More than Just Playing Dress-up

By Troy Justin G. Go

Have you ever experienced a situation wherein you didnt even have to give a second
thought on people who wear short skirts, tank tops, jewelries and make-up? We usually attribute
these things to the other halves of men women. In contrary with that belief, we often if not
always still give these people the big question mark because todays world is far different from
yesterdays. The civilization of men entailed the formation of further complexities in the human
mind which is why it is quite inevitable for us today to avoid asking questions such as Is that
one a he or a she?
A heated issue in todays society is the existence of the third gender. In most parts of the
world, gender is traditionally represented as male or female which is why it is usually seen as a
binary concept. Even if gender is restricted to basic biology, its view as a binary concept still
fails to encompass the rich variation that exists. Hence, it is believed that gender should be
represented as a spectrum of anatomical variations and the question of gender comes down to
where within the spectrum do you belong.
An evident reason behind the existence of the third gender that we can infer is role
confusion. Gender roles are the cultures expectations for behavior of a person who is perceived
as male or female, including attitudes, actions, and personality traits associated with a particular
gender within that culture. These expectations are also one of the reasons why gender stereotypes
prevail in the society (Ciccarelli, 2015).
A stereotype is a concept that can be a held about a person or group of people that is
based on very superficial characteristics. A gender stereotype is a concept about males or females
that assigns various characteristics to them on the basis of nothing more than male or female.
Actions that are generally believed to be associated with female characteristics should only be
possessed by females. Thus, males who act and show signs that can be attributed to actions or
characteristics of females are treated differently and labeled as homosexuals. This is one view
that the lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and queers (LGBTQ) communities aim to abolish
in the society (Lemer & Steinberg, 2009).
If this situation was true, then how does gender develop in an individual? In the early
1980s, Sandra Bem proposed the gender schema theory which emphasizes the development of
gender in an individual. The theory states that individuals, particularly children, learn to
distinguish a male from a female or vice versa from the culture in which they live. The gender
schema theory suggests that culture instills a huge influence in the gender development of an
individual. During childhood, individuals learn to identify genders through association. Hence,
cultural influences particularly societys belief on what constitutes male traits and female
traits affect the childrens identification of genders. They tend to associate genders with
masculinity and femininity based on their culture.
Ever since we were children, we knew that when we go to toy stores boys buy action
figures while girls buy dolls. Superpowers which symbolize strength is usually associated with
masculinity. Meanwhile, dolls and dresses represent femininity. Come and think of it, we always
knew even with our eyes closed which object represents which gender. Going back to the
question earlier, have you ever experienced a situation wherein you didnt even have to give a
second thought on people who wear short skirts, tank tops, jewelries and make-up?
Unfortunately, in our day and age today, we cant distinguish people through objects anymore
because the trend of cross-dressing is becoming more prominent.
According to Stryker & Whittle (2016), transvestism has become the accepted term for
the desire of a certain group of people to dress in the clothes of the opposite sex. The term, first
used by Magnus Hirschfield (1) has the disadvantage that it names a disturbance of behavior and
emotion after only one of its symptoms, although the most conspicuous one. This symptom,
which is also known as cross-dressing is the symbolic fulfillment of a deep-seated and more or
less intense urge suggesting disharmony of the total sexual sense, a sexual indecision of a
disassociation of the physical and mental sexuality.
Naturally not every act of cross-dressing is transvestitic. Only if it occurs in an
atmosphere of emotional pressure, sometimes to the point of compulsion and is accompanied by
a more or less distinct sexual satisfaction can the term be applied. Otherwise it would be simple
masquerading of a non-affective nature.
Transvestism can be a form of fetishism. If a man for instance wears under his suit a
female corset, or panties or long stockings, he may just want to be close to his beloved fetish. In
other cases, however, such action may be a compromise for the transvestite because it might
entail social, sometimes, marital, complications or it may involve legal risks to dress completely
as a woman and appear as such in public. Another compromise is dressing as a woman only in
the privacy of the home. Both ways leave transvestites, and especially transsexualists, greatly
frustrated and unhappy.
The burden of compromising transvestites carry explains their desire to belong in the
society. The community views these acts of cross-dressing as unethical. As a result, they are
discriminated for their beliefs and principles. At the end of the day, transvestites compromise to
blend in with what is considered ordinary and normal in the society. The transvestite wants to be
accepted in society as a member of the opposite sex; he or she wants to play the role as
completely and as successfully as possible.
Transvestism is commonly mistaken with transsexualism. It is a different problem and a
much greater one. It indicates more than just playing a role. It denotes intense and often
obsessive desire to change the entire sexual status including the anatomical structure. While the
male transvestite, enacts the role of a woman, the transexualist wants to be one and function as
one, wishing to assume as many of her characteristics as possible, physical mental and sexual.
It can be said that a transsexualist is always a transvestite but not vice-versa. In fact, most
transvestites would be horrified at the idea of being operated. The transsexualist, on the other
hand, only lives for the day when his hated sex organs can be removed, organs which to him are
nothing but a dreadful deformity. Therefore, the transexualist always seeks medical aid while the
transvestite as a rule merely asks to be left alone.
A major difference between transsexualism and transvestism is: In transvestism, the sex
organ are sources of pleasure, in transsexualism they are sources of disgust. Homosexual
inclinations always exist in the transsexualist whether they result in actual physical contacts or
not. On the other hand, transvestites are in the majority homosexual, although their principal
sexual outlet seems to be auto-erotic. The only relation of transvestitic behavior and homosexual
behavior that one can infer is both are disturbances of the sexual unity of the individual, both
constitute a split of soma and psyche in the field of sex, both are instinctive drives, quite beyond
the individuals power to control or to change, no matter what the underlying cause may be.
It is quite important that members of the society distinguish a transvestite from a
transsexual. Transvestism does not necessarily imply an individual to possess a homosexual
behavior. It is only a tendency of an individual to compensate for his fetishes to seek pleasure.
The community neglects these acts because they consider it as homosexual in nature when in
fact, majority of transvestites belong in the heterosexual. This concept of transvestism should not
be confused with transsexual which implies a homosexual behavior in an individual.
There are speculations regarding the root cause of transvestism and transsexualism. It is
believed that these cases have an exclusively organic etiology. They consider transvestism in all
its stages (as well as homosexuality) a form of intersexuality, an intermediate sex of genetic or
endocrine origin.
An organic explanation of intersexual phenomena would have to be looked for either in
the genetic mechanism or in the endocrine constitution or in a combination of both. Organically,
sex is always a mixture of male and female components. The ratio varies with the individual,
determining the constitutional makeup, physical and mental. Between the full-female and the
full-male, constituting two extremes on either side, there is every possible intermediate status.
The chromosomal sex, or genetic sex, normally producing the homogametic female (XX
chromosomes) or the heterogametic male (XY chromosomes) is subject to disturbances most
strikingly evidenced by hermaphroditic and pseudo-hermaphoditic deformities. Investigations
into the chromosomal sex have shown that it is probably contained in the nuclear structure of all
body cells.
On the other hand, there is the strictly psychoanalytic explanation which traces all such
deviations to psychological conditioning, infantile traumata, childhood fixations, or an arrested
emotional development.
It is important to consider the role of environment in an individuals involvement in
trasnvestism. There are many situations in early childhood that can be held responsible for the
development of a sexual deviation. It is quite possible that the individual at a young age has
experienced conditioning, finxations and the likes that made him indulge in transvestitic
behavior.
At the end of the day, the question remains: Is it more than just playing dress-up? The
answer to that question can be absolutely summarized in a word yes. In fact, it is a more
complex concept than what we think it would be. Cross-dressing does not come out of the desire
to be the opposite sex, rather it is the desire to seek pleasure in these kinds of objects. Individuals
who indulge in transvestism seek to satisfy his sexual fetishes. It does not necessarily imply a
homosexual nature in an individual. In addition, there are many reasons why these tendencies
prevail in an individual. With every transvestitic behavior, different reasons arise varying with
each case of transvestism.