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Valerie Hatcher Professor Karen Dun COMM/Gender 317 30 March 2013 Observing Attitudes towards Cross-Dressing Many people tend to feel uncomfortable when they encounter a person wearing or carrying items of the opposite sex. What one wears, seems to tell the world who they are. We have been trained to judge a persons status, frame of mind; along with making assumptions as to what a persons gender roles are according to their dress. Could this be why we feel uncomfortable when we see a man dressed as a woman or woman dressed as a man? Joseph Harris analyzed Judith Butler extensive writings on pre-existing models of gender in a typical post- structural fashion. Butler believed that gender has no essence; and that people are born neither male nor female. Rather, it is society that places these roles upon them. She claims: gender norms are merely a form of theater. Harris on the other hand argues against Butlers theories in his article What Butler Saw: Cross-dressing and Spectatorship in Seventeenth Century France. Harris contends that it is not simply a societal show of norms or rules and there may be other underlying factors or circumstances that cause one to cross-dress. In order to support his argument he uses seventeen century French poetry and its rare occurrences of cross dressing. The first poet Harris introduces is Vincent Voiture, who writes about a young girl who is dressed as a boy and captivates the poets heart. In the poem it is never revealed that the boy and the girl who succeeds him are the same person it is only in the title that it is revealed. Harris

claims that the theme is used as a disguise which is the same as gender confusion; making claim that the poet possesses a fantasy of erotica for the girl when she is dressed as a boy. The second poet Harris introduces to us is Sain-Pavin who also writes about his attraction to young a lady dressed as a male. He speaks about how both authors pretend to be duped of the performance by these two women. Harris concludes by saying that although these women repeatedly play a role in order to arouse their lovers maybe it is not to arouse them but rather to cross-dress so they can be recognized as masculine which their disguise helps them to conjure. Charles Suthrell, an anthropologist took time to do some research on clothing. He became interested in the items of clothing since, as he put it, it is the clothing we wear that symbolizes who we are, and we have continuously dressed ourselves over the generations of time. Suthrell states that one of the simplest distinctions that can be found in the complex language of clothes is that between male and female clothing. He states that in almost every country there is a distinction between male and female dress except in those cases where one chooses to wear clothing of the opposite sex. Suthrell, claims it is considered normal for women in the UK to wear almost every articles of traditional mens clothing without anyone noticing. However, when men do it, people look at them with disgust and hostility. In order to conduct my own research on reactions to inappropriate dressing I asked my fiends Donna and Ron to help me with my experiments on inappropriate gender display. I sat down with both of them and explained to them they needed to choose items they felt they could wear or carry with a straight face. I placed several items on a table for them to choose from. Ron was able to choose from: a patent leather red purse along with a matching wallet inside, a pair of bright chandelier styled earrings, a size twelve blue stiletto, and an extra-large shimmery pink

blouse with ruffles. Donna was able to choose from a mans leather wallet with a chain, a pair of mens size eight work boots, a tie and a mans pair of dress slacks along with the dress shirt. I waited for them to go through their choices; Ron was definitely having a harder time with my request than Donna was. In the end Ron agreed to the red purse with the matching wallet and Donna agreed to everything but the wallet with the chain and the work boots. I told them in order to conduct the experiment we needed to go to several public places, while I stand away and observe the expressions of the people around. Our first stop was to McDonalds it was around 9am Friday morning. The first person to notice was a little boy around six or seven. He asked his mother why the man was caring a purse. The lady responded by telling her son maybe its his wifes as she looked around waiting for a wife to come in. Once she noticed he was without a female companion her eye brows scrunched up as she continued to observe him. There were a few people whispering to each other and looking his way. The guy who took his order seemed a bit nervous and avoided eye contact and when Ron took his red wallet out to pay; the boy nervously smiled as he took the cash in exchange for Rons coffee. Our next stop was to Food Lion this time it was Donnas turn. She had on everything I had placed on the table, but the wallet with the chain and the work boots. When we got to Food Lion, I went in first and acted like a shopper. Donna came in after and began to fill a basket with items she needed and forgot she was dressed in mens clothing. Funny thing is that no one seemed to notice her the way they did Ron. When she got up to pay I grabbed a soda from the cooler so that I could stand behind her and observe her conversation with cashier. The cahier smiled and acted normal but she did ask Donna if she was on her way to work and when Donna said no she looked a little confuse but continued to smile until the transaction was over.

Once we were done, we discussed the reactions both had received earlier that morning. We talked about the reactions towards Ron and how it made him feel. He said he could feel all eyes on him, as for Donna no one really seemed to notice or even care. Donna said, she too forgot she was wearing mens clothing. The attitudes we witnessed were much like those of the UK that Suthrell mentioned. In doing this research I have found that although we are in the twenty first century where anything goes we still hold prejudices towards mens and womens attire. We are less demanding of women and more demanding of the way that men choose to present themselves in their clothing. In North Carolina the prevailing attitude appears to support the notion that dressing tendencies lean towards the conservative as opposed to a nonconservative cities like New York City. My concluding theory concurs with Suttrell conclusions that society views womans attire in a different light than mens attire and therefore my theory does not support those of Harris nor Butler.

Work Cited

Harris, Joseph. What Butler Saw: Cross-dressing and Spectatorship in SeventeenthCentury France. Edinburgh University Press. Vol. 29 (2006): p.67-79 Suthrell, Charlotte. Whats so funny about cross-dressing? Rationalist Association 31st May. 2007. Web 30, March 2013< http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/737/whats-so-funny-aboutcross-dressing>