CROSS DRESSING, SEX AND GENDER

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993. Trade paperback. Light shelfwear. Very good.. xi+382pp., introduction, postscript, guide to further reading and research, index. A culmination of more than thirty years of research in the field, this book presents findings that will interest anyone involved in the debate over nature and nurture, and will have implications not only for scholars in the various areas of social science, sex and gender studies, but also for educators, nurses, physicians, feminists, gays, lesbians, and general readers. In any society, the perception of femininity and masculinity is not necessarily dependent on female or male genitalia. Cross dressing, gender impersonation, and long-term masquerades of the opposite sex are commonplace throughout history. In contemporary American culture, the behavior occurs most often among male heterosexuals and homosexuals, sometimes for erotic pleasure, sometimes not. In the past, however, cross dressing was for the most part practiced more often by women than men. Although males often burlesqued women and gave comic impersonations of them, they rarely attempted a change of public gender until the twentieth century. This phenomenon, according to Vern L. Bullough and Bonnie Bullough, has implications for any understanding of the changing relationships between the sexes in the twentieth century.In most Western societies, being a man and demonstrating masculinity is more highly prized than being a woman and displaying femininity. Some non-Western societies, however, are more tolerant and even encourage men to behave like women and women to act like men. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender not only surveys cross dressing and gender impersonation throughout history and in a variety of cultures but also examines the medical, biological, psychological, and sociological findings that have been presented in the modern scientific literature. This volume offers the results of the authors" research into contemporary gender issues and the search for explanations.