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| cross dressers in history: Arresting Dress Clare Sears, 2015-02-20 In 1863, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a law that criminalized appearing in public in “a dress not belonging to his or her sex.” Adopted as part of a broader anti-indecency campaign, the cross-dressing law became a flexible tool for policing multiple gender transgressions, facilitating over one hundred arrests before the century’s end. Over forty U.S. cities passed similar laws during this time, yet little is known about their emergence, operations, or effects. Grounded in a wealth of archival material, Arresting Dress traces the career of anti-cross-dressing laws from municipal courtrooms and codebooks to newspaper scandals, vaudevillian theater, freak-show performances, and commercial “slumming tours.” It shows that the law did not simply police normative gender but actively produced it by creating new definitions of gender normality and abnormality. It also tells the story of the tenacity of those who defied the law, spoke out when sentenced, and articulated different gender possibilities. |
| cross dressers in history: Male Femaling Richard Ekins, 2002-11 This unique and fascinating book, meticulously and systematically develops a theory of male femaling which has major ramifications for both the field of 'transvestism' and 'transsexualism' and for the analysis of sex and gender more generally. |
| cross dressers in history: TransAntiquity Domitilla Campanile, Filippo Carlà-Uhink, Margherita Facella, 2017-02-03 TransAntiquity explores transgender practices, in particular cross-dressing, and their literary and figurative representations in antiquity. It offers a ground-breaking study of cross-dressing, both the social practice and its conceptualization, and its interaction with normative prescriptions on gender and sexuality in the ancient Mediterranean world. Special attention is paid to the reactions of the societies of the time, the impact transgender practices had on individuals’ symbolic and social capital, as well as the reactions of institutionalized power and the juridical systems. The variety of subjects and approaches demonstrates just how complex and widespread transgender dynamics were in antiquity. |
| cross dressers in history: Re-Dressing America's Frontier Past Peter Boag, 2011-09-01 Americans have long cherished romantic images of the frontier and its colorful cast of characters, where the cowboys are always rugged and the ladies always fragile. But in this book, Peter Boag opens an extraordinary window onto the real Old West. Delving into countless primary sources and surveying sexological and literary sources, Boag paints a vivid picture of a West where cross-dressing—for both men and women—was pervasive, and where easterners as well as Mexicans and even Indians could redefine their gender and sexual identities. Boag asks, why has this history been forgotten and erased? Citing a cultural moment at the turn of the twentieth century—when the frontier ended, the United States entered the modern era, and homosexuality was created as a category—Boag shows how the American people, and thus the American nation, were bequeathed an unambiguous heterosexual identity. |
| cross dressers in history: Casa Susanna Michel Hurst, Robert Swope, 2005 This is an album of snapshots taken roughly the mid-1950s and mid- 1960s, depicting a group of cross-dressers united around a place called Casa Susanna. The inhabitants, guests and visitors used it as a weekend headquarters for a regular girls life'. Through these wonderfully intimate shots, Susanna and her friends styled era- specific fashion shows and parties. However, it is in the more private life at Casa Susanna, where the girls clean, cook and play Scrabble, that the insight to a very private club becomes brilliant in its very ordinariness.' |
| cross dressers in history: Transgender History & Geography: Crossdressing in Context Bolich, Ph. D. G. G. Bolich, 2007-09-28 The third in a landmark five volume study of transgender realities, with a focus on crossdressing, this fascinating volume offers a tour through history and around the world. Within these pages are found the most famous crossdressers of history and information as to what it means to be a transgender person in the various countries of the world today. |
| cross dressers in history: Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender Vern L. Bullough, Bonnie Bullough, 1993 In any society, the perception of femininity and masculinity is not necessarily dependent on female or male genitalia. Cross dressing, gender impersonation, and long-term masquerades of the opposite sex are commonplace throughout history. In contemporary American culture, the behavior occurs most often among male heterosexuals and homosexuals, sometimes for erotic pleasure, sometimes not. In the past, however, cross dressing was for the most part practiced more often by women than men. Although males often burlesqued women and gave comic impersonations of them, they rarely attempted a change of public gender until the twentieth century. This phenomenon, according to Vern L. Bullough and Bonnie Bullough, has implications for any understanding of the changing relationships between the sexes in the twentieth century. In most Western societies, being a man and demonstrating masculinity is more highly prized than being a woman and displaying femininity. Some non-Western societies, however, are more tolerant and even encourage men to behave like women and women to act like men. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender not only surveys cross dressing and gender impersonation throughout history and in a variety of cultures but also examines the medical, biological, psychological, and sociological findings that have been presented in the modern scientific literature. This volume offers the results of the authors' research into contemporary gender issues and the search for explanations. After examining the various current theories regarding cross dressing and gender impersonation, the Bulloughs offer their own theory. This book, widely deemed a classic in its field, is the culmination of thirty years of research by the Bulloughs into gender impersonation and cross dressing. Their groundbreaking findings will be of interest to anyone involved in the debate over nature versus nurture, and have implications not only for scholars in the various social sciences and sex and gender studies, but for educators, nurses, physicians, feminists, gays, lesbians, and general readers. This work will be of more personal interest to anyone who identifies as a transvestite or transsexual or who has been classified by medical and psychiatric professionals as suffering from gender dysphoria. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender covers a wide range of cultures and periods. As the first comprehensive attempt to examine the phenomenon of cross dressing, it will be of interest to students and scholars of social history, sociology, nursing, and women's studies. |
| cross dressers in history: Fanny and Stella Neil McKenna, 2013-01-25 'Uproarious.' The Times 'Terrifically entertaining.' Evening Standard 'Irresistible.' Daily Mail 'Gripping.' Sunday Telegraph 'A scintillating gem: a cracking page-turner, historically illuminating, culturally fascinating, and a book which effortlessly passes comment on today.' Herald London, April 1870: Fanny and Stella were no ordinary Victorian women. They were young men who liked to dress as women: Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton. Stella was the most beautiful female impersonator of her day, Fanny her inseparable companion. But the Metropolitan Police were plotting their downfall. Fanny and Stella were arrested and subjected to a sensational trial where every lascivious detail of their lives was lapped up by the public. With a cast of peers and politicians, detectives and drag queens, Fanny and Stella is a dazzling and enthralling story of cross examinations, cross-dressing and the the birth of camp. |
| cross dressers in history: La monja Alférez Catalina de Erauso, 1908 |
| cross dressers in history: A History of Women in Men's Clothes Norena Shopland, 2021-08-30 Traditionally, historic women have been seen as bound by social conventions, unable to travel unless accompanied and limited in their ability to do what they want when they want. But thousands of women broke those rules, put on banned clothing and travelled, worked and even lived whole lives as men. As access to novels and newspapers increased in the nineteenth century so did the number of women defying Biblical and social restrictions. They copied each other's motives and excuses and moved into the world of men. Most were working-class women who either needed to or wanted to, break away from constricted lives; women who wanted to watch a hanging or visit a museum, to see family or escape domestic abuse, some wanted to earn a decent living when women's wages could not keep a family. The reasons were myriad. Some were quickly arrested and put on display in court, hoping to deter other women from such shameful behaviour, but many more got away with it. For the first time, A History of Women in Men's Clothes looks at those thousands of individuals who broke conventions in the only way they could, by disguising themselves either for a brief moment or a whole life. Daring and bold, this is the story of the women who defied social convention to live their lives as they chose, from simply wanting more independence to move and live freely, to transgender and homosexual women cross-dressing to express themselves, this is women's fight to wear trousers. |
| cross dressers in history: Sapphic Crossings Ula Lukszo Klein, 2021-02-04 Across the eighteenth century in Britain, readers, writers, and theater-goers were fascinated by women who dressed in men’s clothing—from actresses on stage who showed their shapely legs to advantage in men’s breeches to stories of valiant female soldiers and ruthless female pirates. Spanning genres from plays, novels, and poetry to pamphlets and broadsides, the cross-dressing woman came to signal more than female independence or unconventional behaviors; she also came to signal an investment in female same-sex intimacies and sapphic desires. Sapphic Crossings reveals how various British texts from the period associate female cross-dressing with the exciting possibility of intimate, embodied same-sex relationships. Ula Lukszo Klein reconsiders the role of lesbian desires and their structuring through cross-gender embodiments as crucial not only to the history of sexuality but to the rise of modern concepts of gender, sexuality, and desire. She prompts readers to rethink the roots of lesbianism and transgender identities today and introduces new ways of thinking about embodied sexuality in the past. |
| cross dressers in history: Transvestites Magnus Hirschfeld, 1991 Transvestites are women and men who feel reluctant and even refuse to dress in the clothing of their own sex. For them, the inherent drive to cross-dress is often more powerful than sexual drive itself. This phenomenon has often been confronted with both ignorance and prejudice. Transvestites have been subjected not only to discrimination but also to criminal prosecution for following what, for them, was an inborn inclination. Dr. Hirschfeld created this book to establish a body of knowledge about an often misunderstood topic and to strip away long held prejudices. This classic gender study, first published in Germany in 1910 and newly translated, explores all aspects of transvestism: social, physical and emotional. Transvestism is a firmly rooted psychological phenomenon and cultural tradition, in spite of religious, legal and social sanctions. Written 80 years ago, this book was and still is the most comprehensive treatise on the subject of transvestism, illustrating that while styles have changed, the enthusiasm of devotees has not. Part I introduces transvestites with sympathetic, often amusing case histories, defines symptoms, and explains their basic, erotic character. Part II explores the forceful drive to cross-dress and examines clothing as a form of expression of personality. Part III addresses the historical, legal, anthropological, and social aspects of transvestism, and includes fascinating chapters on transvestism as it relates to the Bible, law and criminality, and women in the military. This book conclusively demonstrates that transvestism is a natural extension of the infinite variations of human personality. |
| cross dressers in history: The Man in the Red Velvet Dress J. J. Allen, 1996 J. J. Allen, a longtime cross-dresser and past president of Powder Puffs of California, one of the world's largest cross-dresser support groups, provides an insider's view of a world most of us have seen only on talk shows, yet is more widespread and complex than the public realizes. The author details the intricacies of transsexual surgery, and takes the reader on a tour of the underground sexual scene in Los Angeles, behind the closed doors of the secretive clubs and societies and into the psyche, sexuality, and social life of male cross-dressers. Readers will learn what cross-dressers talk about only among themselves. They will discover why a man who could be their neighbor owns 2,100 pairs of panties. They will find out what a marijuana-smoking man in a pair of pantyhose is doing in a hotel room with a she-male. And they will learn the nine most commonly cited reasons given by cross-dressers to explain their behavior. |
| cross dressers in history: My Husband Betty Helen Boyd, 2003-12-23 My Husband Betty is the first book to explore the relationships of crossdressing men and their female partners. Known traditionally as transvestites, men like Helen Boyd's husband are starting to come out and win the respect of friends, family, and society - even if their behavior still baffles mental health professionals and the crossdressers themselves. Boyd explains the taxonomy of the transgendered, the distinct societies within the transgendered community, the effects of the closet, sexuality, and the issues faced by the wives and girlfriends of crossdressing men. Helen's own experience is at the heart of this book, her story complemented and contradicted by interviews with crossdressers, drag queens, tranny chasers, and other transgendered couples. |
| cross dressers in history: Transvestite Memoirs Choisy (abbé de), 2008 By a whim of his mother, Abbe de Choisy was dressed as a girl until the age of 18. After a short spell in male attire he became the classic transvestite, a male heterosexual who never attempted to disguise his biological sex while going about in public in full female attire. |
| cross dressers in history: The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group Tama Janowitz, 1994 In this New York Times Notable Book of the Year, the author of A Cannibal in Manhattan offers readers a hilarious romp through the curiosities of motherhood, sexual identity, and family vaules in the 1990s. A little boy follows a single woman home from a pizza parlour and works his way into her heart. |
| cross dressers in history: Head Over Heels Virginia Erhardt, 2014-01-14 Candid, first-hand accounts of couples who stay together despite highly emotional gender issues. Head Over Heels gives voice to thirty ordinary women who live extraordinary lives as partners to crossdressers, transgenderists, and male-to-female transsexuals. These unique women discuss, with honesty and great candor, how they first learned of their partners’ gender issues, how they’ve coped with the emotions that followed, how they’ve dealt with concerns about privacy/secrecy, and how they’ve handled disclosure to children, friends, and family members. Far from a collection of “happily ever after” stories, these narratives are filled with pain, courage, curiosity, and joy as each woman struggles to redefine a relationship that includes intimacy, social acceptance, dignity, and respect. The women whose stories are featured in Head Over Heels didn't know their partners were gender-variant when they first met. Some found out early on; others learned of their husbands' gender variance after decades of marriage. Some were told by their husbands—men they considered “regular guys;” others found out on their own, sometimes in shocking ways. Their stories represent a wide spectrum of women's life experiences with crossdressers, transgenderists, transsexuals who are nonoperative, pre-operative, and post-operative, families without children, families with children at home, and families with children who have left home. But these women share one thing in common: each has decided to stay in her relationship, exploring her new life with an open, yet cautious, heart. Some of the voices heard in Head Over Heels: “While putting my clothes on, I found a sales receipt on the bureau from K-Mart for shoes, a bra, and stockings. My immediate thought was that my husband had a girlfriend.” “He dressed for me one night and it was the worst experience of both our lives. I was shocked and he knew it and that hurt him.” “My siblings had been aware of Trish’s transsexualism for several years when she went full-time. They have told me that while I will always be welcome in their homes, Trish is not.” “My husband may think differently, but I do have a sexual identity. Actually, I’m real clear about it—I am a woman and he is a man. I do not allow him to crossdress in the bedroom. I married a man; therefore, I will sleep with a man.” Head Over Heels also includes historical and current information about resources and support for wives of gender-variant people, and a substantive introduction that includes basic information about sexual and gender identity and related issues. |
| cross dressers in history: The Crossdresser's Secret Brian O'Doherty, 2013-09-06 The eighteenth century was an era of violent contrasts and radical change, intellectual brilliance and war, spies and diplomatic intrigue, elegance and cruelty. One of the century's most mysterious figures was the Chevalier d'Eon, who lived as both man and woman, French spy and European celebrity. Written from the perspective of this historical figure, the novel by Brian O'Doherty—artist and author of, among others, the critical milestone Inside the White Cube and the Booker Prize–shortlisted The Deposition of Father McGreevy—reveals d'Eon's radical modernity, certified by his attitudes to gender and his examination of his own nature. He ponders the social determinants of sexual identity and studies the manners and conventions governing discourse between the sexes. At the same time, as diplomat and spy, he is involved in the power politics of nations. The novel holds close to historical facts and reproduces some of d'Eon's comments as recorded in his voluminous journals. Apparently his life did not become real to him until he had rehearsed it in writing. |
| cross dressers in history: The Invisibles Sebastien Lifshitz, 2014-05-27 A charming collection of vintage photos of gay couples privately and often secretly celebrating their relationships. This volume is a unique collection of photographs of gay couples from 1900 to 1960. While this is a time many now regard as the deeply closeted dark ages, these photos show gay couples who were clearly out (at least for a moment)-some camping it up for the cameras while others in loving or clearly domestic poses. These photographs were discovered and collected by the author at flea markets and garage sales, the names of the subjects and their photographers lost to time. He was intrigued by the fact that the pictures show couples posed hand in hand, revealing happiness, serenity, and a surprising air of freedom so unlike the image of gays suffering in secret or fighting for their rights. This unique collection inspired Sebastien Lifshitz to restore to these nameless couples their voices in his documentary movie The Invisibles for which he was awarded the Cesar Award for Best Documentary in 2013. |
| cross dressers in history: MAN-MADE WOMAN CIARA COLIN. CREMIN, 2017 |
| cross dressers in history: M. Butterfly David Henry Hwang, 1993-10-01 David Henry Hwang’s beautiful, heartrending play featuring an afterword by the author – winner of a 1988 Tony Award for Best Play and nominated for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize Based on a true story that stunned the world, M. Butterfly opens in the cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government—and by his own illusions. In the darkness of his cell he recalls a time when desire seemed to give him wings. A time when Song Liling, the beautiful Chinese diva, touched him with a love as vivid, as seductive—and as elusive—as a butterfly. How could he have known, then, that his ideal woman was, in fact, a spy for the Chinese government—and a man disguised as a woman? In a series of flashbacks, the diplomat relives the twenty-year affair from the temptation to the seduction, from its consummation to the scandal that ultimately consumed them both. But in the end, there remains only one truth: Whether or not Gallimard's passion was a flight of fancy, it sparked the most vigorous emotions of his life. Only in real life could love become so unreal. And only in such a dramatic tour de force do we learn how a fantasy can become a man's mistress—as well as his jailer. M. Butterfly is one of the most compelling, explosive, and slyly humorous dramas ever to light the Broadway stage, a work of unrivaled brilliance, illuminating the conflict between men and women, the differences between East and West, racial stereotypes—and the shadows we cast around our most cherished illusions. M. Butterfly remains one of the most influential romantic plays of contemporary literature, and in 1993 was made into a film by David Cronenberg starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone. |
| cross dressers in history: Palgrave Advances in the Modern History of Sexuality M. Houlbrook, H. Cocks, 2005-10-26 Palgrave Advances in the Modern History of Sexuality offers a comprehensive and accessible overview of historical debate in the history of European and American sexuality since c. 1750. Each chapter explores in detail one theme, such as race, pornography, marriage, science or religion, which historians have seen as essential to writing the history of sexuality. The book therefore not only offers a broad introduction to the state of the art, but also suggests new directions for research and debate. |
| cross dressers in history: Dressing Up Peter Ackroyd, 1979 |
| cross dressers in history: The Lord Cornbury Scandal Patricia U. Bonomi, 2000-02-01 The portrait of a viscount in women's clothing from the colonial government of New York addresses the climate of political corruption, conspiracy, slander, and rumormongering prevalent in his times. Also addressed are the postwar American Whig tendencies to completely discount colonial benevolence and well-kept provincial politics in favor of scorn and derision of the British colonial government. |
| cross dressers in history: Hidden Agendas Joseph Harris, 2005 |
| cross dressers in history: Her Husband was a Woman! Alison Oram, 2013-01-11 Tracking the changing representation of female gender-crossing in the press, this text breaks new ground to reveal findings where both desire between women and cross-gender identification are understood. Her Husband was a Woman! exposes real-life case studies from the British tabloids of women who successfully passed as men in everyday life, perhaps marrying other women or fighting for their country. Oram revises assumptions about the history of modern gender and sexual identities, especially lesbianism and transsexuality. This book provides a fascinating resource for researchers and students, grounding the concepts of gender performativity, lesbian and queer identities in a broadly-based survey of the historical evidence. |
| cross dressers in history: The Female Husband Henry Fielding, 2018-06-23 The female husband: or, the surprising history of Mrs. Mary, alias Mr George Hamilton, who was convicted of having married a young woman of Wells and from her own mouth since her confinement. by Henry Fielding The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience. |
| cross dressers in history: Last Night at the Telegraph Club Malinda Lo, 2021-01-19 Winner of the National Book Award A New York Times Bestseller The queer romance we’ve been waiting for.”—Ms. Magazine Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the feeling took root—that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible. But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day. (Cover image may vary.) |
| cross dressers in history: The Roaring Girl Thomas Middleton, Thomas Dekker, 1987 Ward was in a New York banking family, brother of Julia Ward Howe, married into the Astor family, was in the Gold Rush, involved in the social life of New York and London, and was an epicure. He was also a very powerful lobbying influence on Congress and an author. His family connections and friends were prominent in many fields. |
| cross dressers in history: Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850 Dianne Dugaw, 1996-01-15 Masquerading as a man, seeking adventure, going to war or to sea for love and glory, the transvestite heroine flourished in all kinds of literature, especially ballads, from the Renaissance to the Victorian age. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850 identifies this heroine and her significance as a figure in folklore, and as a representative of popular culture, prompting important reevaluations of gender and sexuality. Dugaw has uncovered a fascination with women cross-dressers in the popular literature of early modern Europe and America. Surveying a wide range of Anglo-American texts from popular ballads and chapbook life histories to the comedies and tragedies of aristocratic literature, she demonstrates the extent to which gender and sexuality are enacted as constructs of history. |
| cross dressers in history: Early Christian Dress Kristi Upson-Saia, 2012-02-16 Early Christian Dress is the first full-length monograph on the subject of dress in early Christianity. It pays attention to the ways in which dress expressed and shaped Christian identity, the role dress played in Christians’ rivalries with pagan neighbours, and especially to the ways in which notions of gender were culled and revised in the process. Although many scholars have argued that gender in late antiquity was a performed and embodied category, few have paid attention to the ways in which dress and physical appearances were implicated in the understanding of femininity and masculinity. This study addresses that gap, revealing the amount of sartorial work necessary to secure stable gender categories in the worlds of early Imperial pagans and late ancient Christians. This study analyzes several vigorous discussions and debates that arose over Christian women’s dress. It examines how Christians interpreted their dress—especially the dress of female ascetics—as evidence of Christianity’s advanced morality and piety, a morality and piety that was coded masculine. Yet even Christian leaders who championed ascetic women’s ability to achieve a degree of virility in terms of their virtue and spiritual status were troubled when ascetics’ dress threatened to materially dissolve gender categories, difference, and hierarchies. In the end, the study enables us to gain a broader view of how gender was constructed, perceived, and contested in early Christianity. |
| cross dressers in history: The Petticoat Men Barbara Ewing, 2014-11-06 The Victorian gossipmongers called them The Petticoat Men. But to young Mattie Stacey they are Freddie and Ernest, her gentlemen lodgers. She doesn't care that they dress up in sparkling gowns to attend society balls as 'Fanny and Stella'. She only cares that they are kind to her, make her laugh, and pay their rent on time. Then one fateful night, Fanny and Stella are arrested, and Mattie – outraged but staunch – is dragged into a shocking court trial, hailed in newspapers all over England as 'The Scandal of the Century'. |
| cross dressers in history: Art and Illusion JoAnn Roberts, 1994 |
| cross dressers in history: Cross-dressed to Kill-women who Went to War Disguised as Men Vivien Morgan, 2020-09-29 'Cross-dressed to Kill' is a collection of extraordinary stories by twenty women cross-dressers of English, Irish, French, Prussian, Russian, Spanish, American and Israeli nationalities. The book answers the questions of why young women dressed as men to fight as soldiers in the 17th to 20th centuries? There were literally hundreds of known women cross-dressers yet they have been erased from both social and military history. It also contributes to the current debate about binary versus non-binary sexuality, for these women defied their birth sex and social gender assignation by assuming male disguise. The penalty for cross-dressing in this period was death.So, the bravery of these women masquerading as men and the risks they took were great. They watched their fathers, husbands and brothers head off to war, before breaking free from domesticity and joining the army too. Betty Friedan, doyenne of the feminist movement asks 'why should women have a half-life?' The cross-dressing women answer that by their actions. Fearless, 'tomboys', early feminists and decidedly full of what the newspapers called 'pluck and spunk'. They were young women for whom 'patriotism has no sex', determined to fight for their country. What happened to them in countless battles and wars around the world? Many were killed in combat, their sex discovered while dying on the battlefield. None were afraid to kill men and their bravery was rewarded by their officers and by royalty too. Medals, money and fame came to them when they told their stories to newspapers and book publishers. Were they lesbians or transsexuals? Some women like Maria van Antwerpen felt that they were 'in appearance a woman but in nature a man'. The book has the intimate details of how they disguised themselves and kept their sex secret for so long. They bandaged their breasts, used metal pipes to urinate, cropped their hair and adopted male mannerisms to deceive recruiting sergeants, their military companions and other women. Oscar Wilde wrote that what you wear 'penetrates to the very soul of the wearer...' So that 'the mind changes its sex' and you can behave as a man if dressed like one. What is the legacy of these courageous cross-dressers? Some are now hailed by the Army as the first female soldiers- like the American Deborah Sampson and Lucy Brewer. Statues have been erected in towns across Europe. Their bravery recognised by medals and life-long annuities from an admiring and astonished Royalty. Women soldiers today trying for the elite forces and demanding equality in the ranks can look to their historic sisters in arms. For they were iconic and spirited fighters for a right to full lives, crashing the barriers of society's prescribed roles for women. There are contemporary songs and poems written about them, for they were in their heyday minor celebrities. The Appendix lists for the first time those women recorded in military, archives and the law courts. Once forgotten but now remembered. As the writer Hilary Mantel says of women in history, ' their story is our story'. |
| cross dressers in history: The Book of Dolores William T. Vollmann, 2013-10-29 William T. Vollmann has travelled to Soviet-occupied Afghanistan with Islamic commandos, shivered out a solitary stretch at the North Magnetic Pole in winter, hopped freight trains, studied the stately ancient beauties of Japanese Noh theater, and made friends with street prostitutes all over the world-all in the interest of learning a little more about life. Now in his mid-fifties, Vollmann sets out on what may well be impossible for a heterosexual genetic male: to envision himself as a woman. In these photographs, block prints, and watercolor drawings, he portrays his alter ego, Dolores, with whimsicality, and sometimes with cruelty-for Dolores would like to be attractive, or at least to pass, but the ageing male body in which she remains confined requires lowered expectations. Meanwhile, the drawings and block prints, composed with the artist's glasses off, show Dolores as she imagines herself to be. The Book of Dolores brings the genre of self-portraits to a new level of vulnerability and bravery. In the process, it offers virtuoso performances of nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first-century photographic techniques, including the seductively difficult gum bichromate method. Each section of the book is accompanied by an essay on motives and techniques. |
| cross dressers in history: Self-made Man Norah Vincent, 2006-01 A Los Angeles Times columnist recounts her eighteen-month undercover stint as a man, a time during which she underwent considerable personal risks as she worked a sales job, joined a bowling league, frequented sex clubs, dated, and encountered firsthand the rigid codes and rituals of masculinity. 80,000 first printing. |
| cross dressers in history: Crossdressing in Context, vol. 3: Transgender History & Geography Gregory G. Bolich, 2006 |
| cross dressers in history: Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature Simone Chess, 2016-04-14 This volume examines and theorizes the oft-ignored phenomenon of male-to-female (MTF) crossdressing in early modern drama, prose, and poetry, inviting MTF crossdressing episodes to take a fuller place alongside instances of female-to-male crossdressing and boy actors’ crossdressing, which have long held the spotlight in early modern gender studies. The author argues that MTF crossdressing episodes are especially rich sources for socially-oriented readings of queer gender—that crossdressers’ genders are constructed and represented in relation to romantic partners, communities, and broader social structures like marriage, economy, and sexuality. Further, she argues that these relational representations show that the crossdresser and his/her allies often benefit financially, socially, and erotically from his/her queer gender presentation, a corrective to the dominant idea that queer gender has always been associated with shame, containment, and correction. By attending to these relational and beneficial representations of MTF crossdressers in early modern literature, the volume helps to make a larger space for queer, genderqueer, male-bodied and queer-feminine representations in our conversations about early modern gender and sexuality. |
| cross dressers in history: Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages Marina Montesano, 2024-11-07 By encompassing the hagiographies of the first centuries, the most famous case of Joan of Arc, numerous chivalrous novels, and the overlooked accounts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, this is the first study to consider cross-dressing for the entire medieval age. Cross-dressing is a thought-provoking practice in a world that, in theory, adheres to neat distinctions of the functions and attires of males and females in society; this volume demonstrates that only a long-term analysis can fully account for the phenomenon in its various facets. If dress is a gender marker, the argument that it also marks many other conditions beyond the man–woman binary cannot be ignored. There is a dress for the cleric and one for the layman; there is the dress of the rich and that of the poor. In some cases, these other binary distinctions are intertwined with that of sex and gender, and this intersectional perspective is developed through a wide range of sources read with philological rigour. The narrative style makes this book accessible to both students and general readers interested in the history of sexuality, gender history, and medieval studies. |
| cross dressers in history: Re-Dressing America’s Frontier Past Peter Boag, 2012-09 Americans have long cherished romantic images of the frontier and its colorful cast of characters, where the cowboys are always rugged and the ladies always fragile. But in this book, Peter Boag opens an extraordinary window onto the real Old West. Delving into countless primary sources and surveying sexological and literary sources, Boag paints a vivid picture of a West where cross-dressing—for both men and women—was pervasive, and where easterners as well as Mexicans and even Indians could redefine their gender and sexual identities. Boag asks, why has this history been forgotten and erased? Citing a cultural moment at the turn of the twentieth century—when the frontier ended, the United States entered the modern era, and homosexuality was created as a category—Boag shows how the American people, and thus the American nation, were bequeathed an unambiguous heterosexual identity. |
Jesus and the Cross - Biblical Archaeology Society
Jan 26, 2025 · The cross remains as you said, as a symbol of the degradation and suffering that Jesus submitted his body as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. The cross with or without the …
How Was Jesus Crucified? - Biblical Archaeology Society
Apr 16, 2025 · Gospel accounts of Jesus’s execution do not specify how exactly Jesus was secured to the cross. Yet in Christian tradition, Jesus had his palms and feet pierced with …
Roman Crucifixion Methods Reveal the History of Crucifixion
Aug 17, 2024 · Nailing to a cross is “less severe” and “less humiliating” as the condemned dies within a day from loss of blood. Tying to a cross is the most severe form of punishment usually …
The Staurogram - Biblical Archaeology Society
Sep 24, 2024 · But the cross had nothing to do with Jesus Christ. The New Catholic Encyclopedia explains: “The cross is found in both pre-Christian and non-Christian cultures.” Jesus did not …
Ancient Crucifixion Images - Biblical Archaeology Society
Mar 15, 2025 · The cross is the ultimate symbol for the crucifixion of Christ. I give out pennies with the cross punched in them and tell people whether you are an atheist, Muslim, Moonie, etc. …
What is the difference between cross_validate and cross_val_score?
Mar 11, 2021 · Note: When the cv argument is an integer, cross_val_score uses the KFold or StratifiedKFold strategies by default, the latter being used if the estimator derives from …
A Tomb in Jerusalem Reveals the History of Crucifixion and Roman ...
Aug 6, 2024 · The second device added to the cross was the suppedaneum, or foot support. It was less painful than the sedile, but it also prolonged the victim’s agony. Ancient historians …
When to use cross-validation? - Data Science Stack Exchange
Jan 23, 2021 · Cross-validation. Hi, I'm deploying machine learning models in my MSc thesis using Weka. I have noticed that when I use 10-fold cross-validation in the training dataset I get …
Cross validation - Data Science Stack Exchange
Apr 17, 2024 · Then cross-validation is only applied to the training data as it is part of the training process. The other issue raised in the linked post do not seem to me specific to cross …
Nested-cross validation pipeline and confidence intervals
Nov 26, 2024 · However, I would like to point out that the "class imbalance problem" is not at all the big problem that it is sometimes made out to be. See the following two threads over at …
Jesus and the Cross - Biblical Archaeology Society
Jan 26, 2025 · The cross remains as you said, as a symbol of the degradation and suffering that Jesus submitted his body as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. The cross with or without the …
How Was Jesus Crucified? - Biblical Archaeology Society
Apr 16, 2025 · Gospel accounts of Jesus’s execution do not specify how exactly Jesus was secured to the cross. Yet in Christian tradition, Jesus had his palms and feet pierced with nails. …
Roman Crucifixion Methods Reveal the History of Crucifixion
Aug 17, 2024 · Nailing to a cross is “less severe” and “less humiliating” as the condemned dies within a day from loss of blood. Tying to a cross is the most severe form of punishment usually …
The Staurogram - Biblical Archaeology Society
Sep 24, 2024 · But the cross had nothing to do with Jesus Christ. The New Catholic Encyclopedia explains: “The cross is found in both pre-Christian and non-Christian cultures.” Jesus did not …
Ancient Crucifixion Images - Biblical Archaeology Society
Mar 15, 2025 · The cross is the ultimate symbol for the crucifixion of Christ. I give out pennies with the cross punched in them and tell people whether you are an atheist, Muslim, Moonie, etc. …
What is the difference between cross_validate and cross_val_score?
Mar 11, 2021 · Note: When the cv argument is an integer, cross_val_score uses the KFold or StratifiedKFold strategies by default, the latter being used if the estimator derives from …
A Tomb in Jerusalem Reveals the History of Crucifixion and Roman ...
Aug 6, 2024 · The second device added to the cross was the suppedaneum, or foot support. It was less painful than the sedile, but it also prolonged the victim’s agony. Ancient historians …
When to use cross-validation? - Data Science Stack Exchange
Jan 23, 2021 · Cross-validation. Hi, I'm deploying machine learning models in my MSc thesis using Weka. I have noticed that when I use 10-fold cross-validation in the training dataset I get …
Cross validation - Data Science Stack Exchange
Apr 17, 2024 · Then cross-validation is only applied to the training data as it is part of the training process. The other issue raised in the linked post do not seem to me specific to cross …
Nested-cross validation pipeline and confidence intervals
Nov 26, 2024 · However, I would like to point out that the "class imbalance problem" is not at all the big problem that it is sometimes made out to be. See the following two threads over at …
