Movie Transvestism

Term Paper # 99666

Film > Analysis, Criticism, Etc.
Gender and Sexuality > Gender Studies
Gender and Sexuality > Sexual Politics

Movie Transvestism

An analysis of cinema's representation of transvestism in films.

3,069 words () | 16 sources | APA | 2007 Australia

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses cinema's representation of transvestism in films such as, "All About My Mother", "Ma Vie en Rose" and "Tootsie", to name just a few. Moreover, the expected reaction of audiences to, predominantly, men dressed as women, is explored. Furthermore, the reasons for cross-dressing within society is evaluated. Also, to critique these films in a scholarly manner, academics such as Yvonne Tasker, Richard Dyer and Stella Bruzzi are consulted and cited to strengthen and support this paper. Importantly, the reinforcement of gender codes and gender identity, through a persons clothing, is discussed and examined.

From the Paper:

"Bruzzi (1997 P.147) defines cross-dressing as, "The questioning and blurring of gender identities that occurs when characters do not wear the clothes deemed socially appropriate to their sex" while Stoller argues that "Transvestism should only refer to fetishistic cross-dressing and 'drag' is exclusively applied to cross-dressing as theatrical performance" (1985 P.176). In the mainstream cross-dressing comedy, the male dresses as a woman to generate comic effect based on the ridicule, whereas in the French film Ma Vie en Rose (Berliner; 1997), the implications of a little boy thinking he is a girl is explored, while All About My Mother provides us with a more accurate representation of the world of transvestites and transsexuals."

Sample of Sources Used:

Ackroyd, Peter. (1979) Dressing Up, Transvestism and Drag: The History of an Obsession. London: Thames and Hudson.
All About My Mother. (1999). By Pedro Almodovar.
Bolin, Anne. (1988). In Search of Eve: Transsexual Rites of Passage, in Lorber, Judith (1994). Paradoxes of Gender. Yale: Yale University Press.
Bruzzi, Stella. (1997). Undressing Cinema: Clothing and Identity in the Movies. London: Routledge.
Dyer, Richard. (1993). The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation. London: Routledge.