Crossdressing for a biographical report

[JamieG]

My daughter's school did a living wax museum this week. This is where the kids pick a famous person, make a poster about him or her, and then wear a costume and pretend to be a wax figure of the person. There's a "button" on their poster that when pressed results in the kid giving a short speech about their person. All in all, its a pretty neat idea, and you can tell that many of of the kids put a lot of effort into it.

I post here because I found it interesting that some of the girls chose to portray males, often with fake mustaches and/or beards. My favorite was the girl who did Abraham Lincoln. She had the famous top hat and coat, but wore a ruffly black skirt with it. Who knew Honest Abe could rock a skirt? Disappointingly, none of the boys chose to portray famous females (or even Abe in a skirt for that matter). I have to imagine that there were one or two who wished they had the courage to try. I know if this happened when I was a kid I would have been jealous that some of the girls got to wear drag and nobody cared.

[Tracii G]

Interesting.

[Georgia_Maine]

Let's face it, history has many many more famous men to pick from than women. Sad but true.

[Sarah Louise]

Yes, interesting. It just goes to show that even at a young age, society dictates that it's ok for a girl to emulate a male but not ok for a boy to emulate a female. Our struggle for acceptance starts at a very young age.

[AllisonS]

is it "society" or is that just innate in boys. I can't think how society influenced the schoolyard taunting. Seems like that might just be in boys to do. Part of learning how to succeed in a dominance hierarchy. Not sure.

[Pat]

Not sure if I believe taunting is innate, though it happens with both sexes, just different topics. As to the selection of topics, that's unquestionably learned behavior. Your parents and friends (so by extension your friends' parents) teach you what it is OK to hate and provide positive feedback when you successfully hate the "right" things. It's like that song from South Pacific... "You have to be taught."

[Dana44]

It is society. In first grade the teacher had to go for a meeting and it was a couple hours and she told us to do some work that he handed to us.
Well, boys being boys. we had a lot of thread spools and well one kid threw one and the fight started. Desks were over turned and made into forts and spools were flying. All the girls ran into the closet and closed the door. I ended up going in there with the girls but was called out. Nope a boy can't be with the girls. The spool fight was intense when the teacher walked back in. Hehe he, wow she was pretty upset and she ask where the girls were and we said the closet. Oh boy we all was sent home with a note from our teacher. We had settled down pretty good from that, but it is in those type of things that you find you are not like the other males. It is society and innate in boys. That's why there is so much sorrow in this world.

[AllieBellema]

I remember back in my HS days, I was a part of a group report about segregation. My group actually wanted to dress me up as a black woman for a short video they wanted to put together. I got cold feet and didn't show up, knowing my fellow students would have probably been surprised at how well I would have wore everything and played the part... almost to the level of showing that I was enjoying it. They did something else for the group project and I just followed along after that.

[JamieG]

I do agree that the patriarchy is probably a large factor here: both in that men's accomplishments are often more highlighted than women's, and that it is cute for girl to dress as a man for an hour, but demeaning for a boy to dress as a woman for the same amount of time. However, there was no requirement for the figure to be historical; some students chose to do living entertainers, athletes, etc. So there were plenty of opportunities for the girls to choose women.

[AllisonS]

Jamie, I read your post as saying:
1) It was interesting that many of the girls chose to portray men.
2) The boys did not portray women, although some of them probably wished they could, if they had the courage.

I agree. It is interesting that it is "demeaning" mtf. I'm not convinced that some boys picking on others and calling them girly or sissy is learned. Looking at a wide range of cultures would provide a clue. Any anthropologists in the crowd? Bugs Bunny (part of my "society" growing up) taught me that CDing is not at all demeaning. He was a great girl.

[Meghan4now]

Why is anyone surprised? Guess what, the sky is blue and grass is green (mostly). If the high heeled shoe were on the other foot, it might make national news!

My take on Bugs is that crossdressing is a safe joke. Surprisingly, if you go back and read Don Quixote, there was quite a bit of mtf and ftm crossdressing, with a purpose. Don Quixote is a far under rated source of literary inspiration. So many stories you know, but didn't even know the original source.

[prabha]

Interesting thread

[Beverley Sims]

Girls playing a drag part like that seems more acceptable than males cross dressing.

Yes it is curious the way attitudes are.