Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender

by Vern L. Bullough, Bonnie Bullough

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. After examining the various current theories regarding cross dressing and gender impersonation, the Bulloughs offer their own theory. This book, widely deemed a classic in its field, is the culmination of thirty years of research by the Bulloughs into gender impersonation and cross dressing. Their groundbreaking findings will be of interest to anyone involved in the debate over nature versus nurture, and have implications not only for scholars in the various social sciences and sex and gender studies, but for educators, nurses, physicians, feminists, gays, lesbians, and general readers. This work will be of more personal interest to anyone who identifies as a transvestite or transsexual or who has been classified by medical and psychiatric professionals as suffering from gender dysphoria. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender covers a wide range of cultures and periods. As the first comprehensive attempt to examine the phenomenon of cross dressing, it will be of interest to students and scholars of social history, sociology, nursing, and women's studies.

Genres: LGBT, Gender, Nonfiction, History, Transgender, Anthropology

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Vern Leroy Bullough (July 24, 1928 – June 21, 2006) was an American historian and sexologist.

He was a distinguished professor emeritus at the State University of New York (SUNY), Faculty President at California State University, Northridge, a past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, past Dean of natural and social sciences at the Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York, one of the founders of the American Association for the History of Nursing, and a member of the editorial board of Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia.

Until her death in 1996 he was married to Bonnie Bullough

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot recommend this book highly enough to anyone interested in the subject of gender- and sexual-variant behaviour - although it focusses primarily upon cross-dressing, it (inevitably?) looks at homosexuals and transsexuals too.

Make no mistake - this is an academic work, largely a factual review of the history of the subject from the earliest documented examples through the medicalisation of these phenomena and the subsequent research. Opinion and comments about what should be the case are relegated largely to the summary in the postscript. So, with 372 pages of dense text, this could appear to be a daunting book to the layman. That shouldn't be the case - it's a very easy read, not least because of excellent referencing that can be pursued or ignored as the reader desires.

My quibbles are minor. Although I would have liked to have seen some aspects of the topic explored more fully, the only real shortcoming of this book for me is not something the authors could have done much about: it was published in 1993. If, as the authors state, the subject had undergone drastic changes in the couple of decades leading up to publication, the same is certainly true for the two decades since. It cannot be the last word on the subject as it might have been at publication.

Nonetheless, more recent events cannot change the history that the book covers and, in that light, this remains a quite fascinating volume.

[Highlyeccentric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, nothing to say that was new to me after teaching S&S. At least not in the medieval sections.