Cross Dressing Essay

Although there weren’t always terms for the acts, cross-dressing and homosexuality have existed since man has. Although they have both taken place for thousands of years, there is very rare documentation of the participants—particularly after the rise of Christianity and the condemnation of any of these marginalized groups of people. The American western frontier was no different—men and women continued to participate in cross-dressing and had relations with those of the same sex. However what is particularly interesting about this time and place is how men and women utilized their resources to deceive their communities and benefit from these largely taboo—particularly at the time—performances. The environment in the west was vastly diverse in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s and to the few documented cases that exist today better depict the reactions of different mining towns, reservations or frontiers.
Although both identities were rare during the 19th and 20th century—and even more rarely out in the open—cross-dressing has been better documented over the time period than homosexuality. There were many motivations behind why men and women would choose to dress as the opposite sex. Men more commonly are recorded for dressing as women for entertainment purposes because in mining towns there was a particularly skewed man to woman ratio. For parties and dances men would take turns dancing the role of male or female:
The absence of ladies was a difficulty which was very easily overcome, by a simple arrangement whereby it was understood that every gentleman who had a patch on a certain part of his inexpressibles should be considered a lady for the time being. These patches were rather fashionable, and were usually large squares of canv...

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...pression. This social hindrance continues to modern day in a depiction of learned values and discriminatory beliefs. The American west is considered a dangerous terrain with even harsher social conditions for anyone unwilling to conform to the inherent beliefs of patriarchal superiority and the insistent fear of people pushing the societal boundaries. However, because of the transformative occurrence of those willing to work outside of their comfort zone as well as the increase in behaviors considered unmentionable, a substantial transition arises in order to shake the binds presented by a close-minded society to allow a shift in who can work and how they are allowed to appear. Eastern values began to be rewritten in order to form a new progressive era in Anglo-American belief, but not without challenging the practices of Native Americans and marginalized citizens.