The female-impersonators: $b A sequel to the autobiography of an androgyne and an account of some of the author's experiences during his six years' career as instinctive female-impersonator in New York's underworld; together with the life stories of androgyne associates and an outline of his subsequently acquired knowledge of kindred phenomena of human character and psychologyWerther, Ralph
History
The female-impersonators: $b A sequel to the autobiography of an androgyne and an account of some of the author's experiences during his six years' career as instinctive female-impersonator in New York's underworld; together with the life stories of androgyne associates and an outline of his subsequently acquired knowledge of kindred phenomena of human character and psychology
Werther, Ralph
Cross-dressing -- United States -- History; Gay men -- United States -- Biography; Transgender people -- United States -- Biography; Werther, Ralph, 1874-
It must be understood that a normal man can not develop sexual feelings
or desires for another man, although it must be admitted that
homosexuality is occasionally practiced under conditions where access to
the opposite sex is impossible (or next to impossible), as, for example,
among soldiers on campaigns, among sailors during long voyages on
sailing vessels, in boarding-schools for adolescents, etc. This species
of homosexuality is indulged in only from “necessity”—so to say—and is
not considered by those indulging as much different from
self-manustupration. It is gladly abandoned as soon as access to the
opposite sex has become possible.
An ultra-androgyne however, although he has the male primary physical
attributes, never feels himself to be a real male, but a female
incarnated in a male body (often with feminine earmarks), and would no
more be able to develop sexual feelings for a female than a normal man
for another male.
It is therefore a consummation devoutly to be wished that a book setting
forth the facts of androgynism could be distributed among the general
public. The author tried to write a compendium for such readers, and THE
FEMALE-IMPERSONATORS is the result.
That he has failed in his attempt is to me not only very apparent, but
also quite natural.
To the author nothing that he has written about the practices of
androgynes seems what we call immoral or revolting. Because their own
congenital sexual tendencies appear to androgynes as the full-fledged
man’s appear to the latter.
To the author of THE FEMALE-IMPERSONATORS it is as natural to fall in
love with another male (bearing in mind however that the androgyne is
only a “pseudo-male”) and write, what he calls poems, dedicated to his
“hero-boys” (who to me appear nothing but low ruffians, blackmailers,
and grafters) as it would be for a normal man to fall in love with some
good-looking female, and write “poetry” about her, perhaps in some of
his later “poems” to bewail the fact that she has proven herself
“faithless, truthless, and makes a sale of that which men call love, to
him who bids the highest.”
It is therefore but natural that, since the author sees human beings, as
it were, distorted through his own mental astigmatism, namely females as
belonging to his own sex and males to the opposite, his second book, THE
FEMALE-IMPERSONATORS, contains a great deal which to the average reader
would be “shocking”, and thus, instead of accomplishing the result which
he intended, would cause disgust, and make the treatment of the
androgyne even worse than at present.
After the author had submitted the manuscript of his book to numerous
publishers, trying in vain (as I had predicted to him) to induce one of
them to bring out the book for general circulation, I agreed to publish
it for restricted sale.
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