Hiding the stash from the goons

 A recent post by Lynn got me musing on a significant challenge in my life growing up as a young trans girl, which was hiding my stash of girl clothes. 

With three females in my family it was easy enough at first to borrow stuff from any of the many cupboards and drawers that were bursting with clothes. But then I started to buy and acquire my own. And these took some hiding.

But being brought up in a family with two grandfathers who had fought in World War Two and a father who'd been posted as a serviceman to some unusual places to monitor Soviet missile tests, and with the Cold War still going on and history lessons at school being mainly about wars, there was a lot of war literature that I was expected to read. The thing that fascinated me most about what is actually a macabre subject was the ingenious ways that prisoners of war hid contraband in order to escape. False wall panels and ceilings, secret pockets and hollow boot heels, board game pieces that double as rubber stamps or pill boxes, mattresses stuffed with civilian clothes ... all hidden from all but the fiercest searches of the camp guards. "Goon in the block!" comes the cry from the stooge on lookout and, within a split second, that session making maps of the border turns into a paper dolly cutting class as Oberleutnant Stumpf marches in with his band of vacant-faced goons. "Verdammt! You Eenglish pig-dogs hav foiled me again. But next time it's ze cooler for you all!" You get the drift.

All the ingenuity in the memoirs of those bored, inactive men was put to good use in my quest to hide my girl kit. I had false panels under desk drawers and in cupboards. Not always effective - a heart-stopping day was when several items were found behind a water heater. That made me up my game. The best hiding places were where prying females were less likely to look, such as inside the boxes for model kits and under the trays for board game pieces. Monopoly and Scrabble were not so good as they interested all the family and could be used at any time, but under wargame trays was much safer still. Imagine Escape from Colditz (in suspenders), Risk (conquer the world with cotton knickers), Tank Battle (with spare powder puffs)... Who knows what General Patton would have said on discovering that his campaign game was hiding a stash of fully-fashioned stockings! 

Waddington's classic Monopoly, London edition. So much more than just a game! Under that plastic tray lies a world of femininity!

 

I developed a liking for Chinese boxes; you know, the ones that are impossible to open unless you know the trick. Jewellery or lipsticks can be kept inside. And a belated thank you to the teddy bear with dungarees who wore my panties underneath and never said a word to anyone. Thanks, pal. That chair cushion my mother had made and stuffed with old tights ... now that's a good idea! 

You get the picture. What a palaver, though. Knowing that dressing as a girl was 'wrong' so having to resort to stealth like a prisoner. I dare say there are many other trans kids developing their own ingenuity. Here's to a day when being young and trans is seen as a normal path in life and not a prison.

A dip in the archives

Well, all that wartime nostalgia (!) suggest a tribute to the many LGBT individuals who found relief in dressing for shows for the troops. Some would have been gay men dragging up simply as a contrast to the machismo of war, but some were transwomen desperate for an outlet for their femininity. 

It's a niche subject but here are three short but interesting articles online.

A US perspective from the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans: GIs as dolls.

A German perspective: Soldier Studies

 

And from the point of view of prisoners and World War 1: P.O.W. pin-ups

It doesn't matter where you're from or when you live or who they expect you to fight, the need to be gender flexible is universal. 

Sue x