Transvestia, Vol. 01, No. 02 (March 1960) contains a reprint of a 1913 forced femme poem called "Roy Violet, the Boy-Girl", credited to "an English periodical called NEW RUN [uncertain transcription; first letter of second word illegible], April 15, 1913". No author name is included, though the word Another is featured in quote marks at the end of the poem like it might be a pseudonym. It fits into the "Bad Boy to Good Girl" genre, with a bullying teen boy being feminized as punishment, coerced into it by dominant sisters by withholding food, and him eventually settling into that role. It's reproduced below:
ROY VIOLET, THE BOY-GIRL
Roy was most unruly, in a most unpleasant way.
At school, at home, he never would the simplest rules obey
But when he was expelled his sisters' backs were up,
They'd try another plan to tame this most unruly pup.
If he would not be pleasant and obedient as a boy,
He'd have to learn to be a girl— Violet, not Roy.
They would give him pretty lingerie and petticoats & frocks
And the smartest of silk stockings, 'stead of trousers, shirts and socks.
They would lace him up in corsets, 'til he could barely sit
They would train him to be dainty, to sew & mend & knit.
At first there was some trouble, but this silly pup soon found
That hunger wasn't pleasant and to give in he'd be bound.
So he got into his lingerie and petticoats and stays
And as a girl in dainty frocks he learned to mend his ways.
At first he did not like to be a boy dressed as a girl,
To learn his face to powder, and his hair to neatly curl.
He was sulky and resentful, tried an air of the bravado,
But he found tomboyish manners with girl's clothes didn't go.
However, he behaved himself since as a girl he'd got to live
He just made up his mind to that— there was no alternative.
Girl's clothes were rather nice if one forgot one was a boy,
And in the future he was Violet, he'd ne'er again be Roy.
So Roy gave up his struggle and gave up his boyish name
And soon a very charming, fascinating girl the lad became
He learned to wear his pretty clothes in a pretty girlish way
He learned to mend his sister's things, and dance and sing and play.
He found that it was rather nice to be a girl, and so
He resigned himself completely to the life he was to know
Nine years have passed, he's still a girl, a most complete success.
And nothing would induce him in his boy's clothes now to dress.
After frocks and dainty underclothes and petticoats awhirl
No, Violet he'll always be, and proud to be a girl.
So ladies read and mark and learn, unruly males to tame,
By making them wear petticoats and adopt a girlish name.
For every boy and every man is female more or less.
When other methods don't succeed, why try a change of dress.
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1910s and early 1920s documentation of intersex animals changing sex when researchers introduce stimuli appears to have been the inspiration for science fiction forced feminization, starting in 1922 with Weird Tales.
It seems worthwhile to analyze the contents of Transvestia, the 1960s transvestite and broadly trans magazine by Virginia Prince. I will be working from scans uploaded by the University of Victoria (here). Though in the text, Prince uses he/him pronouns and identifies only as a male crossdresser, Prince would later identify as a transgender woman and use she/her, so I will default to that.
Important context is that very recently before its release, the de facto ban on queer materials sent through the postal service was overturned. Previously, queer content could only slip through the cracks in heavily coded oblique descriptions in larger publications or was restricted to small, underground, often kinky newsletters not using the postal service. In 1954 and 1955, there was an effort to publish One, a magazine targeted at gay men, and it was banned for being obscene material simply for being for gay men. The One people took the case to court, and in 1958, it was ruled that queer material was not necessarily obscene. This opened the door for Transvestia, but the specter of obscenity laws kept them from getting as overtly sexual as modern day outlets like FictionMania, which are descendants of Transvestia.
Issue #1 (from January, 1960) has a simplistic typewritten cover with "Transvestia" written normally and vertically, sharing the T, in an attempt at aesthetic interest. It's crude, but there was clearly effort behind it. The subtitle reads "Outlet and Outlook of Fascinating Attire".
Inside cover: An introduction to the subject of transvestism with a quote from the non-canonical early Christian Gospel of Thomas, attributed to Jesus: "When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner and the above as the below, and when you make the male and the female into a single one - then you shall enter the Kingdom."
This grounds the transgender subject in spirituality, normalizing it. It is notable for being Christian; post-Reagan era religious right, trans spirituality shifts decidedly pagan.
Pages 1-4: A statement of intention, phrased in careful rhetoric, describing the three tenants of expression (of trans people), information (for trans people), and education (for transphobes). That last one is a bit dodgy. How can you have free expression if people are going to read it in bad-faith? Perhaps it's a bit naive, assuming they won't.
Pages 5-6: The editorial policy, in which Prince admits that some of the content is fictional, people sending in their fantasies like they're real events that happened. She basically decides she can't reasonably sort out the true statements and washes her hands of it, declaring it a mix of fiction and reality. There's also a note that Prince recognizes that BDSM is part of the enjoyment of transvestism for a significant enough part of the community that she thinks they need regular representation in the magazine so that there's something for everyone.
Pages 7-8: Prince describes her vision for the magazine layout: editorial section, short stories "being either true or fictional," longer stories broken up into different parts across multiple issues, a wives' section to hear from the partners of trans* people, a theoretical section to speculate on the etiology of trans desires and behavior, a question or two posed to invite discussion, answers sent in response to past questions, a correspondence section to let readers share feedback, a miscellaneous section for poems and jokes, and an advertisement section.
Pages 9-23: The first part of a longer story, "Miss Draft Dodger" (no attribution credit). This is a retelling of Roman poet Statius' Achilleid, which was about Achilles being force-feminized by his domineering mother and sent to the island of Skyros to keep him safe from a prophecy that he would die in the Trojan War. "Miss Draft Dodger" sets it during the contemporary big war of the relevant past, World War II, has a domineering mother-in-law as opposed to a literal mother, and has it about an American traveling to Canada instead of someone living in Thessaly moving to Skyros. The literary allusion is given a nod through a line in the story: "Like Achilles when he found himself in the garb of a maiden, I was disturbed internally." The protagonist's name Orville might be an allusion to the Roman poet Ovid, who the author might have mistaken for the author of Achilleid (he was an inspiration of Statius).
Circa 1942, a weak, cowardly American man named Orville gets married in a hurry to an older rich woman named Constance Vickers to avoid being sent off to war. After figuring out that Orville won't step up and be a responsible husband, Constance blackmails him with threat of revealing his draft dodging to force-feminize him into a maid to serve her parents in Canada, specifically her domineering mother, Mrs. Vickers. There is a beat of humiliation where Orville tries to explain his identity to Mr. Vickers, who can scarcely believe he's not talking to a woman; another one where Mrs. Vickers, his attractive sister-in-law, Dora, and her barely legal daughter Barbara are talking about women's clothing and whether or not to count Orville as a girl (complete with blushing and squirming on his part), and detailed descriptions of the clothing Orville is made to wear—perhaps in place of overt sexuality to avoid catching the ire of obscenity laws; aside from an oblique mention of tucking, there is no description of genitalia. Rechristianed as Lily Doran, the former Orville is dressed up like a teen girl and becomes so good at passing that Mr. Vickers, despite already having met Orville en femme, doesn't recognize him. To be continued.
Themes include patriotism and pseudo-incest, as it takes place within a family unit but Orville/Lily is only related to the other members legally, not biologically. I can see the author struggling to make the themes of Achilleid work with the conventions of modern erotica. Like a lot of trans erotica, it's not very good, but the author was definitely trying.
Page 24: An ad for the Chevalier D'Eon Resort, a retreat for crossdressers in the Catskills. There is a fee of $25, which, according to an online conversion site, is $273.63 in 2025. Ouch. People interested are instructed to write to Susanna Valenti, who has a New York address listed.
Pages 25-39: The first part of a longer story, "My Life with Cousin Cora" by Ellsworth (Elsie). It uses elements of pseudo- and actual incest, where the erotically charged characters are cousins in the South (somewhat squicky depending on how married you are to modern taboos about kissing cousins) and then made into a close family unit through adoption. The protagonist is a 16-year-old "masculine" (crossdresser) teenager who is adopted by his "buxom" cousin Cora, who previously adopted his girlfriend Alice. Possibly the author is Southern and is employing a traditionally Southern incest theme or is just into incest and is using the South as a plot device. The story is told as a purportedly true narrative of what happened to the 30-year-old author 14 years prior (1946), but this strains credibility.
16-year-old Ellsworth is caught crossdressing in his school's locker room, every clothing article itemized fetishistically, and it is said the discovery is humiliating, but that Cora doesn't punish him for it—a fantasy in itself, the accepting parental figure. A year later, Cora and Alice catch him admiring female clothing, and Alice suggests it would be better if their roles were reversed. Cora gives his room a feminine makeover. The three of them dress up in feminine clothing. The incest theme is weird, but I kind of appreciate the girly fantasy. It's loosely wholesome.
"I was full of desires, thrills and burning pleasure all the time!"
This is the closest we get to explicit sexuality.
Ellsworth emphasizes that Cora hates men and implies that she is force-feminizing him because of it, but the tone of the work contradicts this. Ellsworth is very enthusiastic about being feminized, and Cora more seems to love women and femininity than hating men. Maybe Ellsworth is just in denial. (Ellsworth is definitely in denial.)
Ellsworth dresses up, with lavish descriptions of clothing and just plain gender euphoria. He looks in the mirror and is ecstatic at how well he passes as a girl. Cora and Alice catch him, and there is humiliation, but there's also acceptance and nurturing behavior from Cora as she is positioned as a mommy dom figure. "I have taken psychology at college, and I know you like a book!"
Oh, God, what psychology? Freud, right? That would make sense. I cringe at the thought of what the author thought was plausible.
Cora—who hates men, you know—punishes him for stealing clothes by making him wear dresses and assume a female role until he turns 21, which is framed like forced feminization... but it's the most strained premise ever. The author is just in denial. It's perhaps the clearest evidence that forced feminization is just an excuse for trans longing. The author-insert begs and cries not to be feminized, but Cora points out the obvious, that he knows he wants it, and then he accepts it. Alice rechristians him as Elsie.
There's a spanking scene, a promise of training to follow, then Alice kisses Elsie, and they say goodnight. The reader is left with the teaser of more fun in later parts.
"it is a long story and a very, very true one"
This is an interesting phrase, like the author is desperately trying to assure us that it's real even though it's obviously fictional. The trans longing is what's real. It's a fictional way of conveying a state of mind.
Page 40: Virginia Prince's poem, "Evensong," about a man who works hard at a masculine job, comes home, dresses up in fancy women's clothing, and stays like that through the night.
Pages 41-44a: An account from a psychiatrist named Dr. J.J. on counseling couples where one party crossdresses, assuring wives that their husbands are not gay, describing the urge to crossdress as something that can't be cured (though he wonders if hypnosis might accomplish it in the future), and leaving an open question as to where it comes from for readers to send their thoughts in response.
Page 44b has a joke about Scottish men wearing kilts because I guess that's sort of related? And there's a reproduction of a "weird but true" news item about a boy dressing as a woman in an attic being mistaken for a ghost, the Ghost of Spofford (New Hampshire).
Page 45: A memorial for David Oliver Cauldwell, the sexologist who coined "transsexual," who died a few months prior (August 30, 1959).
Pages 46-48: A short story, "Just to Please a Lady," not given an attribution. It describes an adult male protagonist crossdressing to please his dominant girlfriend, Helen, who calls him her sissy—interesting that "sissy" was commonly used like that back then! This writing is better than the other stories, with detailed descriptions of dressing up, the emotions and relationship, and the environment. It actually comes across as a romantic fantasy, just with kink.
" "I'm a woman", I whispered to myself."
Trans longing. This is a trans girl writing.
Pages 49-51: Letters to the editor: Two normal letters optimistic about the magazine and one obviously false purportedly true story about the author, Morty, crossdressing at 15-years-old, being caught by his mother, but being allowed to crossdress when he explained it would be good for his masculine development (huh?). I'm curious where these letters came from, if this was the first issue; did they know Prince?
Page 52: A request for suggestions of an alternative to "transvestite" besides "Eonist" that wouldn't have a sexual connotation.
Pages 53-54a: Prince grouses about the need for such.
Page 54b: Jokes. A really bad one about graduating "magna cum lady", and a fun one about meeting a girl on the street and asking, "Aren't you Christine Jorgenson?" and them replying, "No, but you're close, I'm George Christianson." Interesting conflation between what would then be called a transsexual and a transvestite, both considered in the same broad trans* community.
Pages 55-60a: Ads, for discreet shipping of lingerie, high heels, corsets, etc., BDSM gear, and a woman offering her services of shopping for crossdressers.
Pages 60b-61: The means by which to subscribe to Transvestia.
I have identified the first forced feminization stories. It's ancient in origin. Here is the basic timeline:
Roughly ~4,000 BCE, ancient Mesopotamians combine multiple gods, both male and female, into the single goddess Inanna, giving her the aspects of both a male war god and female fertility goddess: a woman with a man's beard.
Over the course of 2,000 years, Inanna develops as a benefactor of trans and/or non-binary people, and her priests take on drag roles in her worship. In a famous Hymn to Inanna, her high priestess claims Inanna has many powers, including "to turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man."
In the 800s BCE, the Greeks adopt Inanna as the goddess Aphrodite, goddess of love—but also develop cults around divergent versions of her, one as a war goddess (Aphrodite Areia), and one as an androgynous man, Aphroditus: a chick with a dick.
In the next ~400 years, Aphrodite loses her war variant, and Aphroditus is reimagined as the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, and renamed Hermaphroditus, which is where we get the word "hermaphrodite".
Scythians, Northern Asian nomads who frequently fought with the Greeks, were observed by them to have shamans who seemingly were men taking on the roles of women, names of women, acting like women, and displaying the mannerisms of women. In modern times, they have been interpreted as trans women, but the ancient Greeks were confused. In 430 BCE, the scholar Herodotus supplies an answer: Aphrodite has the power to turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man, so surely the Scythians sacked her temple, and she responded by cursing them, transforming them into sissies! The exact word he uses is "enarei," meaning "unmanly men," so... sissies. This is the first forced feminization story: a misunderstanding of trans people.
In the Hellenistic period, 323 BCE-30 BCE, a legend is developed about Hermaphroditus being married to a nymph named Salmacis and them being the first marriage in history. Salmacis is framed as a villain toward mortal men, force-feminizing them in the waters of her spring in a cave near Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey). This is the second forced feminization story.
In 8 CE, the Roman erotic poet Ovid writes a retelling of Greek mythology, framing everything as an erotic rape metaphor if not actual rape. He retells the Salmacis/Hermaphroditus story as her merging with him and creating his androgyny in a rape attempt and him getting his parents to curse the spring with forced feminization in a misery loves company bout of rage.
94-96 CE, the Roman poet Statius retells a 455 BCE-408 BCE Euripides play about Achilles crossdressing to avoid fighting in the Trojan War, but Statius draws heavily from Ovid to make it read like an erotic rape metaphor that his domineering mother pushes him to crossdress, where he suffers from having to perform the feminine gender role while simultaneously lusting after a girl who only knows him as a woman.
In the Renaissance, Ovid and Statius' stories were revived in mainstream plays and operas.
In the 19th century, these Greco-Roman stories are taught as classics and reproduced in bold erotic novels.
Forced feminization as we know it develops in the late 1800s.
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I have the distinct suspicion that this sissy caption-maker is secretly a trans woman trying to crack eggs in the sissy community: https://www.tumblr.com/georginared
Pretty much all the captions are gender-affirming positive messages framed like they should be force femme but strangely aren't. Like, most have a message on the order of "Feel good about your feminine body! Wear female clothes you like to wear! Release the woman within!" A number of them reference a girl in the mirror, representing the girl you want to be, which is a common transfemme way of expressing a hidden feminine gender identity as an alternate self. Even one that you'd think would be about male domination comes down to "Find a supportive boyfriend". They're wholesome trans-positive messages and are framed like they shouldn't be.
Musing more on the caption problem of sharing someone's OF pictures without permission, I have say, findoms who expect people to give them money because they've posted entertaining captions that do not come with compensation for or even the identification/promotion of the sex worker subjects used in their creation are ripping them off, effectively committing plagiarism. The fact that there's a viable findom market out there shows that at least a segment of the people who view captions are willing to offer payment for some manner of sexual service, so it makes sense that captioners at the very least identify the subjects and link to where viewers can give them tips.
Maybe there should be some kind of community service endeavor where individual subjects are identified and their pages linked? Like, there's a user who identifies make and model of cars that show up in random Tumblr images; why not a person or group doing something similar with sexual Tumblr images?
In some cases, I imagine it's just going to be very hard to identify the subjects. Their images may just have been floating around the Internet for years without adequate labeling. In Andrea Long Chu's Females, she points out the oddity of sissification captions using "cock" as a mass noun in the way "sugar" and "sand" are, described in reference to abundance instead of delineating individual instances, but this is generally how Internet users perceive of sexually stimulating materials. They are removed from context and amassed in huge collections, to be partitioned out according to specific traits like hair color that can be fetishized. The subjects are dehumanized and not treated as people who have performed a valuable service and should receive respect as workers.
I recall reading that prominent forced femme writer/domme Melissa Daniels specifically gets the rights to use the erotic imagery featured in her captions and illustrated stories. Though she's probably not the only one to do this, she's the only one I know of because it doesn't get talked about a lot - because most people don't bother. It's ridiculously easy to just steal with very little risk factor in getting caught and receiving negative consequences. I think a social change needs to be made, to change the way people think about captioning, and pressure captioners to conform to the new social standard of, at the very least, identifying and promoting the subjects or, at best, getting permission to use their images and purchasing any required license.
