halfamoon | Cross-dressing women

Femininity 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.)

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* 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.

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* 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

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