[Sca-cooks] trans-gender clothing

[Laura C. Minnick]

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Well, through most cultures and times we study, trans-gender
> clothing for either sex was looked down upon. There appear to have
> been a bunch more women who dressed as men than vice-versa though.
> There were probably a number of economic and cultural reasons for
> this, but the main one was that throughout period women generally
> had a second class status and trading up made a lot more sense
> than trading down.

Yes, this is generally the case. In fact, men dressing as women was
usually seen as almost sinister, and teh man was hiding for some
nefarious purpose.

There is a very interesting 13th c French romance called _Silence_
(which is even in translation, by Sarah Roche-Mahdi) that addresses
these issues. Silence is a girl raised as a boy because of inheritance
laws- and grows up to be a highly esteemed knight, known far and wide
for 'his' prowess. At teh end of the tale, due to a sort of 'Potiphar's
wife' scenario, Silence is unmasked as a female, and one of the queen's
'ladies' is unmasked as a male. The issues of identity and voice are
very important in the text, and clothing as social identity is central.

There is also a romance from around the same time where the hero/heroine
(I forget which) is found out because of their table manners and the way
they ate their food. But I can't remember the title...

'Lainie