Transvestism

transvestism – there is a good article for this on Wikipedia,

There are many different usages and meanings of the term transvestism. Most experts agree that the correct usages is limited to:

• When people dress in clothes normally worn by the opposite gender in order to identify with that gender in some manner.
• When people dress in clothes normally worn by the opposite gender for purposes involving sexual arousal (transvestic fetishism).
• A combination of the two definitions mentioned above.
• Transvestitism is not an indicator of sexuality.

So a serious affront to common decency? Or just a bit of harmless fun?

Well I know by doing a series of articles on transvestism, it can seem that I’m knocking the whole culture, but it’s all meant in a degree of fun. I mean we’ve all got up one morning, found ourselves caught short in the underwear department and ended up borrowing some of the Mrs lingerie, haven’t we? Oh evidently just me then …

Actually look into the whole issue of dressing up in women’s clothes and although it’s true that transvestism is frowned upon, there are a lot of cases where dressing up in women’s clothes is accepted.

For example, my father has been a lifelong member of the Methodist church. As part of a church evening of raising funds for charity, he and several other important members of the congregation dressed up as women, and sang “Three Little Maids from School”. Did God get angry and strike them all dead? Or did people get into the spirit of it?

And the UK tradition of pantomime is even more gender confusing. The hero is a boy who is usually played by a girl, whilst their mother, the pantomime dame (a comedy character) is played by a man. Again it’s all good family fun.

Maybe this isn't so surprising, when you remember back in Shakespeare's age, all actors were men, and so the first Juliet was in fact, a man in drag! [Don't quote Shakespeare in Love at me though]

In some ways though, it’s that sense of fun which comes across in films such as The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Birdcage and (though I’ve not seen it yet, but it looks very funny) Kinky Boots, though some will say performers who make a living out of dressing up as women are really drag queens.

But it doesn’t stop there – just about every society (well maybe not the Taleban) has some kind of event which is an excuse to dress up in women’s clothing. I remember reading about such an event in India a while ago.

At my own University, the University of Sheffield, the Pyjama Jump was a famous party night where men and women cross-dressed in each other’s lingerie, although the event has since been banned.

The Crow fondly remembers those nights of applying lipstick, and stuffing balloons in his bra before stepping out …


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