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Degree

BA, Oberlin College Honors Theses, History, 2010.

Abstract

Between 1850 and 1880, Americans obsessed over cross-dressing women. Many women donned the breeches: ruined young daughters of respectable families, honest but poor girls looking for a living, and unseemly women who wished either to explore public places or prostitute themselves. This huge variation in station and intention of cross-dressing women allows an exploration of Victorian identity markers �“ not just gender, but also race, class, and respectability. Many of these young ladies were described as Romantic adventurers �“ they had heroic and beautiful, but often ultimately tragic, experiences. By studying the social reaction to these individuals, we discover that cross-dressing, paradoxically, was not always socially threatening. Instead the level of acceptance was related to the degree of conformity to both gender and other forms of social status markers.

Subject Headings

Gender; History

Keywords

cross dressing; Civil War; 19th Century; Bloomers; Gender; power

Committee / Advisors

Gary Kornblith (Advisor)
Pablo Mitchell (Committee Member)
Kirk Ormand (Committee Member)

Pages

82p.

Document number: oberlin1273686010
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1273686010

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