MTF Crossdressing during Civil War?
I've been on Google for hours now searching for everything within the realms of male crossdressing, victorian era and civil war as well as everything in between it seems and I'm still not getting a very good idea of what I'm looking for.
I play a male - very fair skinned, thin, naturally wavy hair - who was 16 at the start of the Civil War and crossdressed to stay out of the war. There was a lot of thought and planning that went into it and his father was involved in the planning as well (preferring to have a son act as a woman than to lose the last leg of his family tree entirely; not to mention the fact that he was already a little "delicate"). He's 19 now and has been living as a woman full time for the entire three years.
My question is sort of multi-part:
+ What sort of resources would be available to him in the 1860's? Would it just be the normal female clothing and some very creative hair pinning?
+ If after 3 years of a male being constantly corseted, how much his body would change to accommodate the shape and if being mid-puberty at the time it began would have any additional affect?
+ If he was going to go all-out and really push this transformation as far as he could go with the intention of permanently staying female, how far could he go?
Apparently practical, modern experience with crossdressing isn't useful to me at all when I'm writing a character trying to do it a century and a half ago.
Thanks!
I play a male - very fair skinned, thin, naturally wavy hair - who was 16 at the start of the Civil War and crossdressed to stay out of the war. There was a lot of thought and planning that went into it and his father was involved in the planning as well (preferring to have a son act as a woman than to lose the last leg of his family tree entirely; not to mention the fact that he was already a little "delicate"). He's 19 now and has been living as a woman full time for the entire three years.
My question is sort of multi-part:
+ What sort of resources would be available to him in the 1860's? Would it just be the normal female clothing and some very creative hair pinning?
+ If after 3 years of a male being constantly corseted, how much his body would change to accommodate the shape and if being mid-puberty at the time it began would have any additional affect?
+ If he was going to go all-out and really push this transformation as far as he could go with the intention of permanently staying female, how far could he go?
Apparently practical, modern experience with crossdressing isn't useful to me at all when I'm writing a character trying to do it a century and a half ago.
Thanks!