Cross Dressing
Rivera, Christopher
30 May 2012 Cross-Dressing: A Way of Self-Expression The phenomenon of cross-dressing is something that people do not completely understand. Almost every city has a subculture of people who dress in the opposite gender’s clothing, either for fetishistic purposes or for means of artistic expression. Although everyone has seen a cross-dresser in some way, people quickly lump cross-dressing, homosexuality, and being transgender together into one giant group, without taking the time to individually understand each aspect and circumstance, as well as lacking to understand what someone is going through; This is something that is dangerous in our society. In my journey in understanding this phenomenon specifically in Los Angeles, I partook in participant observation, observing the people closest to this subculture while becoming friends with some of the most recognized drag performers of the moment, and meeting people who get a sexual thrill when emitting the opposite gender. I observed these individuals in the local nightclubs of L.A. (Micky’s, Rage, Hamburger Mary’s), where crowds gathered to watch their favorite drag performers lip-synch to popular songs, and also entered the homes of others that kept their fetish interests secretive from their closest relatives. In my research, I was interested in understanding whether cross-dressing was a way of escaping societal norms, specifically for men, in order to express themselves more femininely as society oppresses them from doing, or whether it was simply a way of being creative and artistic; I also wanted to understand what the media’s portrayal of cross-dressing is, to better understand their struggles in society due to social construction. The idea that these individuals sought acceptance by society, rejected all of its ideas and partook in a ritual of inversion, or even poked fun at society, all through cross-dressing was something I strongly wanted to determine and
30 May 2012 Cross-Dressing: A Way of Self-Expression The phenomenon of cross-dressing is something that people do not completely understand. Almost every city has a subculture of people who dress in the opposite gender’s clothing, either for fetishistic purposes or for means of artistic expression. Although everyone has seen a cross-dresser in some way, people quickly lump cross-dressing, homosexuality, and being transgender together into one giant group, without taking the time to individually understand each aspect and circumstance, as well as lacking to understand what someone is going through; This is something that is dangerous in our society. In my journey in understanding this phenomenon specifically in Los Angeles, I partook in participant observation, observing the people closest to this subculture while becoming friends with some of the most recognized drag performers of the moment, and meeting people who get a sexual thrill when emitting the opposite gender. I observed these individuals in the local nightclubs of L.A. (Micky’s, Rage, Hamburger Mary’s), where crowds gathered to watch their favorite drag performers lip-synch to popular songs, and also entered the homes of others that kept their fetish interests secretive from their closest relatives. In my research, I was interested in understanding whether cross-dressing was a way of escaping societal norms, specifically for men, in order to express themselves more femininely as society oppresses them from doing, or whether it was simply a way of being creative and artistic; I also wanted to understand what the media’s portrayal of cross-dressing is, to better understand their struggles in society due to social construction. The idea that these individuals sought acceptance by society, rejected all of its ideas and partook in a ritual of inversion, or even poked fun at society, all through cross-dressing was something I strongly wanted to determine and