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	The Man in the Red Velvet Dress: Inside the World of Cross-Dressing J. J. Allen 1996, Carol Publishing 209 Pages

From the Cover Did J. Edgar Hoover go by the name Muriel when he cross-dressed?  Is transvestism a plot by the male establishment to destroy feminism?  Did you know that there are eleven different types of cross-dressers?  Cross-dressing has become a very fashionable subject these days, and in The Man in the Red Velvet Dress the author provides the definitive text in language that is both witty and fiercely intelligent. J.J. Allen, a longtime cross-dresser and past president of Powder Puffs of California, one of the world's largest cross-dresser support groups, provides an insiders view of a world most of us have seen only on talk shows, yet is more widespread and complex than the public realizes.  The author details the intricacies of transsexual surgery, and takes the reader on a tour of the underground sexual scene in Los Angeles, behind the closed doors of the secretive clubs and societies and into the psyche, sexuality, and social life of male cross-dressers. Unlike any other book ever written on the subject, The Man in the Red Velvet Dress will stir controversy due to the forthright manner in which the author covers his topic.   With chapter titles such as "The Black Lace Prison" and "Cosmetic Cross-Dressers," Allen's reporting is an once fascinating, entertaining, and disturbing. Readers will learn what cross-dressers talk about only among themselves.  They will discover why a man who could be their neighbor owns 2,100 pairs of panties.   They will find out what a marijuana-smoking man in a pair of pantyhose is doing in a hotel room with a she-male.  And they will learn the nine most commonly cited reasons given by cross-dressers to explain their behavior. The Man in the Red Velvet Dress marks a refreshing and original departure from both the scholarly and true-confession books that have attempted to address the subject of cross-dressing in the past.

Table of Contents The Nine Reasons Men Cross-Dress Eleven Different Types of Cross-Dressers The Realm of Fetishism Cosmetic Cross-Dressers Full-Time and Chemical Cross-Dressers Can a Man Become a Woman? The Black Lace Prison A Day in the Life of the Transgender Community Solving the Riddle of This Great Passion

Readers' Comments

Diane Sutton 

The book cover gives a very good sense of the book content and style. It isn't uniformly scholarly, but it does include some good history on Virginia Prince and some provocative, and seemingly reasonable, conjectures. It is refreshing, provocative, and simply FUN, which is close to Allen's reason #4 for why men cross-dress. It does make me wonder if the Los Angeles TG scene is typical, or maybe his/her storytelling is what makes LA so present. At any rate, it gets my vote for best book jacket of the last several years and my appreciation for a good romp.

Tina Tawdre  TinaTawdre@worldnet.att.net

A wonderful book that is full of fun stories and serious insights. I often felt that she was writing about me. While I don't agree with every opinion expressed in the book, the author's views often made me think about why I disagreed. I highly recommend this book for any CD interested in thinking about why she dresses.

Marika Lindvall  marika@divefreak.com

Buy it, you won´t regret it!