The Stigma of Cross-dressing vs.Drag Kings

http://www.glbtq.com/arts/drag_kings,2.html

As I was googling information about drag kings (Mind you this became a difficult task because most of the information was about drag queens) I came across this interesting article that came from the site I posted up above. After reading the article Drag Shows: Drag Kings and Male Impersonators I got a better understanding of the culture that follows drag kings, male impersonators, transgender, crossdressing and the butch/fem lesbian.

This article alone posed a lot of differnet idea's about the masculine culture of woman that our book doesn't  fully go over. But the one topic that really caught my eye discusses the risks of dressing like a man. Performing as a man for a show is one thing, but cross-dressing in everyday life is considered somethings completely different. As a drag king your job is to entertain the croud. So trying to pull of this masculine persona becomes accepted by the public because its just for the sole purpose of entertainment. After the performance is over the drag king is expected to go back to their gender appropriate clothing. I remember after the drag show was over for me I had trouble taking my male clothing off. In fact after performing in the drag show I went out in my drag clothing. I was lucky though because the people I was with were very accepting of this kind of culture. For many drag kings this is not the case. Many drag kings have reported the negative reponses they have gotten when they have gone out into the streets with their masculine costumes. Unfortunatly cross-dressing in regular day life is not widely accepted. "The horrific example of Brandon Teena, whose life and murder was depicted in Kimberly Peirce's film Boys Don't Cry (1999), is instructive as evidence that gender deception is still considered punishable." The second the costume becomes real and strays from the idea that it was just a performance is when the public cannot handle it. Suddenly this person's identity becomes ambiguous and I think thats what society becomes scared off. They want the control of understanding and catagorizing a person's gender by appearance, but when a person cross-dresses that aspect is taken away from us. So instead of trying to understand this way of life we they lash out at it. We understand and are open to drag kings because we know the drag king's gender is a woman when they perform. But when a woman cross-dresses on the street we don't know their gender from first glance so we become aggravated with the idea that we have been decieved.

To be honest I don't think I would have the courage at this point in my life to dress like a man in an everyday setting. There may be apart of me that really enjoys dressing like a man, but I feel like the pressure society puts on woman to dress a certain way is the reason why I would never attempt it.