Editing Cross-dressing (section)

==Analysis==
Advocacy for social change has done much to relax the constrictions of gender roles on men and women, but they are still subject to prejudice from some people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Butler |first1=Judith |title=Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity |date=2011 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-78323-4 }}{{page needed|date=November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Halberstam |first1=Judith |last2=Halberstam |first2=Jack |title=Female Masculinity |date=1998 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-2243-6 }}{{page needed|date=November 2023}}</ref><ref>Epstein, Julia, Straub, Kristina; Eds, Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity, Routledge, London, 1991</ref>

The reason it is so hard to have statistics for female cross-dressers is that the line where cross-dressing stops and cross-dressing begins{{clarify|reason=same phrase twice|date=April 2024}} has become blurred, whereas the same line for men is as well defined as ever. This is one of the many issues being addressed by third wave feminism as well as the modern-day [[masculism|masculist]] movement.

The general culture{{clarify|reason=Which culture? Where?|date=May 2021}} has very mixed views about cross-dressing. A woman who wears her husband's shirt to bed is considered attractive, while a man who wears his wife's nightgown to bed may be considered transgressive. [[Marlene Dietrich]] in a tuxedo was considered very erotic; [[Jack Lemmon]] in a dress was considered ridiculous.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blechner |first1=Mark J. |title=Sex Changes: Transformations in Society and Psychoanalysis |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-99435-4 }}{{page needed|date=November 2023}}</ref> All this may result from an overall gender role rigidity for males; that is, because of the prevalent gender dynamic throughout the world, men frequently encounter discrimination when deviating from masculine gender norms, particularly violations of [[heteronormativity]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/media/users/lec321/Sirin_Articles/Sirin_McCriery__Mahalik_2004.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140418220633/http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/media/users/lec321/Sirin_Articles/Sirin_McCriery__Mahalik_2004.pdf |archive-date=2014-04-18 |url-status=live |title=Differential Reactions to Men and Women's Gender Role Transgressions: Perceptions of Social Status, Sexual Orientation, and Value Dissimilarity |publisher=NYU |access-date=1 June 2013 }}</ref> A man's adoption of feminine clothing is often considered a going down in the gendered social order whereas a woman's adoption of what are traditionally men's clothing (at least in the English-speaking world) has less of an impact because women have been traditionally subordinate to men, unable to affect serious change through style of dress. Thus when a male cross-dresser puts on his clothes, he transforms into the quasi-female and thereby becomes an embodiment of the conflicted gender dynamic. Following the work of [[Judith Butler]], gender proceeds along through ritualized performances, but in male cross-dressing it becomes a performative "breaking" of the masculine and a "subversive repetition" of the feminine.<ref name=Butler>{{cite web|last=Butler|first=Judith|title=Performative Acts and Gender Construction: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory|url=http://www.mariabuszek.com/kcai/PoMoSeminar/Readings/BtlrPerfActs.pdf|access-date=1 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112054310/http://www.mariabuszek.com/kcai/PoMoSeminar/Readings/BtlrPerfActs.pdf|archive-date=12 January 2012}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=May 2022}}

Psychoanalysts today do not regard cross-dressing by itself as a psychological problem, unless it interferes with a person's life. "For instance", said Joseph Merlino, senior editor of ''Freud at 150: 21st Century Essays on a Man of Genius'', "[suppose that]...I'm a cross-dresser and I don't want to keep it confined to my circle of friends, or my party circle, and I want to take that to my wife and I don't understand why she doesn't accept it, or I take it to my office and I don't understand why they don't accept it, then it's become a problem because it's interfering with my relationships and environment",<ref>Shankbone, David. "[[n:Dr. Joseph Merlino on sexuality, insanity, Freud, fetishes and apathy#Gender identity and Heteronormativity|Interview with Dr. Joseph Merlino]]",  ''[[Wikinews]]'' (October 5, 2007)</ref>