klasyki: History of cross-dressing

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Cross-dressing, the act of wearing the clothes of the sex or gender one does not identify with, has been recorded throughout history.

Evidence: 68 • authority: 72

Cross-dressing means wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender, such as men wearing women's clothes, or women wearing men's clothes. It is a form of dress or presentation rather than any particular gender identity, sexual orientation, or motivation, and has appeared in many societies across history for reasons including disguise, comfort, self-expression, ritual, and performance. Cross-dressing is not the same as being transgender, though older writings often used broader and less precise terminology that grouped different experiences together. The term and its related vocabulary have changed over time. In modern usage, cross-dressing is generally p…

Evidence: 39 • authority: 80

Clothing Sex, Sexing Clothes: Transvestism, Material Culture and the Sex and Gender Debate

Evidence: 39 • authority: 72

Accounts of transgender people (including non-binary and third gender people) have been identified from cultures worldwide as early as 1200 BCE in Egypt. Opinions vary on how to categorize historical accounts of gender-variant people and identities, with historiographers cautioning against inappropriately imposing modern concepts on historical incidents and phenomena. The galli, eunuch priests of classical antiquity, have been interpreted by some scholars as transgender or third-gender. The trans-feminine kathoey and hijra gender roles have persisted for thousands of years in Thailand and the Indian subcontinent, respectively. In Arabia, khanith (like earlier mukhannathun) have occupied a t…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Gender expression or gender presentation is a person's behavior, mannerisms, and appearance that are socially associated with gender, namely femininity or masculinity. Gender expression can also be defined as the external manifestation of one's gender identity through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice, or body characteristics. Typically, a person's gender expression is thought of in terms of masculinity and femininity, but an individual's gender expression may incorporate both feminine and masculine traits, or neither. A person's gender expression may or may not match their assigned sex at birth. This includes gender roles, and accordingly relies on cultural stereotypes about gender. It…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Agender is a gender identity where an individual has no gender and does not necessarily follow gender roles. It can also be known as genderless, gender-free, non-gendered, or ungendered. Agender represents a variety of identities that differ from conventional gender norms. Identities that fall under the agender label include demiagender and gendervoid, among others. The A in LGBTQIA+ stands for agender, alongside asexual and aromantic. The identity of agender people, like other queer identities, are not universally accepted, and agender people can face discrimination. The first person to be legally recognized as agender was recognized in Oregon in 2017. In 2025, Gender Census, a global surv…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The word cisgender (often shortened to cis; sometimes cissexual) describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth (i.e., someone who is not transgender). The prefix cis- is Latin and means on this side of. The term cisgender was coined in 1994 as an antonym to transgender, and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse about gender. Related concepts are cisnormativity (the presumption that cisgender identity is preferred or normal) and cissexism (bias or prejudice favoring cisgender people).

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Non-binary (also written as nonbinary) or genderqueer gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gender that is different from the sex assigned to them at birth, although some non-binary people do not consider themselves transgender. Non-binary people may identify as an intermediate or separate third gender, identify with more than one gender or no gender, or have a fluctuating gender identity. Gender identity is separate from sexual or romantic orientation; non-binary people have various sexual orientations. Non-binary people as a group vary in…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Cross-dressing in music and opera refers to musical performers or opera singers portraying a character of the opposite gender. It is parallel to cross-dressing in film and television and draws on a long history of cross-gender acting.