Editing Cross-dressing (section)

===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>