Crossdressers-Haven.com

I was in the hardware store the other day and this guy was saying how they had caught his son with his wife’s Victoria’s Secret catalog. From what I overheard the boy had an erection and I guess they found it amusing. Why someone would tell something like this on their son and demean him in public I don’t know, but I think it’s a natural thing. I did it when I was younger, well I still do it.

For me the difference was that while I did naturally look at the lingerie section, and yes found it sexually exciting, I always looked at the skirts, dresses and tops first. I would try to decide what I look like in this dress or that skirt or what top would go with what skirt. I think I had more hidden pages of dresses and skirts than I did of lingerie. I had figured out that under the mattress wasn’t a good spot to hide things because my older brother had some playboys stashed under his and got caught.

Of course in my day, with my age showing here, we didn’t have the VS catalogs or Fredericks around but we had Sears and JCPenny and Speigal. I remember how my mother would thing it was the toys I was excited about looking at when the Christmas catalogs came and how she would wonder why she had turned down the corner of particular page when there was nothing on it she was interested in. When it came time for her to toss those catalogs I would manage to save a few pages for myself.

So am I way off here, did you look at them with a prurient interest at heart or more with an eye to fashion?

Sarah Beth wrote:
So am I way off here, did you look at them with a prurient interest at heart or more with an eye to fashion?

Sorry, prurient interest here; then, now, and probably forever!

You're not alone with that story. Loved the girl's holiday fashions back in the late 50's.

Rikki

I too love browsing the catalogues. Looking at all the wonderful female apparel I could buy (and sometimes do). The DAMART catalogue is the one I mostly browse.

I also look online occasionally and sometimes buy fashions this way.

It gives me great excitement when the parcels arrive and I just cannot wait to try on the new skirts, tops and dresses.

Growing up with two brothers, I've heard the Sears catalog referred to as the 'poor man's Playboy'!

Before the husband came out, I suspected he was looking at my catalogs for the same reason, lingerie. Turned out he was more interested in how to put together an outfit. Now, the catalogs arrive in her name and we both look at the clothing fashions for each other.

Eileen

Sarah Beth wrote:I was in the hardware store the other day and this guy was saying how they had caught his son with his wife’s Victoria’s Secret catalog. From what I overheard the boy had an erection and I guess they found it amusing. Why someone would tell something like this on their son and demean him in public I don’t know, but I think it’s a natural thing. I did it when I was younger, well I still do it. . . . I had figured out that under the mattress wasn’t a good spot to hide things because my older brother had some playboys stashed under his and got caught.

Sorry to interrupt, but I find that conversation possibly indicative of a sane response to a child's sexuality. Boys (and girls, and . . .) are curious, and get aroused easily. Good for them!

When I was that age and curious, there was only the Sears catalog, in the outhouse, in back. And when I was discovered in mom's laundry basket, and then at a neighbors clothesline, my parents freaked, and had me locked up in a mental institution and given electroshock "therapy." Didn't cure me of crossdressing, but it sure made me afraid of any sexual expression.

(I remember being delighted to discover that my girlfriend wore a Sears girdle on our dates, and enjoyed me taking it off her almost as much as I did.)

Western culture, and the U.S. in particular, is renowned for its prudishness and its sexual hangups. When I read Margaret Mead's descriptions of south sea islanders who had their children live in mixed sex longhouses from puberty on, without adult supervision, I fell in love with anthropology, and decided that our own sexual mores were utter nonsense.

So I'm pleased to hear of people speaking casually and in public of their children's sexual explorations. But I think somebody in that household should subscribe to a less weird women's clothing catalog, so the kid has an opportunity to see styles not so focused on the sexually risque and slutty* - maybe later, though.


*While I'm here and being a bad example, let me heartily recommend the second edition of The Ethical Slut. It's a guide to sane relationships among monogamous couples as well as poly people.

I used to look at catalogs all the time and I had no interest in the females in any sort of way, I just enjoyed the fashions that they were wearing and wondering how I would look in that dress or skirt or panties and or whatever I was looking at. I still am that way and I am fascinated by the choices that we have as females of all the different clothes that we can wear and so much better than ugly men's clothes that is for sure.

Eileen (SO) wrote:Growing up with two brothers, I've heard the Sears catalog referred to as the 'poor man's Playboy'!

Eileen

In the old days I think every boy looked at the Sears catalog, most for the opportunity to see pretty girls in various states of undress although I am sure there was more than one of us wondering how cute would I look in that?

I agree with Sarah Beth in the father had no right to demean his son for looking at a Victoria's Secret catalog whether he had an erection or not. I am certain that father perused more than one catalog or purloined Playboy in his teens with the same results. If anything the father should be thankful his son was going to a catalog rather than seeking out some internet porn.

I grew up in a single parent (mother) household, and my mother knew I masturbated to Playboy. She told me she was fine with that, and just hoped I'd hold off having sex until I could bring home a woman that beautiful!

As a kid I always opened the catalogs to the stockings and girdles..
In the newspapers I always looked for lingerie sales...

Definitely looked at the catalogs because of prurient interest. My parents called me a bad boy, I called myself a real good boy. Just doing what comes naturally.

XOXO
Deb

Sears, the poor mans' Playboy...yea, so true. My favorite Playboy pics were always lingerie shots. I admit it, call it what you like, fetish, or quirk, it started early, and it is still there.

I have to agree with you Gillian. For the most part I have found men generally finding a woman in lingerie, slit skirt, low cut top,etc. to be more sexy than a naked one. It is the allure of what else is there rather than the blatant "hang it all out."

Ah yes, catalogues. In Canada growing up it was the Sears Catalogue we got issued throughout the year. The big ones were the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. The Christmas Gift Guide was the third. Sears would also have a couple times a year thinner specialty guides at other times.

For me as a kid probably as early as I can remember oh sure by age 6 I'd be excited to see the catalogues, unlike most of my peers which would look at sections like toys and such. I would by being discreet first look at the girls clothing section, namely dresses, jumpers and tights. I would put together my look with each page. Once done then and only then would I look at the Toys etc. Even the Christmas Gift Guide, with its often very large and exciting toy section would have me first look at girls clothes.

As a teen and when I began dressing secretly in my mother's clothes, well each Sears Catalogue would the have me looking at the HUGE Ladies section from the "Misses" to the "Career" to the Regular "Ladies Wear" to the "Lingerie and Hosiery" to the " Ladies Footwear" sections. I would in my privacy and yes as a teen with sexuality being a part of it all but just first as a boy may look at a all the nice girls or ladies but sexually in how I'd picture myself being dressed in any and all the clothes and shoes/boots I'd see. I'd so wish I could have a closet and drawers full of clothes to put on. Yes, my developing sexuality was enhanced by such images in print, it made me feel good. When I would be home alone I would often dress up in some of my mothers clothes, always a pair of pantyhose and sometimes a dress or a skirt and I could still fit on her shoes. I recall one pair of shoes that my mother had, I lusted over and they were a pair of blue suede strappy open toe, wedge sandals, they had a oh maybe 1/2 platform and probably a 4.5 - 5 inch wedge heel. I'd put these on over pantyhose and maybe my jeans or one of my mom's skirts/dresses and strut my stuff. I'd then sit and look through the Sears catalogue. Yes as a teen I'd then fondle myself... Being honest sexuality for most teen boys gets high. I'd just add the crossdressing thing to it when I'd imagine being a pretty young lady. Mmmm the Sears catalogue numerous times over each year and as each year passed was a joyful hi-light for me growing up and being firstly a teen age crossdresser.

LUVED IT! LUVED IT ALL! EVEN IF IT WOULD CONFUSE ME AND MAKE ME ANGRY AT MYSELF AS A TEENAGE BOY! I could not and really did not want to stop enjoying the looking at these catalogues growing up into my adult years. Online shopping and drooling of adding to my femme wardrobe has replaced the Sears catalogue today but wow online can make it harder to not spend money when you are all charged up feeling girly and seeing such cool clothes, lingerie, hosiery, shoes, boots and cosmetics!

I found and still find also it was so hard to NOT look and crane my head and neck while in a departments store growing up into my adult years to as I'd walk by and through looking at briefly women's clothes or especially when passing by the lingerie and hosiery sections. Toss in seeing high heels shoes and boots, it was a treat and hard to not sort of gawk and drool at such especially as a teen and young adult deep, deep, deep, in the CDing closet back then. The day I bought in store my first pairs of pantyhose as a young adult male was scary but burned in my mind so exciting. I planned the purchase in my mind a few days before actually going out and buying them.

I loved seeing the JC Penney and Sears catalogs.
I always wanted a bullet bra when all the girls were wearing them
I also love the pencil skirts that the HS girls wore
Garter belts and open bottomed girdles were my favorites also