Cross-dressing: Encyclopedia II - Cross-dressing - Some famous examples of cross-dressing

Cross-dressing - Some famous examples of cross-dressing

Cross-dressing - In Greek mythology

• Achilles, dressed in women's clothing at the court of Lycomedes

Cross-dressing - In Norse mythology

• Thor dressed as Freya in order to get Mjölnir back in Thrymskvida.
• Hagbard in the Scandinavian legend of Hagbard and Signy (the Romeo and Juliet of the Vikings). After having slain Signy's brothers and suitors, Hagbard was no longer welcome in the hall of Signy's father Sigar. Hagbard then dressed up as one of his brother Haki's shieldmaidens in order to have access to the chambers of his beloved. When the handmaidens washed his legs, they asked him why they were so furry and why his hands were so callous. Because of this, he invented a clever verse to explain his strange appearance. Signy, however, who understood that it was Hagbard who had come to see her, explained to the maidens that his verse was truthful. Hagbard was, however, deceived by the handmaidens and he was arrested by Sigar's warriors. Hagbard was hanged and Signy committed suicide as Hagbard watched from the gallows.
• Hervor from Hervarar saga. When Hervor learnt that her father had been the infamous Swedish beserker Arngrim, she dressed as a man, called herself Hjörvard and lived for a long time as a Viking.

Cross-dressing - Famous historical examples of cross-dressing people

Famous historical examples of cross-dressing people include:

• The legend of Pope Joan alleges that she was a promiscuous female pope who dressed like a man and reigned from 855 to 858. Modern historians regard her as a mythical figure who originated from 13th century anti-papal satire.
• Joan of Arc was a 15th century French peasant girl who joined French armies against English forces fighting in France during the latter part of the Hundred Years' War. She is a French national heroine and a Catholic saint. After being captured by the English, she was burned at the stake upon being convicted by a religious court, with the act of dressing in male clothing being cited as one of the principal reasons for her execution. A number of witnesses, however, testified that she had said she wore male clothing (consisting of two layers of pants attached to the doublet with twenty fasteners) because she feared the guards would rape her at night.[2]
• Pope Paul II, Catholic pope known to have worn women's clothes and was nicknamed "Our Lady of Pity"
• Anne Bonny and Mary Read were late 17th century pirates. Bonny in particular gained significant notoriety, but both were eventually captured. Unlike the rest of the male crew, Bonny and Read were not immediately executed because Read was pregnant and Bonny claimed to be pregnant as well.
• Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée Éon de Beaumont (1728-1810), usually known as the Chevalier d'Eon, was a French diplomat and soldier who lived the first half of his life as a man and the second half as a woman. In 1771 he claimed that physically he was not a man, but a woman, having been brought up as a man only. From then on s/he lived as a woman. On her/his death it was discovered that her/his body was anatomically male.
• George Sand is the pseudonym of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, an early 19th century French novelist who preferred to wear men's clothing exclusively. In her autobiography, she explains in length the various aspects of how she experienced cross-dressing.
• Dorothy Lawrence was an English war reporter who disguised herself as a man so she could become a soldier in World War I.
• Rrose Sélavy, the feminine alter-ego of the late French artist, Marcel Duchamp, remains one of the most complex and pervasive pieces in the enigmatic puzzle of the artist's oeuvre. She first emerged in portraits made by the photographer Man Ray in New York in the early 1920s, when Duchamp and Man Ray were collaborating on a number of conceptual photographic works. Rrose Sélavy lived on as the person to whom Duchamp attributed specific works of art, Readymades, puns, and writings throughout his career. By creating for himself this female persona whose attributes are beauty and eroticism, he deliberately and characteristically complicated the understanding of his ideas and motives.
• Billy Tipton was a notable jazz pianist and saxophonist in the United States during the Great Depression. He was born Dorothy Lucille Tipton in 1914, but began living as a man in the 1930s. He was married five times to women, and adopted three boys. He led a full career as a musician and, in later life, as an entertainment agent. Other than his birth family, no one knew of his birth sex or cross-living until after his death in 1989.
• Willmer "Little Ax" Broadnax was a lead singer in several important gospel quartets, most famously the Spirit of Memphis Quartet. When he died in 1994, it was discovered that he was female bodied.
• Because female enlistment was barred, many women fought for both the Union and the Confederacy during the American Civil War while dressed as men.
• Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, colonial governor of New York and New Jersey in the early 1700s is reported to have enjoyed going out wearing his wife's clothing, but this is disputed. [3]
• The Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, and the Disney movie Mulan derived from it, feature a cross-dressing heroine.

Cross-dressing - Cultural examples of cross-dressing

Cross-dressing is the subject of many works of literature and plays a significant role in popular culture. References to cross-dressing are frequently used for comic effect.

The explosion of the Internet and the World Wide Web has provided new opportunities for cross-dressing people to express themselves. Numerous websites cater to cross-dressing men by providing dresses, shoes, and other feminine accessories in larger men's sizes. In addition, the Internet has given many cross-dressers a safe forum for sharing photos and stories (see Fictionmania).

Bugs Bunny occasionally engages in cross-dressing, usually to confound a foe. His transformation is typically so effective that his adversaries (especially one Elmer Fudd), who moments earlier had been trying to kill him, are smitten by his "feminine charm." Even Disney got into the act a couple of times, one example being in "Robin Hood."

The film Revolutionary Girl Utena (also known as 少女革命ウテナ　Shōjo Kakumei Utena) is perhaps one of the best-known examples of Japanese animation involving cross-dressing. The female protagonist, Utena Tenjou, cross-dresses as a result of her desire to be a heroic prince.

In the Japanese comic book series Urusei Yatsura (1978-1987) created by Rumiko Takahashi and published by Shogakukan, a girl character named Rynosuke wears a white shirt with the Chinese ideogram for "male" on the back of her shirt along with pants, along with other male attire as part of her father's misguided insistence that his child is a male. More recently, in the Japanese action comic Gunslinger Girl (2003), published in the United States by ADV, one girl character brainwashed to be an assassin, takes pleasure in wearing a men's style suit and tie.

David Henry Hwang's 1988 play M. Butterfly focuses on a love affair between a French diplomat and a male Beijing opera singer who plays dan (旦), or female, roles.

The Takarazuka Revue is a group of six associated all-female Japanese acting troupes, known for their elaborate productions of stage musicals. Takarazuka actresses may specialize in either male or female roles, but the most popular stars tend to be those who play male characters.

Beethovens' only opera, Fidelio, involves the story of a woman who disguises herself as a young man as part of a plan to rescue her husband from prison.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Some famous examples of cross-dressing", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki