Politically correct cross-dressing?
Cross dressing by a man who is not genderqueer (that is, someone who does not feel a dissonance between his subconcious sex and his physical body) has two possible political meanings:
1) to disrupt the normativity of binary gender, in solidarity with genderqueer folk; or
2) to take pleasure in appropriating a few carefully chosen feminine signifiers, without having to be female, and without having to give up male privilege.
I'm a little wary of the latter. I certainly enjoy wearing skirts, and if I ever get around to buying a few dresses and makeup, I'd enjoy wearing that as well. But what if it turns out that I *enjoy* wearing feathers on my head and war paint in a mockery of Native American garb? Should I go out and do that too just 'cuz it feels good?
While I think cross dressing is far more acceptable in progressive queer-friendly circles than appropriating the garb of a completely different culture just to look cool or feel good, I'm not sure there's a difference between the two.
Clearly if someone is sincerely genderqueer, I encourage them to behave however it is that they feel that the negotiation of their subconscious sex and their external sex moves them to behave. But when it comes to guys who are not gender dissonant dressing feminine, I get a bit suspicious.
Perhaps I'm saying that unless I'm willing to live 24/7 as a woman, subject to all that entails, for at least some period of time, I have no right to play at dress up. But really, by *playing* at dress up, I demean trans-people, for whom there is no choice in the matter, and I falsely steal a moment or two of fun from the feminine spectrum without paying the necessary social dues.
Perhaps I'm setting too high a bar for myself. But perhaps not. Every see frat boys dress up in their girlfriends' clothing for a Halloween party? Far from disrupting gender roles, they actually manage to reinforce them.
Reading Julia Serano's book Whipping Girl has helped me a lot. There are three levels at which one is gendered: one's brain-sex (or subconcious sex, as she puts it) -- the sex that one's brain expects one to be; one's physical body; and the gender roles projected onto one by other people. Gender dissonance occurs at a private level, when one's brain expects one's body to be of a certain sex, but bewilderingly (to one's brain), one happens to inhabit a body of a different sex.
My brain sex and my physical sex are both male, and there's no dissonance there.
As for the gender roles that are projected onto me, well, they don't always accord with how I'd like to behave. I'm suspicious as to why though. Seriously suspicious that cross-dressing is analogous somehow to the 'hot-bi-babe' phenomenon wherein homophobic males fool themselves that they enjoy watching 'lesbian' eroticism. Cross dressing feels too straight to me, too heterosexual, too male. But the alternative, to be a man dressing as a man, isn't any alternative at all. The only authentic, honest, alternative for me, I think, is to dress with gay signifiers.
(but gay boys can cross dress, so why can't I), complains my mind. Answer: because I'm not gay. I'm bi, but I live the majority of my life passing for straight.
I *really* don't want to self-censor my gender expression, but the sad truth is that I'm trying to pick up street cred by claiming to be queer, or a sex-worker, when in reality I'm just a dabbler, who gets out as soon as the going gets mildly uncomfortable. That's not called being queer. It's called being scared.
1) to disrupt the normativity of binary gender, in solidarity with genderqueer folk; or
2) to take pleasure in appropriating a few carefully chosen feminine signifiers, without having to be female, and without having to give up male privilege.
I'm a little wary of the latter. I certainly enjoy wearing skirts, and if I ever get around to buying a few dresses and makeup, I'd enjoy wearing that as well. But what if it turns out that I *enjoy* wearing feathers on my head and war paint in a mockery of Native American garb? Should I go out and do that too just 'cuz it feels good?
While I think cross dressing is far more acceptable in progressive queer-friendly circles than appropriating the garb of a completely different culture just to look cool or feel good, I'm not sure there's a difference between the two.
Clearly if someone is sincerely genderqueer, I encourage them to behave however it is that they feel that the negotiation of their subconscious sex and their external sex moves them to behave. But when it comes to guys who are not gender dissonant dressing feminine, I get a bit suspicious.
Perhaps I'm saying that unless I'm willing to live 24/7 as a woman, subject to all that entails, for at least some period of time, I have no right to play at dress up. But really, by *playing* at dress up, I demean trans-people, for whom there is no choice in the matter, and I falsely steal a moment or two of fun from the feminine spectrum without paying the necessary social dues.
Perhaps I'm setting too high a bar for myself. But perhaps not. Every see frat boys dress up in their girlfriends' clothing for a Halloween party? Far from disrupting gender roles, they actually manage to reinforce them.
Reading Julia Serano's book Whipping Girl has helped me a lot. There are three levels at which one is gendered: one's brain-sex (or subconcious sex, as she puts it) -- the sex that one's brain expects one to be; one's physical body; and the gender roles projected onto one by other people. Gender dissonance occurs at a private level, when one's brain expects one's body to be of a certain sex, but bewilderingly (to one's brain), one happens to inhabit a body of a different sex.
My brain sex and my physical sex are both male, and there's no dissonance there.
As for the gender roles that are projected onto me, well, they don't always accord with how I'd like to behave. I'm suspicious as to why though. Seriously suspicious that cross-dressing is analogous somehow to the 'hot-bi-babe' phenomenon wherein homophobic males fool themselves that they enjoy watching 'lesbian' eroticism. Cross dressing feels too straight to me, too heterosexual, too male. But the alternative, to be a man dressing as a man, isn't any alternative at all. The only authentic, honest, alternative for me, I think, is to dress with gay signifiers.
(but gay boys can cross dress, so why can't I), complains my mind. Answer: because I'm not gay. I'm bi, but I live the majority of my life passing for straight.
I *really* don't want to self-censor my gender expression, but the sad truth is that I'm trying to pick up street cred by claiming to be queer, or a sex-worker, when in reality I'm just a dabbler, who gets out as soon as the going gets mildly uncomfortable. That's not called being queer. It's called being scared.