2.1 History of Transvestism
The phenomena of “Transvestism” have its origin from the publication of a German physician in 1910 of Die Transvestiten (The Transvestites). The concept was formerly used to refer cross-dressing that was linked with heterosexual behaviour and was defined in terms of deriving sexual pleasure. However, in the twentieth century the phenomenon was linked with a mental condition called transvestic disorder used for sexual excitement. Additionally, it was also mistaken for homosexuality for people who were heterosexual, or homosexual, asexual, or bisexual. Similar to this cross-dressing has been linked with religious aspects as well. In the early Christian Churches, Females began to live within cross-dressing like males
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The same trend was focused by WGSN11 in their report. The new notion of “gender-bender” illustrates the progress of fashion designers being highly dependent on the contemporary style statements and bigwigs of fashion industry as a testimony of Transvestism. The collection of Balenciaga‟s Nicholas Ghesquiere, Proenza Schouler, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, and Jean Paul Gaultier shows a strong driving trend towards Transvestism. This change in fashion and inclusion of cross-dressing would in future be read as socially …show more content…
With high-rise in the sub-cultural fashions and with the diffusion of Carnaby Street fashion trends around the globe, it was started to be acceptable for males to be dress in such a way and be interested in fashion. A former physique photographer initially sold Carnaby Street fashions to a gay “theatrical and artistic” clientele by the name of Vince from a shop near Carnaby Street. Similarly, John Stephen who is now known to be the King of Carnaby Street worked to produce clothes rapidly and for younger market who bought such clothes. Such clothes were also sold in Greenwich Village, New York, and West Hollywood in Los Angeles considering it to be a constricted European style.
The body image and representation is highly imperative for comprehending the fashion world. This area of research is not only necessary but also momentous and can be described as an innovative discussion. It has been observed that the complexity of interplay between the self and others’ perception and understanding of image and representation is highly imperative yet closely associated with media. A prevailing presentation is the chief method to gather appreciation of the aesthetic illustration portrayed. Media however, in this sense plays a crucial role in shaping the minds and rules of societies (Gregory,
In Susan Bordo’s article, “Beatuy (Re)Discovers the Male Body”, she wittingly posits the industry of male modeling seen through advertisements as well as consumerism and the male body. According to Bordo, she starts off pointing out that the male body is not seen equivalent to the female body. For example, she states that the male body is a “commercial representation” (168) while the female body is “an object of mainstream consumption” (168). The Calvin Klein underwear ad, being Bordo’s first sight of an ad with a male body, points out the difference in how he is posed. Bordo views the model offering himself away to the gaze of another (170), which is usually different from the norm of how guys are portrayed.
She/he carried her/himself as a female by using hormones, make up, and clothing which are commonly associated as garb that females would wear. Therefore, he/she was identified as a female until she/he had to perform as a male. What people would associate him/her as was what they have known or seen him/her perform as, as well as the influence of the community around him/her. Because of that, problems were caused throughout the work because of the different ideas everyone had about gender and gender
Raul Corniner a graduate student presented on gay dress and sexual identity in the Twentieth Century. During most of the twentieth century being gay was not something that was accepted by the majority leaving these people limited ways to express their sexual identity. Because being gay wasn’t accepted these people adapted sartorial codes among each other in order to communicate their sexual identity to each other through dress. In the early twentieth century sartorial codes were not used as a demonstration of gay pride but were secret codes that were mainly only understood by the gay community. Moving towards the later part of the twentieth century these sartorial codes became less of a secret and changed into deliberate expressions of ones sexual availability and orientation.
Counterculture Couture: A Semiotic Analysis of Hot Topic In this day in age, many teenagers and young adults do not want to fit in. They want to find a way to express their individuality and differences, and one of the most common ways to express yourself is through clothing.
Not Just a Bowl Beauty is one of the main foci in society today where selfies, beauty enhancement or plastic surgery, celebrities, and the media reign over society—constantly defining what people should aim for in terms of appearance. Appearances are everything to many people rather than inner beauty such as character and values. In turn, this beauty-obsessed world has led to people becoming more shallow, superficial, and unaccepting towards anything besides the “norm.” It is quite ironic to have a “norm” considering how each individual is different and live in different cultures and such. People are not meant to be or look the same neither should they adhere to a certain standard in which someone else has established.
The very act of cross-dressing itself was subversive, especially in Spain where costume was hugely important, not just on stage but in real life. Literary critic William Egginton notes in An Epistemology of the Stage, that when it came to costume the "Spanish public was extremely sensitive to such signifiers of class and could not, for example, tolerate or comprehend a scene in which the signs of social status presented by costume and speech would conflict". (402) With the audience so sensitive to costume details, what must they have thought about Rosaura 's male attire? Women dressing as men was a common device used by playwrights in the Golden Age (mujer vestida de hombre ) and one wonders was it merely because it was practical?
In fact, all three of these cultures “have a long history of cross dressing that can be seen in their folklore, literature, theatre and music” (Jordan, 2017). The popularity of American drag rose nearing the 1920’s when queens like Julian Eltinge adorned fashionable garments and eccentric outfit changes for the purpose of female impersonation entertainment (Horwitz, 1998). Leading into the 21st century, drag was incredibly popular, from being on public television, to live shows in arenas, and social media accounts. A large argument that is presented is that all drag performers are gay, and this does not align with many American Christian values, but this is simply inaccurate and misunderstood. There are many straight male and female performers that specialize in drag makeup and fashion.
Globalization helps in invasion of minds and thoughts this revolution leads to share, that non-western countries are less effective to create and produce a new style and collections. It is important to note that European fashion is interesting to have introduced in non-western countries to learn from its historic. Mrs. Angela Jansen and Mrs. Jenifer Craik are critical thinkers of modern fashion traditions. They presented an overview about Euro and ethnocentricity in fashion discourse. The revolution of modern fashion tradition has its aims to show the important contribution of non-western fashion in historical and socio-cultural development of the world.
The word fashion design, the fabrication of fashionable clothes, originated from Paris, France. Paris was known to influence fashion and it also had names like fashion capital, fashion became more influential in the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Jen Viegas claims that individuals first wore clothing about 170,000 years ago after the “second-to-last ice age.” Scientific researchers performed on lice’s DNA because of the relation between clothes and lice. The first, fashion designed piece was a dress, History of Fashion states that the royal court was the original inspiration for the expansion of the dress, the royal court would often get their pieces made anonymously.
Indian mythology has several such stories of transgender and alternate
It’s the growing racial diversity, sexual diversity crowdsourcing, the celebration of the human body and imperfections. Democracy, being, of course, since a long time a topical and relevant question, now, if its possible to say that is very “in trend”. The reason for this, as it seems to me lies in the growing political pressure and tension and the global problems concerning the opression of the human rights. So fashion, as a form of art, inevitabely reflects the situation in the world, sometimes in rebellious ways. The other reason is possibly the urge to avoid all the fashion cliches, as fashion industry for the years was seen as a closed one and reserved for the chosen ones.
She further suggests that there is a tendency to look beyond cross-dressing or ‘transvestism’ as it challenges the binary of ‘female and ‘male’. Garber is careful not to call it the ‘third sex’; instead she classifies it as ‘third’ which puts into question “identities previously conceived as stable, unchallengeable, grounded and known” (Garber 13). Keeping this in mind it is also important to answer certain questions regarding the cross-dressing motif. Questions such as does the use of cross-dressing motif point towards an interest in the historical practices or does it bring out the contemporary debate around gender? Secondly, what is accomplished by using this motif: - blurring of the gender differences or the heightening of the same?
Fashion never remains the same and with the advancements in technology fashion has become even more wavering. Fashion is highly influenced from the social, technological and economical changes. A series of events that replace current societal patterns with the
As quoted in Coco Chanel: a woman of her own (Axel Madsen, p124), ‘’ fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. ’’ (Refer to appendix 1) Fashion is everywhere nowadays and is having more and more impact in our daily life. Fashion existed in different forms.
In spite of being originated in the 17th century Baroque fashion has made a very strong comeback in the fashion realm. The Baroque period was all about exuberance drama and grandeur According to Cogsworth, ‘If it 's not Baroque, don 't fix it!’ (The Beauty and the Beast, 1991). The fashion industry seems to be inspired by the baroque fashion and this can be clearly seen in either the silhouettes of the garments or the bold and glorious prints. Fall/winter runway collection 2012of designers like Dolce and Gabbana and Balmain are a celebration of Italian spirituality and grandeur (Davidson, 2012).