Cross-dressing - Misplaced Pages

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A cross-dresser (sometimes called a transvestite, CD or TV) is any person who wears the clothing of the opposite gender, for any reason. Specific groups within the group of cross-dressers include (among others) drag queens, drag kings, and transvestic fetishists. Cross-dressing is one type of transgender behaviour.

While some cross-dressers may have no desire or intention of adopting other behaviors or practices common to the gender indicated by their choice of clothes, many endeavor to project a complete illusion of belonging to the opposite sex, down to mannerisms, speech patterns, and emulation of sexual characteristics. This is referred to as passing.

Others use a more "mixed" approach: for instance, a man who may wear both a dress and a beard. This is sometimes known as genderfuck.

Analyses of the behavior

Sexual preferences among cross-dressers vary as much as they do in the general population, though, contrary to popular belief, most male-bodied cross-dressers are heterosexual. Some (but by no means all) lesbian women also cross-dress; compare butch.

While cross-dressing among women seems to be rare, however, there are some famous examples in history: e.g. George Sand (Sand's extensive autobiography explains some aspects of how she experienced the cross-dressing herself), and the female pirate Mary Read.

The actual determination of cross-dressing is somewhat socially constructed. For example, pants used to be a generally male item of clothing, but have been adopted for wear by women -- this is generally not regarded as cross-dressing, and some women wear some male items of clothing (such as a suit, shirt, or jacket) for fashion, without fear of stigma from others. However, the reverse for men is generally not true. For example, in Western societies, a man who wears a typically female item of clothing such as a skirt will not be able to do so for the sake of fashion as a woman may.

Some students of differentiated reception of cross dressers have suggested as a reason for this aforementioned behavior, is that for a woman to take on a male role in a patriarchal society thus may raise her social status, whereas for a man to take on a female role in that same society is to lower his social status. Thus the woman may be unsympathetically viewed as some kind of social climber, but the man will most likely be unsympathetically viewed as a self-confessed failure in the male quest for dominance, culled by himself from the breeding stock, etc. However this is only one view, and relies on the view that a woman adopting male characteristics in society will be "rewarded" for doing so, which may not be the case.

Classic psychoanalytic views of crossdressing emphasized the role of taboo in the behavior. Only items that were proscribed to a gender would be appropriated, and therefore it is not the general association of an item with one sex or the other, but the prohibitions against the item that give satisfaction to those with a fetish (as opposed to political or sexually expressive) attachment to cross-dressing. As articles become acceptable for occasional wear (a man's necktie on a woman, for example, which passed from taboo to fashion in the 1970s), they cease to be sought by crossdressers.

Specific types of cross-dressing

A drag queen is a male-bodied person who performs in female drag: a costume of extremely gaudy dresses and shoes, large wigs, et cetera, or that imitates famous female film or pop-music stars.
Drag king can be the counter-part of the drag queen — female-bodied persons performing a male or pseudo-male role. It can, however, also denote the complete cross-dressing spectrum of female-bodied persons; also some female bodied people undergoing gender reassignment therapy self-identify as drag kings, so in fact a person identifying as drag king can come from almost the whole of the transgender spectrum. This use of "drag king" is considered inaccurate by some people.
A transvestic fetishist is a person, typically a heterosexual male, who cross-dresses as part of a sexual fetish. It is often difficult to distinguish between fetishism that happens to have female clothing as an object and transgender behaviour that includes sexual play.

Other cross-dressing

Some people use the term cross-dresser to refer exclusively to people who wear clothes of the opposite gender who are not transvestic fetishists or doing drag.
Male goths may wear visible make-up, long hair and lace blouses, and even skirts and dresses. Within the goth subculture this is not viewed as cross-dressing.
Some sketch shows, such as League of Gentlemen and Kids in the Hall routinely feature cross-dressing for comic effect.
Some stories have an element of forced feminization in them, where a man is forced to wear female clothing, or pretend to be a female, often as part of some humiliation.
Female masking is a special form of crossdressing where female clothing and behaviour are combined with female head/face masks, typically made from Latex.

"Equal Clothing Rights"

It was once taboo in western society for women to wear clothes traditionally associated with men. This is no longer the case and women are often seen wearing trousers, shirts, ties and even full suits. It is still taboo, however, for a man to be wearing clothes traditionally associated with women. Many people perceive this as being an imbalance in the equality of men and women in society and believe that men should not have to suffer discrimination for wanting to wear, for example, a dress. A frequent speaker on this subject is the comedian and actor Eddie Izzard who likes, occasionally, to wear traditionally female clothing or make-up for completely non-sexual reasons.

History of cross-dressing

Historically, and still in some parts of the world or in specific situations, cross-dressing occurs for reasons not (or not necessarily) related to the ones mentioned above:

Females wanting to escape capture and rape in wartime.
Female-bodied persons who want to take up exclusively male or male dominated positions or professions. Famous examples are pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny, and various women throughout history who disguised themselves in uniform to serve in the military, such as Dorothy Lawrence.

Note hoewever, that when cross-dressing is not clearly related to specific events, it is usually impossible to state clearly the motives for cross-dressing, because few documents survived, and most of those are either court documents or accounts by other persons who might not (or might not want to) understand the motivations behind the behavior. Furthermore, some categories did not exist at the time a particular person did live. That is equally true of homosexual, gay and lesbian, and transgender, transsexual, transvestite and all other terms describing gender variant people or behaviour. Therefore people were not able to categorize themselves as belonging to one of those groups, either, and neither were their contemporaries.

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In many cases, however, there is extensive evidence to indicate a person's motives for cross-dressing.
In the case of Joan of Arc, we have many recorded quotes from Joan herself, relayed by people who knew her, stating that she wore such clothing out of necessity. Please see: Cross-dresser (Joan of Arc)

Fiction

Literature

Rudolf M. Dekker, Lotte C. Van De Pol, Lotte C. Van De Pol, The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe, 1989, ISBN 0312173342

Category:

Transgender people and behavior