 1976 by the merging of two existing groups for ...

, for male

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions ...

cross-dresser Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...

Early life

Prince was born on November 23, 1912, in Los Angeles, California to a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

family. She was

assigned male at birth Sex assignment (also known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex, typically made at birth based on an examination of the baby's external genitalia by a healthcare provider such as a midwife, nurse, or physician. In the v ...

. At around the age of twelve Prince began cross-dressing, first using her mother's clothes. During her time in high school Prince began cross-dressing more frequently and found herself passing as a girl in public.Prince, Virginia. "My Accidental Career." How I Got Into Sex. Eds. B. Bullough, V.L. Bullough, M.A. Fithian, W.E. Hartman and R.S Klein. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1997. This came to a crux when Virginia, at the age of 18, went to a church Halloween party—not only in a woman's outfit but indeed passing as a woman—and won first prize. This marked "the first occasion in which rincewillingly appeared before others as a girl". The daughter of a surgeon father and a mother who worked in real estate investment, Prince's early life was one of privilege, with a family that was in her words "socially prominent".

Education and transition period

Prince enrolled at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of Los Angeles. It lies in the Pomona Valley at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had ...

, in 1931. She joined a fraternity and graduated in 1935 with a degree in chemistry. Prince was not as open with her transvestism as she became in later life. However it was thanks to a psychiatrist she consulted at age 30 that she began to live a more comfortable, open lifestyle. Despite having been previously diagnosed with an unresolved

Oedipus complex In classical psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex is a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father, first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. A daughter's attitude of desire ...

, Prince confided to her doctor,

Karl Bowman Karl Murdock Bowman (November 4, 1888 – March 2, 1973) was a pioneer in the study of psychiatry. From 1944 to 1946 he was the president of the American Psychiatric Association. His work in alcoholism, schizophrenia, and homosexuality is particul ...

, about her inclination of crossdressing, who in return advised her to "learn to accept erelf... and enjoy it." Prince credits this psychiatrist, who reminded her that there are many others that live a similar lifestyle, with ''Transvestias overarching, recurring theme of self-acceptance. Prince gained her PhD in pharmacology in 1939 from the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

. This was also around the time that she met Dorothy Shepherd (March 30, 1909 - May 13, 1985) whom she would marry and with whom she would have a son, Brent Lowman (July 1, 1946 - October 1976). The two were married on August 16, 1941, in Los Angeles, yet their marriage, according to Prince, "failed because of ertransvestism". In July 1951, the two divorced. The news that Prince was served with divorce papers due to her transvestism came as a shock to her family who threatened to disown her both "financially and socially" if she could not keep the news from leaking to the media, which it ultimately did. After her marriage ended, Prince returned to the University of California, San Francisco and began working as a research assistant and lecturer in pharmacology. During this time, Prince took advantage of the university's small collection of medical literature on transvestism. This was also around the time that Prince began using the name Charles Prince, a name used in order to hide her civil identity. The name stems from her father's first name, Charles, and her address on Prince Street. The exact time at which Prince took on the name Virginia is unclear, however one of her earliest known writings, the article "Homosexuality, Transvestism and Transsexualism: Reflections on Their Etiology and Difference" published in 1957, is credited to "C.V. Prince".

''Transvestia'' magazine

In 1960, the first issue of Prince's magazine ''Transvestia'' was published. Prince acquired the means to fund the publication after assembling a list of 25 acquaintances, each of whom were willing to donate four dollars to her start-up. Working with one hundred dollars, Prince then launched her first issue, published by her own Chevalier Publications, and sold it by subscription and through adult bookstores. ''Transvestia'' was published bi-monthly by Prince between the years of 1960 and 1980, with a total of 100 issues being created. The subsequent 11 issues were edited and published by Carol Beecroft (the co-founder of Chevalier publications) until 1986. In 1963, the inside jacket of the magazine stated the publication as "dedicated to the needs of the sexually normal individual who has discovered the of his or her 'other side' and seeks to express it." Rather than relying on a team of professional authors, this magazine was to be "written by... the readers" with the editor's job to be organizing and categorizing these submissions as appropriate. With a readership of mostly white, middle-to-professional-class crossdressers, the magazine offered, among other things, dozens of published life stories and letters contributed by other crossdressers.Hill, Robert. (2011). "'We Share a Sacred Secret:' Gender, Domesticity, and Containment in Transvestia's Histories and Letters from Crossdressers and Their Wives." Journal of Social History 44.3: 667–687. Over the years, the publication also gained several international subscribers, notably from England, Scandinavia and Australia. Prince herself, wrote an autobiographical article for the magazine's one-hundredth issue in 1979.Prince, Virginia. (1979). "The Life and Times of Virginia." Transvestia, 17.100: 5–120. This final issue edited by Virginia Prince, was unusual among ''Transvestia'' issues as it was solely an autobiographical account of Virginia's life, in which she recounted her early experiences with crossdressing, her divorce, and her work creating and maintaining ''Transvestia''. The magazine operated on three core objectives: # To provide expression for those interested in the subjects of unusual dress and fashion. # To provide information to those who, through ignorance, condemn that which they don't understand. # To provide education for those who see evil when none exists. These three objectives—education, entertainment, and expression—were promoted in order to "help... readers achieve understanding, self-acceptance, ndpeace of mind".Prince, Virginia. (1979). "The Life and Times of Virginia." Transvestia, 1.1. ''Transvestia'' was primarily a story driven magazine, however every issue contained a "person to person" section, in which ads for meeting others and businesses advertising transgender friendly services would be printed. This section also included a goods and services for sale section, as well as a trade and rent section. The magazine's others sections included: * Stories (true and fictional). * Articles (medical, psychological, or personal opinion about any phase of transvestism). * A question box (questions from readers that warrant a reply or further discussion). * A wives section (in which spouses were encouraged to contribute opinions on transvestism for the general enlightenment of all). * Letters to the editor (questions, comments, criticisms and compliments). * General (poems, humor, news. They were typically short notes to fill sections of pages or break up longer articles). Tranvestia was, in essence, an early example of a crowd-sourced publication. Although ''Transvestia'' was published for 20 years, it was not originally a successful venture. Virginia Prince recounts in her autobiographical issue that originally the cost of production was too high to be sustainable, due to its having been printed on mimeograph paper. Ultimately it was not until Prince "found an offset printer" and gathered more subscribers that ''Transvestia'' became a success. ''Transvestias audience consisted largely of men who were interested in feminine apparel, because their desires to express themselves were frowned upon by the rest of society. While ''Transvestia'' was a magazine for crossdressers in general, it was mainly directed at men (as women who cross-dressed were not as marginalized by society during the 1960s). A complete run of ''Transvestia'', both physical and digital copies, is in the

Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria is the "largest transgender archive in the world". The collection is located at the University of Victoria Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives (Mearns Centre for Learning) ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada.

Trans terminology, crossdresser identity and controversy

Through many of her writings, Prince has been considered a major pioneer of the transgender community. Her long history of literature surrounding issues of crossdressing and transvestism was rooted in her desire to fight against those who disagreed with liberal sexual ideology.Prince, Virginia. "Seventy Years in the Trenches of the Gender Wars." Gender Bending. Eds. V. Bullough, B. Bullough, B. and J. Elias. New York: Prometheus Books, 1997. Notably, in her 1967 "The Expression of Femininity in the Male" (under the pen name "Virginia Bruce"), Prince discusses the supposed psychiatric links between cross-dressing and sexual deviation that were commonly believed in at the time. Prince firmly rejected these associations, and was also strongly opposed to the notion that true transvestites are psychiatrically disturbed. In other works, Prince also helped popularize the term 'transgender', and erroneously asserted that she coined "transgenderist" and "transgenderism", words which she meant to be understood as describing people who live as full-time women, but have no intention of having genital surgery. Prince also consistently argued that transvestism is very firmly related to gender, as opposed to sex or sexuality. Her use of the term "femmiphile" related to the belief that the term "transvestite" had been corrupted, intending to underline the distinction between heterosexual crossdressers, who act because of their love of the feminine, and the homosexuals or transsexuals who may cross-dress. Although Prince identified with the concept of androgyny (stating in her autobiographical 100th issue that she could "do erown thing whichever it is"), she preferred to identify as Gynandrous. This, she explained, is because although 'Charles' still resides within her, "the feminine is more important than the masculine." Prince's idea of a "true transvestite" was clearly distinguished from both the homosexual and the transsexual, claiming that true transvestites are "exclusively heterosexual... The transvestite values his male organs, enjoys using them and does not desire them removed." By the early 1970s, Prince and her approaches to crossdressing and transvestism were starting to gain criticism from transvestites and transsexuals, as well as sections of the gay and women's movements of the time. Controversy and criticism has arisen based on Prince's support for conventional societal norms, such as marriage and the traditional family model, as well as the portrayal of traditional gender stereotypes. Her attempts to exclude transsexuals, homosexuals, or fetishists from her normalization efforts of the practice of transvestism have also drawn much criticism. Prince died in her hometown of Los Angeles on May 2, 2009.

References

External links