Full Personality Expression (FPE), also Phi Pi Epsilon, was formed in 1962 by Virginia Prince as an organization for heterosexual male crossdressers, based on her earlier Hose & Heels Club. The Alpha chapter was located in California, but new chapters appeared across the United States and Europe. Prince received some criticism for restricting the group's membership to heterosexual (and mostly married) crossdressers and policing of sexual content.
| Formation | 1962 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Virginia Prince |
| Headquarters | California |
Formerly called | The Hose & Heels Club |
Background
editFormed in 1962 by Virginia Prince as an organization for heterosexual male crossdressers, it was based on her earlier Hose & Heels Club which had been located in Los Angeles.[1][2][3][4] It was renamed in 1976, alongside merging with Carol Beecroft's Mademoiselle Sorority (aka. Mamselle), to Tri-Ess (Society for the Second Self).[2]
According to Prince, it was the oldest known transvestite organisation[2] and was formed from the subscribers to her magazine Transvestia.[5] The initials FP were taken from Prince's blend word femmepersonator for the target audience of the magazine (since she believed that the word transvestite had been given negative connotations by drag queens and fetishists).[3][6]
Chapters
editThe Alpha chapter was located in California. Another chapter was located in Boston,[2] and there were likely many more across the United States.[7] In 1964 members financially supported the legal fees for John Miller (also known as Joan Miller), who was on FPE's council, with a $300 donation.[8]
The British wing of FPE, The Beaumont Society, was co-founded in 1966 by Alga Campbell, Alice Purnell and others.[9][10][11]
Full Personality Expression – Northern Europe (FPE-NE) was founded on 17 November 1966 by Anette Hall, a previous member of FPE. Its activities covered Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, with regional boards that became independent in 1982.[12][13] From the late 1980s, there were disagreements among the members about the association's direction, which led to the formation of TiD (Transvestite Association in Denmark) in 1994 (which changed its name to Transpersoners i Denmark in 2017 and is still active),[14] and FPE-N (Full Personality Expression – Norway (no), since renamed to FTP-N) in 2000.[15] FPE-NE is thought to have ceased activities by the end of 2002, although it never formally dissolved.[12]
Criticism
editPrince received some criticism for restricting the group's membership to heterosexual (and mostly married) crossdressers and policing of sexual content.[16] Letters in The Transvestite note the competition between FPE and the Empathy club, whose magazines "each cut the other down".[17] Empathy Magazine wrote: "If a pair of panties is the only article of apparel you happen to enjoy wearing I am not going to tell you that you cannot be a part of my club because you are a deviate or just a plain fetishist, not a true transvestite as my Competitor, Charles Prince might say."[18]
Legacy
editHistorian Emily Cousens has discussed the impact that the concept of Full Personality Expression had on trans communities in the 1970s, citing the view that in FPE "androgyny [w]as a combination of gendered traits". This was expressed through graphic design with logos featuring both feminine and masculine motifs combined.[19] Cousens has also argued that FPE was "ideological justification for the vicious distinguishment between politically correct forms of gender variance (transvestism) and more deviant transfeminine embodiments (transsexualism)".[19]
References
edit- ^ "Virginia Prince & Transvestia – University of Victoria". UVic.ca. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ a b c d "TV GUISE Vol. I, Issue 8 (November, 1991) – Digital Transgender Archive". www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ a b "Transvestia vol. 3 no. 13 – Digital Transgender Archive". www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ Equality, Roots of; Simone, Tom De; Wang, Teresa; Lopez, Melissa; Tran, Diem; Sacher, Andy (2011). Lavender Los Angeles. Arcadia Publishing. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-7385-7490-5.
- ^ "Femme Mirror, Vol. 22 Iss. 1 (Winter, 1997) – Digital Transgender Archive". www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ "Transvestia vol. 15 no. 88 – Digital Transgender Archive". www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ Jeffreys, Sheila (2014). Gender hurts: a feminist analysis of the politics of transgenderism. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-415-53939-5.
- ^ Redburn, Kate (2022). "Before Equal Protection: The Fall of Cross-Dressing Bans and the Transgender Legal Movement, 1963–86". Law and History Review. 40 (4): 679–723. doi:10.1017/S0738248022000384. ISSN 0738-2480.
- ^ "Beaumont Society Press Cuttings Collection". Bishopsgate Institute. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
- ^ Playdon, Zoë (2021-11-02). The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: And the Unwritten History of the Trans Experience. Simon and Schuster. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-9821-3946-9.
- ^ Trotsenburg, Mick van; Luikenaar, Rixt A. C.; Meriggiola, Maria Cristina (2022-12-08). Context, Principles and Practice of TransGynecology. Cambridge University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-108-84231-0.
- ^ a b "FPE-NE. Full Personality Expression – Northern Europe. Skandinaviens første transforening stiftet den 17. november 1966. – Vidensbanken om kønsidentitet" (in Danish). Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ Westerbotn, Margareta; Blomberg, Tobias; Renström, Evelina; Saffo, Nina; Schmidt, Lina; Jansson, Britten; Aanesen, Arthur (December 2017). "Transgender people in Swedish healthcare: The experience of being met with ignorance". Nordic Journal of Nursing Research. 37 (4): 194–200. doi:10.1177/2057158517695712. ISSN 2057-1585.
- ^ "transpersoner.dk". www.transpersoner.dk. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ "Short Note on Norwegian Trans Organization FTPN – Digital Transgender Archive". www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ "GENDYS Conference 2000 – The Life and Work of Virginia Prince". www.gender.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ "The Transvestite Magazine: Vol. 3 No. 34 – Digital Transgender Archive". www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ "Empathy Magazine (Volume 3 Issue 28) – Digital Transgender Archive". www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ^ a b Cousens, Emily (2023-10-19). "Androgyny in the Archives: 1970s Trans and Feminist Encounters with the Promise and Politics of Non-Binary". The Graduate History Review. 12: 164–187. doi:10.18357/ghr12202321343. ISSN 1925-2455.