Early life
Prince was born on November 23, 1912, in Los Angeles, California to a Protestant family. She was assigned male at birth and given the name Arnold. 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''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 (Virginia Prince) 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… ndto 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, brick-bats and bouquets riticisms and compliments, general (poems, humor, news. They were typically short notes to fill sections of pages or break up longer articles), and 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. "Transvestia's" 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).Trans terminology, crossdresser identity and controversy
Through many of her writings, Prince has been considered a major pioneer of transgender community. Her long history of literature surrounding issues of crossdressing and transvestism has been rooted in Prince's desire to fight against those who opposed sexual liberty.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 Los Angeles on May 2, 2009.References
Further reading
* Bullough, Vern, and Bonnie Bullough. ''Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993: chapter 12. * Prince, Virginia. ''Understanding Cross-Dressing''. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, 1976. * _____. ''The Transvestite and His Wife''. Los Angeles: Argyle Books, 1967. * Richard F Docter. ''From Man to Woman: The Transgender Journey of Virginia Prince''. Docter Press xiv, 149 pp 2004. * Richard Ekins & Dave King (eds). ''Virginia Prince: Pioneer of Transgendering''. Haworth Press Inc., Paperback: 65 pages 2006. Essays about and by Virginia Prince. * Stryker, Susan. ''Transgender History: the roots of today's revolution. (second edition)'' Seal Press, November 2017: chapter 2 ''"Midcentury Transgender Social Networks", "Government Harassment"''External links