Cross-dressing
Volume 1 | Issue 7 - Theory
Article by Zara Barua. Edited by Harriet Di Francesco. Additional Research by Kathy Stein.
In an attempt to lighten historical writing I have tried to focus on unconventional topics of discussion. This issue’s topic, therefore, is cross-dressing. Historians have talked about cross-dressing in a few ways. Tove Hermanson notes that gender specific clothing was honed over time. The ancient Greek himation was worn by both women and men (women had a flap covering their breasts whilst men only had a fastening on one shoulder). As Hermanson explains, through the years men have worn clothes that by today’s standards would be considered feminine. Men of the mid sixteenth century, for example, wore puffy breeches resembling skirts. There was also an ‘emphasis on curvy lines, nipped waistline, elaborate embroidery,’ and men would often have long hair.
In Renaissance England women were not allowed to perform in plays. Men had to play female roles and dress up as such. Interestingly, this was not frowned upon at all but merely common conduct. On the other hand, Jean Howard has written an essay on the controversy caused by women dressing as men. There was a direct association between women dressing mannishly and prostitution. Howard quotes the Aldermen’s court records in which a spinster, Dorothy Clayton, ‘contrary to all honesty and womanhood, commonly goes about the city apparelled in men’s attire. She has abused her body and lived an incontinent life.’ Women spotted in mannish clothing were often pillored and whipped. This shows the difference in treatment between men and women in this period and how, unlike men, women were not allowed the privilege of cross-dressing.
In the eighteenth century there was a shift toward a more negative judgement of male cross-dressing. Men concerned with dress and image (‘fops’) became associated with effeminacy and even sodomy. However with the addition of full length breeches in the nineteenth century clothing became more gendered. From a modern perspective men’s fashion was more specifically masculine. Before the nineteenth century, however, we can too easily assume that men consciously fashioned more feminine clothes. According to Hermanson this was completely ‘hetero-normative’ at the time, which is to say that masculinity could be expressed in a less distinctive manner.
From the nineteenth century image and roles became more gender binary. Men wore trousers and dresses became specifically female. This ran parallel with the Victorian gender model of ‘separate spheres’ in which the woman took a solely domestic role whilst the man of the house was the breadwinner of the family. Victorian women’s clothing accentuated the woman’s childbearing hips by creating a nipped waist. Thus outfits directly reflected the gender order, women were subservient to men and this was presented through clothing. Cross-dressing in this era was rare. It was not only seen as emasculating and homosexual, but also had a declassing effect.
The women’s movement of the early twentieth century saw more and more women moving out of traditional separate sphere roles and clothing was affected by this. More women began to wear clothes considered masculine, such as trousers and shirts. It was a chance for women to wear looser, more comfortable clothing. It was also practical, especially for doing more than just domestic duties, such as going to work and leisurely activities.
The 1960s revolutionised menswear and the way men thought about fashion. As Marcus Collins puts it, ‘for the past century, men had worn clothes to express status, not personality and to show less what they were than what they were not; neither a worker nor a homosexual nor a woman.’ Class divisions seemed to disappear to some extent and men were allowed to cast aside his ‘class uniform in favour of more individualistic attire.’ We can then see this expressed by open bisexuals or homosexuals such as Boy George and David Bowie (his album cover, ‘The Man who sold the World’). Women such as Annie Lennox have performed on stage wearing men’s three piece suits. Unisex fashion is common on the catwalk and in high street stores. In modern, western society cross-dressing is no longer seen as licentious or deviant but rather eccentric and quirky.
Due to the nature of these images, it is probably best to explain them. The top image is a drawing showing Thor and Loki, from Greek mythology, in drag. The middle image is a photograph showing Frances Benjamin Johnston (right), an early photojournalist, cross dressing with friends in 1890. Finally the bottom image shows Dorothy Lawrence, a journalist, disguised as a male soldier in order to report on the First World War.