The tolerance Level of Senior High School Students and Teachers on

Cross-dressing of Transwoman Students at Liloan National High School

Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND IT’S SCOPE

Introduction

Rationale

In recent years studies about Crossdressing of transgender are

conducted. (Then? Provide more. You are already talking about many

researches that have been conducted. What do these researches

say?)Cross Dressing refers to person who dress in clothing of the opposite

gender but do not live full time in that gender. It was confirmed by Transgender

Zone and according to their survey results majority of the crossdressing aptitude

is developed at the early age (Marciano,1986).

One way in which law has played a role in enforcing gender norms is by

prohibiting cross-dressing. Sumptuary laws were common in medieval Europe,

Elizabethan England and colonial North America and served to regulate public

attire according to occupation, class and gender. Colonial systems exported

dress regulations to many countries around the world. Contemporary sumptuary

laws, known as cross-dressing laws, have been used to target individuals who

transgress gender roles, whether they are gay, lesbian, transgender or straight

(Jan Beck 2018).

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 Adult men who cross-dress more often identify with wearing women's

clothing as a means of relaxation and comfort (Buckner,1970, Buhrich 1978,

Woodhouse 1985, Zucker and Blanchard,1997).

Transgender people are one of the most marginalized and neglected

sectors in the Philippines in terms of human rights protection, promotion and

fulfillment. Transpinays and transpinoys (transgender/transsexual women and

men of Filipino descent) continue to face barriers in legal recognition, accessing

education, employment, health care and public accommodations and in seeking

redress as victims of violence and bias-motivated crimes. Up until the present,

transgender Filipinos remain vulnerable to widespread discrimination based on

their gender identity and gender expression. Filipino transmen and transwomen

experience human rights violations perpetuated both by transphobic State and

non-State actors.

Teenagers who push the limits of school dress codes are nothing new.

Experimenting with clothing, hairstyles, and even make-up is a way for teens to

explore their identities and test the limits of socially acceptable behavior.

Although schools’ officials might find dress code enforcement challenging, dress

code violations in the past tended to be routine and usually revolved around

prohibiting overtly sexually suggestive clothing. But a new wrinkle in the dress

code debate has developed, with some students demanding to express their
2
gender or sexual identities by cross gender dressing. Although cross-gender

dressing is not particularly widespread in schools a growing number of students

throughout the country have begun dressing according to the gender identity they

have chosen, which may not necessarily reflect their biological gender. Whether

the student is gay, lesbian, transgender, or just testing the limits of a school

dress-code, the issue has emerged as a dress-code challenge for many school

officials and evolving ideas of acceptable dress.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has directed the "strict

implementation" of its executive order protecting the community from gender-

based violence and discrimination in DepEd elementary and high schools across

all regions in the country. LGBTQIA+ advocate Mela Franco Habijan in a

Facebook post Sept. 2 shared DepEd's memo reminding regional directors and

school heads about its E.O. 32 series of 2017, or the Gender Responsive Basic

Education Policy in line with the gradual return to in-person classes. Habijan has

repeatedly called on DepEd—even writing a letter to its secretary, Vice President

Sara Duterte-Carpio — to implement the measure which several schools have

not been complying with.

(Include here that there is an existing resolution about proper haircut for

males students in Liloan National High School. Then, discuss more.)

Therefore, this study needed more attention for it to be implemented in

schools, including the Liloan National High School. Through the effort of the

3
researchers, this study aimed to identify the acceptance level of teachers and

students in Crossdressing of transgenders in Liloan National High School.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This study contains the tolerance of the senior high school students and

teachers on cross-dressing of transwomen. This study is assisted by the

Tolerance Theory and Cross-dressing Theory: cross-dressing and sex changing.

Tolerance Theory

One premise underlying First Amendment jurisprudence is the tolerance

theory — the belief that promoting expressive freedom will make individuals and

institutions more open to ideas than they would be otherwise. Tolerance

suggests that Nazis should be permitted to parade down the streets of Skokie,

Illinois, as in Collin v. Smith (7th Cir. 1978), even though the community is

populated with survivors of the German Holocaust. The reasoning is that

protecting the speech of a Nazi group shields other forms of political expression.

In this photo, Frank Collin, center, leader of the National Socialist Party of

America, announces that the group had called off its planned march to suburban

Skokie, Ill. (AP Photo/Fred Jewell, used with permission from the Associated

Press) According to Mill, the free exchange of ideas should be encouraged to

promote the discovery of the truth and enhance the cognitive faculties of

individuals. In tolerating or permitting different views to challenge prevailing

opinion, Mill argued that these ideas may be true, contain part of the truth, or in
4
fact be true themselves. Hence, toleration and respect for a diversity of

viewpoints is grounded in a utilitarian calculus that stresses that we are all better

off in allowing a diversity of opinions rather than in censoring them.

Lee Bollinger has written a more modern expression of Mill’s views in The

Tolerant Society: Freedom of Speech and Extremist Speech in America (1986).

In that book Bollinger argues from a standpoint of tolerance in favor of protecting

extremist speech. For example, tolerating extreme speech is important because

by being protected itself, it provides a shield for more mainstream political

discourse. In addition, toleration supposedly reduces racial and ethnic tensions,

diminishes the perception that other individuals are threats, and encourages

respect for the rights of others. Toleration thus helps to promote a stable and

open society — an end good in itself — but it also makes individuals themselves

open to new ideas and respectful of the rights of others.

Cross-dressing Theory

This theory was formulated by Richard Ekins which explained that the

glamour of transvestite fashion is the epitome of 90s style, but the significance of

cross-dressing and sex-changing goes much deeper than the annals of fashion.

Ekins vividly details the innermost desires and the varied practices of males who

wear the clothes of women for the pleasure it gives them (cross-dressers), or

who wish to change sex and are actively going about it (sex-changers).

(Routledge, 2002)
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 This preliminary report is a study in grounded theory based on eleven

years of qualitative sociological research with male cross‐dressers and sex‐

changers in the United Kingdom. It reviews the cognate literature from the

standpoint of grounded theory and re‐conceptualizes the research area in terms

of the basic social process of ‘male femaling’. ‘Male femalers’ are males who

wish to ‘female’ in various ways, in various contexts, at various times, with

various staging’s and with varying consequences. Three major modes of ‘male

femaling’ are introduced: ‘body femaling’, ‘erotic femaling’ and ‘gender femaling’,

and set within a phased ‘femaling’ career path. Typical features of each phase

are detailed, indicating oscillations between the major facets of sex, sexuality and

gender frequently confronted in each phase. Reference is made to the inter‐

relations between the three modes of ‘femaling’, to the categorization’s

‘transvestite’ and ‘transsexual’, and to the constitution of ‘femaling’ self and world

as being variously sexed, sexualized and gendered (Richard Ekins, 1993).

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 The Tolerance Level of Senior High School Students and
Teachers on Cross-dressing of Transwoman Students at
Liloan National High School

Tolerance Theory Cross-dressing Theory

(David Schultz, 2009) (Richard Ekins, 1993)

Senior High School Senior High School

Students and Teachers Students and Teachers

Tolerance Level

Recommendations

Figure 1: Schematic Diagram of the Study

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 THE PROBLEM

Statement of the Problem

This study determined the tolerance level of cross-dressing of

transwoman students by the senior high school students and teachers at Liloan

National High School during the year 2022 as basis for recommendations.

Specifically, this study answered the following questions:

1. What is the tolerance level of students at Liloan National High School on

cross-dressing of transwoman students?

2. What is the tolerance level of teachers at Liloan National High School on

cross-dressing of transwoman students?

3. Is there a significant difference between teacher and student tolerance?

4. Based on the findings, what recommendations can be made?

Scope and Delimitation

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 This study focused on the tolerance level of senior high school

students and teachers on cross-dressing of transwoman students of Liloan

National High School. (Include the significant difference.)

The information needed to gather data in this study is through a survey

questionnaire made by the researchers in order to measure the level of tolerance

of the senior high school students and teachers regarding the cross-dressing of

transwoman students.

Significance of the Study

This research will make a significant contribution to understanding the

tolerance level of senior high school students and teachers on cross-dressing of

transwoman students. The findings of this study could be extremely important

and beneficial to the following:

School Rules Regulating Committee.

Teachers. This study would greatly help teachers in the means of understanding

and accepting transwoman's way of valuing themselves and their chosen

preferences to show the real them.

Transwoman Students. The findings of this study will be beneficial to the

transwoman students. The transwoman students will be given an idea on what

the other students and teachers can tolerate about them.

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Students. This study can be used as a guide by the students on how to treat

transwoman students. In this research, students will be knowledgeable or

understand more about transwoman students.

Future Researchers. The outcome of this study will benefit the future

researchers. This research could be their future reference about the tolerance

level of senior high school students and teachers on cross-dressing of

transwoman students.

Researchers.

Definition of Terms

Cross-dressing

Tolerance

Transwoman

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 Chapter 2

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Tolerance and prejudice are theoretically and empirically distinct

phenomena (e.g., Gibson, 2006; Hjerm et al., 2019; Klein & Zick, 2013;

Verkuyten et al., 2020). People can have negative beliefs and feelings about a

group but nevertheless support the civil liberties of that group to live the life that

they want. They can accept practices and beliefs of those whom they dislike,

disapprove of, or disagree with. Furthermore, people can reject specific practices

(e.g., ritual slaughter of animals) of a group (e.g., Jews, Muslims) to whom they

have neutral or even positive feelings (Hurwitz & Mondak, 2002; Van der Noll,

2014). Consequently, previous research has found mixed results for the relation

between tolerance and prejudice (e.g., Fairlamb & Cinnirella, 2020). Since the

two forms of tolerance differ in their general reasons for allowing minority groups

to live their own way of life, the association between tolerance and prejudice

might depend on the specific form of tolerance. This would further validate the

meaningfulness of making a distinction between the two forms and shed light on

the extent to which tolerance and prejudice co-occur.

Respect-based tolerance focuses on the civic status of minority

members as autonomous members of society. When people respect members of

another group as equals, it is likely that they are not strongly negative towards

this group. In research among Tea Party supporters (Simon et al., 2018), it was

found that respect for homosexuals and Muslims as equal fellow citizens goes
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together with more positive attitudes towards those out-groups. Furthermore, a

study in Sweden found respect-based tolerance to be associated with lower

prejudice towards immigrants (Hjerm et al., 2019; but see Klein & Zick, 2013).

Therefore, we expected that stronger endorsement of respect tolerance is

associated with lower prejudice towards (immigrant) minorities (Hypothesis 2).

The coexistence conception of tolerance focuses on societal

harmony and the peaceful functioning of society. Its instrumental and more

conditional nature makes it morally less imperative than respect tolerance.

Coexistence tolerance is a question of societal risks and opportunities in a given

time and place and emphasizes that majority and minority groups live together in

society. This might imply a less clear and robust association with prejudice

towards minorities. For instance, Klein and Zick (2013) found no independent

relation between coexistence tolerance and prejudice. In some situations, also

people with prejudicial feelings might be willing to accept others in order to

prevent conflicts and secure peaceful coexistence. They may think that in given

circumstances it is in society’s best interest to tolerate minorities to live the life

that they want. However, in other situations prejudiced people might feel that

suppression and exclusion rather than tolerance is in the best interest of society.

Thus, we will explore how coexistence tolerance relates to prejudicial feelings,

and whether it is associated with prejudice independently of respect tolerance.

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 Additionally, we examined whether the relations between the two

forms of tolerance and prejudice are similar for four types of immigrant target

groups (Western, non-Western, Muslim, non-Muslim). It is possible, for example,

that the coexistence-prejudice association is more pronounced for immigrant

groups that are considered culturally more dissimilar, than for other groups for

instance accepted for pragmatic reasons. However, for principally based respect

tolerance, the relations with prejudice are likely to be the same across different

types of immigrant groups.

According to Prerna Prakash (2018), many things in society are looked

down upon, from homosexuality, to going against the heteronormative gender

roles. One of the things that has always made people frown is the idea of cross

dressing and its implications. Cross dressing is something that has been going

on for ages, and yet; men who dress up as women are ridiculed, to a point of

making them ashamed of their identities. There have been many TV series and

shows that made fun of men who enjoyed dressing up in what is women's

clothing. However, clothing does not need to be gender normative, and making it

so is only leading in limiting people who may not identify with the gender they are

born as.

According to Miqqi Alicia Gilbert (2014), cross-dressing covers a

huge range and can go from donning one or two items of women's clothing,

usually undergarments, for the purposes of arousal and masturbation, to

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spending days or weeks living and performing as a woman. It is quite remarkable

that these widely different activities fall under the same umbrella. Often a cross-

dresser, especially one with experience, will receive little or no sexual frisson

from cross-dressing and certainly will not maintain a state of arousal during the

entire episode. Indeed, as the cross-dresser matures, the sexual aspect

diminishes and an interest in the growth and development of one's “woman-self”

increases. What I have called the “committed cross-dresser” is interested in

discovering more about his her-self and exploring his feminine side than he is

about sexual release (Gilbert 2000: 2).

Put simply, what may begin as a fetish need not end there. V. L. Bullough

and B. Bullough (1993: 212) cite Havelock Ellis's objection to the term

transvestite (and presumably cross-dresser) as putting too much focus on

clothing, whereas a great many cross-dressers care at least as much if not more

about the social role of the woman they portray. For this reason, I would urge the

term cross-gender over cross-dresser.

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Research Instrument

Instructions: You are requested to read each statement carefully and give your

response by putting a check (√) mark only the option which you find as the most

appropriate and true in your case.

5 – strongly agree, 4 – agree, 3 – neutral, 2 – disagree, 1 – strongly disagree

I can

tolerate

transwoman
(5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
students’

way of:

1. wearing

of feminine

clothing

2. wearing

heels and

other

feminine

footwear

3. growing

longer hair

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4. wearing

earrings

5. putting

make-up

6. wearing

of contact

lenses

7. entering

female’s

comfort

room

8. wearing

of wigs

9.

undergoing

sex

rearrangem

ent surgery

10.

undergoing

hormone

therapy

16
11. joining

pageants in

school

12. going by

a different

name

13. getting

involved as

officers in

school

14.

undergoing

breast

augmentatio

15. joking

around

16.

communicat

ing with

others

17.

17
respecting

others

18.

engaging

relationship

with

someone of

the same

biological

sex

19.

promoting

their

advocacy

20.

participating

in school

activities

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