Editing Cross-dressing (section)

==History==
[[File:Crossdressing circa 1890 Frances Benjamin Johnston (right).jpg|thumb|[[Frances Benjamin Johnston]] (right) poses with two cross-dressing friends; the "lady" is identified by Johnston as the illustrator Mills Thompson {{circa|1890}}.]]
{{Main|History of cross-dressing}}
{{See also|Trousers as women's clothing}}

===Non-Western history===
[[File:Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) (CBL J 1038.1).jpg|thumb|[[Lady Murasaki|Lady Murasaki's]] classical novel ''[[The Tale of Genji]]'' from 1008 demonstrates the transgression between masculine and feminine beauty with characters that have no clear gender differentiability. ]]

Cross-dressing has been practiced throughout much of recorded history, in many societies, and for many reasons. Examples exist in [[Greek mythology|Greek]], [[Norse mythology|Norse]], and [[Hindu mythology]]. Cross-dressing can be found in theater and religion, such as [[kabuki]], [[Noh]], and [[Korean shamanism]], as well as in folklore, literature, and music. For instance, in examining kabuki culture during Japan's edo period, cross-dressing was not only used for theater purposes, but also because current societal trends: cross-dressing and the switching of genders was a familiar concept to the Japanese at the time which allowed them to interchange characters's genders easily and incorporate [[Geisha|geisha fashion]] into men's wear.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cross-dressers in Ukiyo-e {{!}} 太田記念美術館 Ota Memorial Museum of Art |url=http://www.ukiyoe-ota-muse.jp/exhibition-eng/crossdressors |access-date=2022-12-01 |language=ja |archive-date=2022-12-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221201011917/http://www.ukiyoe-ota-muse.jp/exhibition-eng/crossdressors |url-status=live }}</ref> This was especially common in the story-telling of ancient stories such as the character Benten from [[Benten Kozō]]. He was a thief in the play cross-dressing as a woman. Cross-dressing was also exhibited in Japanese Noh for similar reasons. Societal standards at the time broke boundaries between gender. For example, ancient Japanese portraits of aristocrats have no clear differentiation in characteristics between male and female beauty. Thus, in Noh performance, the cross-dressing of actors was common; especially given the ease of disguising biological sex with the use of masks and heavy robes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Intersections: Children in Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century Lowland Philippine Societies |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue16/saeki.htm |access-date=2022-12-01 |website=intersections.anu.edu.au |archive-date=2022-12-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221201011923/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue16/saeki.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In a non-entertainment context, cross-dressing is also exhibited in Korean shamanism for religious purposes. Specifically, this is displayed in chaesu-gut, a shamanistic rite gut in which a shaman offers a sacrifice to the spirits to intermediate in the fortunes of the intended humans for the gut. Here, cross-dressing serves many purposes. Firstly, the shaman (typically a woman) would cross-dress as both male and female spirits can occupy her. This allows her to represent the opposite sex and become a cross-sex icon in 75% of the time of the ritual. This also allows her to become a sexually liminal being. It is clear that in entertainment, literature, art, and religion, different civilizations have utilized cross-dressing for many different purposes.<ref>{{Citation |last=Panoussi |first=Vassiliki |title=cross-dressing |date=2023-04-19 |work=Oxford Classical Dictionary |url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-8634 |access-date=2024-03-24 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.8634 |isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 |archive-date=2024-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240423125531/https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-8634 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Duggan |first1=Anne E. |title=Folktales and fairy tales: traditions and texts from around the world |last2=Haase |first2=Donald |last3=Callow |first3=Helen J. |date=2016 |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-1-61069-253-3 |edition=2nd |location=Santa Barbara, California |pages=241–3 |language=en |quote=Prohibited in many societies, cross-dressing, or wearing the clothing of the other sex, is nonetheless practiced or narrated around the world in ritual, dance, balladry, theater, folktales, fairy tales, short stories, and novels. Transvestism, as it is also known, is an integral part of many folk ritual practices.}}</ref>

===Western history===
[[File:MFA PELIKE 04.jpg|thumb|right|200px|<small>Male performers putting on female costumes prior to a theatre performance. The figure on the left is wearing a mask and a second mask is lying on the ground between them. The masks represent a female character and they have a kerchief around the hair on the mask. Their costumes also include female clothing such as high boots and a chiton. Ceramic Athenian Pelike. Phiale Painter. Ancient Greek. Around 430 BCE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston</small>]]
In the British and European context, theatrical troupes ("[[playing company|playing companies]]") were all-male, with the female parts undertaken by [[boy player]]s.

The [[Rebecca Riots]] took place between 1839 and 1843 in [[West Wales|West]] and [[Mid Wales]].<ref name="Welsh Academy">{{cite book |last=Davies |first=John |author2=Jenkins, Nigel  |title=The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales |year=2008 |publisher=University of Wales Press |location=Cardiff|page=730 |isbn=978-0-7083-1953-6}}</ref> They were a series of [[protest]]s undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to unfair taxation. The rioters, often men dressed as women, took their actions against [[toll-gate]]s, as they were tangible representations of high taxes and tolls. The riots ceased prior to 1844 due to several factors, including increased troop levels, a desire by the protestors to avoid violence and the appearance of criminal groups using the guise of the biblical character [[Rebecca]] for their own purposes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gross|first=David M.|year=2014|title=99 Tactics of Successful Tax Resistance Campaigns|publisher=Picket Line Press|isbn=978-1-4905-7274-1|pages=68–69}}</ref> In 1844 an Act of Parliament to consolidate and amend the laws relating to [[turnpike trust]]s in [[Wales]] was passed.

A variety of historical figures are known to have cross-dressed to varying degrees. Many women found they had to disguise themselves as men in order to participate in the wider world. For example, it is postulated that [[Margaret King]] cross-dressed in the early 19th century to attend medical school, as universities at that time accepted only male students. A century later, [[Vita Sackville-West]] dressed as a young soldier in order to "walk out" with her girlfriend [[Violet Keppel]], to avoid the street harassment that two women would have faced. The prohibition on women wearing male garb, once strictly applied, still has echoes today in some Western societies which require girls and women to wear skirts, for example as part of [[school uniform]] or office [[dress code]]s.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Doig |first1=Liz |title=Who's wearing the trousers? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/505095.stm |access-date=12 December 2018 |work=BBC News UK |agency=BBC |date=November 4, 1999 |archive-date=23 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123005510/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/505095.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> In some countries, even in casual settings, women are still prohibited from wearing traditionally male clothing.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} Cross-dressing practices existed within both an evolving social and cultural environment up until cross-dressing laws became a prevalent part of controlling gender normativity and expression.<ref>Sears, Clare. “Instant and Peculiar.” In ''Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco''. pg. 23-40. Duke University Press, 2015. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1220nx9</nowiki>.</ref>