Cross-dressing women
Feb. 4th, 2010 10:29 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
rustydog.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
halfamoonFemininity can be whatever a woman decides it is! I love it when Buffy puts on her pretty prom dress and goes to slay vampires and take names. But sometimes, we make non-standard fashion choices, and sometimes, non-standard means "boys' clothes." Here's a picspam celebrating just a few of those choices.
For this post, I've divided the cross-dressing ladies into three categories:
* Women who had to dress like men in order to accomplish what they wanted in their time and culture. In a perfect world, male disguises wouldn't have been necessary, but these women took the opportunities they had and were brilliant. I think they may have enjoyed themselves as well.
In Return of the King, Eowyn went to battle in disguise.
Mulan went the extra mile and cut off her hair so she could dress as a warrior.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, Elizabeth Swann... what can I say? She owns that outfit.
(I couldn't find any good caps of Djaq from Robin Hood, but she came to mind as well.)
~~~
* Women who preferred boys'/men's clothes, but probably also found them expedient for moving through society in a way they wouldn't have been able to in dresses.
In The Journey of Natty Gann, Natty smoked in the boys' room and took off cross country on her own.
In Fried Green Tomatoes, little Idgie Threadgoode was not happy with her lacy dress. She finally settled for an outfit of her brother's, then changed into her own clothes again.
Grown-up Idgie still preferred mannish. As time went on she appeared to have started brushing her hair and she wore more tailored waists. Of course, in the follies, she participated in a performance with a long tradition of sanctioned cross-dressing.
~~~
* Women with style preferences.
What I wish I had here was a screencap of Willow Rosenberg in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hell's Bells," wearing a tuxedo.
Can't leave out the infamous Annie Hall, though some might say this isn't the fashion of a fictional character, since apparently it was all Diane Keaton's doing.
In Doctor Who's Destiny of the Daleks, I like to think of this as Romana proving to the Doctor that he really is not satisfied with anything but himself. In that episode, Romana ended up in a replica of the Doctor's outfit... but pink. Very cute.
In Doctor Who's Ghostlight, an episode with a theme of metamorphosis, Ace (who came of age in the 1980s) chose a tuxedo over a frilly dress when she had to dress for a Victorian dinner. And she convinced the young lady of the house to join her.
Doctor: That's no way for a Victorian la- gentleman to behave.
Ace: I'm no gentleman!
Relatedly, this vid was recced on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
halfamoon last year, and I still love it: I'm Your Man: A Celebration of Media Cliches by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
charmax
ETA: In comments
harriet_spy shares Irene Adler from Sherlock Holmes
serendipityxxi shares Djaq and Marian from Robin Hood (2006)
innervoice_chan shares Alanna from Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness Quartet of books, as well as Buran from Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy
tardis_stowaway shares Viola from Twelfth Night
For this post, I've divided the cross-dressing ladies into three categories:
* Women who had to dress like men in order to accomplish what they wanted in their time and culture. In a perfect world, male disguises wouldn't have been necessary, but these women took the opportunities they had and were brilliant. I think they may have enjoyed themselves as well.
In Return of the King, Eowyn went to battle in disguise.
Mulan went the extra mile and cut off her hair so she could dress as a warrior.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, Elizabeth Swann... what can I say? She owns that outfit.
(I couldn't find any good caps of Djaq from Robin Hood, but she came to mind as well.)
* Women who preferred boys'/men's clothes, but probably also found them expedient for moving through society in a way they wouldn't have been able to in dresses.
In The Journey of Natty Gann, Natty smoked in the boys' room and took off cross country on her own.
In Fried Green Tomatoes, little Idgie Threadgoode was not happy with her lacy dress. She finally settled for an outfit of her brother's, then changed into her own clothes again.
Grown-up Idgie still preferred mannish. As time went on she appeared to have started brushing her hair and she wore more tailored waists. Of course, in the follies, she participated in a performance with a long tradition of sanctioned cross-dressing.
* Women with style preferences.
What I wish I had here was a screencap of Willow Rosenberg in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hell's Bells," wearing a tuxedo.
"I'm supposed to be best man. Shouldn't I be all... Marlene Dietrich?"Alas, she ended up wearing a typically ugly bridesmaid dress. But here's Marlene in Morocco.
Can't leave out the infamous Annie Hall, though some might say this isn't the fashion of a fictional character, since apparently it was all Diane Keaton's doing.
In Doctor Who's Destiny of the Daleks, I like to think of this as Romana proving to the Doctor that he really is not satisfied with anything but himself. In that episode, Romana ended up in a replica of the Doctor's outfit... but pink. Very cute.
In Doctor Who's Ghostlight, an episode with a theme of metamorphosis, Ace (who came of age in the 1980s) chose a tuxedo over a frilly dress when she had to dress for a Victorian dinner. And she convinced the young lady of the house to join her.
Doctor: That's no way for a Victorian la- gentleman to behave.
Ace: I'm no gentleman!
Relatedly, this vid was recced on
halfamoon last year, and I still love it: I'm Your Man: A Celebration of Media Cliches by charmaxETA: In comments
harriet_spy shares Irene Adler from Sherlock Holmesserendipityxxi shares Djaq and Marian from Robin Hood (2006)innervoice_chan shares Alanna from Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness Quartet of books, as well as Buran from Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoytardis_stowaway shares Viola from Twelfth Night
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 05:01 pm (UTC)Looks as good in this:
as in this:
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Date: 2010-02-04 05:06 pm (UTC)(Off topic, but is that a *camel* behind her on the right?)
There's no way I could make an exhaustive list for picspam purposes, so I just had to go with the few I had access to, but I hope people will keep adding examples like this!
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Date: 2010-02-04 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-02-04 05:17 pm (UTC)Thank you!
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Date: 2010-02-04 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-02-04 06:44 pm (UTC)(Love your icon. *g*)
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Date: 2010-02-04 08:21 pm (UTC)Thank you for sharing!
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Date: 2010-02-04 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-04 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-05 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-05 12:15 am (UTC)Here's Djaq from BBC's Robin Hood she starts off the show dressed as a boy and even after she gets found out she still keeps the outfits.
Except for a time or two.
What I love about Djaq is that she's brilliant and not afraid to show it. She's not ashamed of being a girl but recognizes it's easier to get along if you're a man in the world they inhabit.
And then there's the Lady Marian who in this series dresses up as The Nightwatchman a vigilante who goes out and delivers charity to the poor and defies the evil sherriff's rules and shoots arrows and engages in hand to hand combat with the guards and does tai chi 200 years before it was invented and kicks so much butt you can't even keep track of it!
As the Lady Marian she works hard to create change within the system, and is quite subtle and has a brilliant head for politics.
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Date: 2010-02-05 12:35 am (UTC)(I'm editing the post to link to this as well.)
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Date: 2010-02-05 03:18 am (UTC)I especially liked your three-category classification. I'm a fan of a lot of female crossdressing characters, and I've kind of been poking at them in my mind trying to figure out how to articulate the differences in the reasons they have for doing what they do, and you did it SO WELL. I'm really in awe of how much neater and easier your categories made it to think about them. ♥ In particular, I would never have thought of the second category, in which the male clothes are a mix of necessity and choice.
Thanks also for the link to that vid, I had watched it before but never saved the link.
Since you said you hope more people will add their examples...no list of crossdressers would be complete without Alanna, from the Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce! ♥
My childhood heroine! And people wondered why I joined the ROTC. XD
Her crossdressing is first-category with a touch of the second--at first it's absolutely necessary, in order to become a knight like she wants to. Then it's a mix of necessity and convenience, as she's traveling in men's clothes but without actively attempting to hide her sex. But in Lioness Rampant she makes it a choice as well, when she attends a coronation in (very nice) men's clothes, with earrings for a touch of femininity. ♥
And speaking of female crossdressers in books, more people should know about this awesome book: Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy.
Buran, unlike many crossdressers who are warriors, is instead the tricksiest merchant you ever did see. She plays chess with a prince! She cons the hell out of her cousins! She saves her family!
Buran was another of my childhood favorites; I don't even know how many times I borrowed this book from the school library.
And last (this is getting long, oops!), a preview for a pimping post that I'm preparing:
Tominaga Sei a.k.a. Kamiya Seizaburo, from Kaze Hikaru.
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Date: 2010-02-05 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-06 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-06 02:03 am (UTC)* expedient for protection or getting equal treatment and opportunities
* fashion choice, subverting the expectation that a woman dress in a standard "feminine" way
* simple personal preference. It might just look and feel *good*
Which somehow wasn't as clear cut, I think the second and third blended together too much and the first two not enough.
Thank you for talking about the book characters! (I'll add them to the list above) I don't know why I didn't know about the Lioness Quartet when I was younger -- I would have devoured them! I'll have to remedy the situation now. :)
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Date: 2010-02-05 07:41 am (UTC)(Poster because I could not quickly locate a decent screenshot of any of my favorite scenes.)
She's smart, capable, sexy, AND sparking with chemistry with both Orsino and Olivia!
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