CROSS DRESSER'S PARADISE: ELIZABETH CLUB

Let's begin with three questions.

Have you ever been wondering how you look like as a female?
Don't you want to become a lady of your dream?
Does feeling smoothness of lady's wear make you happy?

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when LAL sent me a link to "ELIZABETH Club," but I certainly didn't foresee a Lisa Frank-designed website dedicated to making male cross dresser's dreams come true.  This is a prime example of how permissive Japanese culture can be...so long as you're discreet.  The line between the acceptable and the abhorrent is fairly arbitrary, however.  

Anonymous members of the community will call schools to report teenagers engaging in PDA while in their uniforms at the mall, and the schools will discipline the young couples.  A woman can get away with wearing booty shorts, but will be subjected to stares if her shirt is cut below her collarbone.  Meanwhile, no one blinks at the highly suggestive book covers on display at every bookstore. 

Math motivator for students?

Furthermore, cross dressers are not as scarce as one might think.  Almost every time I traveled to Tokyo I seemed to cross paths with an older man who has an extensive wardrobe of women's clothing and is something of a local celebrity.  As you can see, he's also not shy about posing for pictures.

In reality, the Japanese aren't that different from any other nation.  In every culture there's a mainstream and the things that fall outside of it.  Perhaps it's simply that the contrast is more apparent given how outsiders perceive Japan: conservative and traditional.  However, that may be an increasingly erroneous assumption as Japan continues to (slowly) change and modernize, and alternative lifestyles and forms of self-expression become more prominent.