Cross-Dressing Bibliography

Copyright © 2018 by James Leonard Park

     Cross-dressing refers to the practice of
men dressing as women and women dressing as men
—according to the appropriate patterns of clothing
as defined in the various cultures of the planet Earth.

    These books are arranged in a general order of quality,
beginning with the best.

    Other bibliographies of related phenomena are listed at the bottom.

    Comments in red are the opinions of this reviewer.

1. Vern L. Bullough & Bonnie Bullough

Cross Dressing, Sex, & Gender

(Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993)
(Library of Congress call number: HQ77.B785 1993)

    This is a comprehensive book on cross-dressing
from mythological times into the early 1990's.  
Every reason for cross-dressing is included:
1. transsexualism; 2. homosexuality; 3. heterosexual sex-scripts;
4. theater; 5. stage impersonation of the other sex;
6. lesbians who wanted to 'marry' other women;
7. women who wanted the advantages of living as men;
8. drag queen prostitutes.  

    Once the various reasons for dressing in the clothes of the other sex
are better understood and distinguished from one another,
greater clarity will emerge.  
For the present, this may be the best comprehensive book.
No general theory of cross-dressing is offered.
This book reports the history of cross-dressing.

2. Holly Devor 

Gender Blending:
Confronting the Limits of Duality

(Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 1989)     178 pages

     This book explores the experience of 15 women
who often passed as men.
11 of them were lesbians; 3 considered sex-change operations;
and one lived as a man for 3 years.
Some discovered by accident that they could pass for men.
Others decided to cross-dress and behave like men
because it suited their self-concepts and their life-styles.
Most of them reported being "one of the boys" when they were children.
And when it came time to dress and act like girls, they rebelled.
Mostly they had no philosophy of gender blending or cross-dressing.
They were just more comfortable dressing and behaving like men.
When some of them tried to look and behave like women
—wearing women's clothes, make-up, hair-styles, etc.,
they were still not believed.
Other people often thought they were men dressed like women
or that they were male-to-female transsexuals.
And some of the subjects said that when they dressed like women,
they felt that they were "in drag".

     As a study of the reasons or causes behind passing as men,
this study is flawed primarily because it mixes
lesbians and transsexuals in with a few heterosexual women.
There are probably many, complex reasons behind each story.
And it might have been better to have each story told separately
(rather than mixed indistinguishably together in each chapter)
so that readers could draw their own conclusions.
Nevertheless the book presents much raw data
for pondering the phenomenon
of people presenting themselves in public
as if they were the other sex.

3. Marjorie Garber 

Vested Interests:
Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety

(New York: Routledge, 1992)       443 pages
(ISBN: 0-415-90072-7; hardcover)
(Library of Congress call number: HQ77.G37 1991)

     A wide-ranging book on the public manifestations
of wearing the clothes and adopting the manners of the other sex,
especially as seen in the mass media—television, movies, magazines.
Cross-dressing for the following reasons:
entertainment in the theater and movies;
respect in the workplace;
to express the other-gender side of one's personality;
for personal sexual interest, arousal, & orgasm;
as an element of one's homosexual sex-script;
to 'pass' as the other sex;
transsexualism—because one believes one is 'really' the other sex;

     This book explores cross-dressing as a cultural phenomenon,
rather than a psychological phenomenon.


4. Richard Ekins & Dave King, editors

Blending Genders:
Social Aspects of Cross-Dressing and Sex-Changing

(London, UK: Routledge, 1996)       257 pages
(ISBN: 0-415-11551-5; hardcover)
(ISBN: 0-415-11552-3; paperback)
(Library of Congress call number: HQ77.9.E39 1996)

    A dozen (mostly) academics write about the various dimensions
of cross-dressing and changing sex.

    The writing suggests that these authors
are first concerned to explain their own unusual behavior.
They want to make sense of their cross-dressing for themselves.
So they present their personal explanations or mythologies first
—how they first understood their inclinations—
before they discovered public explanations that appealed to them.

    Several London periodicals of the early 1900s
published letters from men who told of dressing as girls in their youth.
This made it all seem quite normal to the readers.
And no medical or psychological help was ever mentioned.
Most of them went back to dressing as men when they became adult.

    In one chapter a man explains the whole process of changing
to living full-time as a women.

    Another chapter reviews the different levels and reasons
for wanting to dress as a woman. 

    Some chapters explore
the transsexual sub-culture of Sidney, Australia,
a cross-dressing club,
& London gatherings for cross-dressers.

    No insights are provided concerning the reasons
these men want to dress and act as if they were women.
Such gatherings and organizations do exist
for people (mostly men) who like to dress as woman.
And some are involved professionally in the sex-trade
or as cross-dressed entertainers.
These are supported by the patronage of men
who are attracted to men pretending to be women.

     The chapters were written mostly by insiders rather than observers.
So they could have told us their own psychological reasons
for wanting to dress and pretend that they are woman.

    In the men's clubs for transvestites,
they made no attempt to disguise their male voices
or hide their male interests.
They wanted to appear as women in the presence of others,
rather than when alone at home.

    And their wives generally tolerated these practices. 

    None of the authors questioned the basic affirmation
of the right to dress as one pleases
and to change sex at will. 
The writers seem to be writing from within
the transsexual and transvestite 'communities'.
So they have no interest in explaining their behavior.
Their assumed readers are expected to agree ahead of time.

    This book provides historical background
and contemporary illustrations
largely drawn from British experience,
about dressing as the other sex
and sometimes changing into the other sex. 


revised 5-1-2009; 9-26-2010; 10-1-2010; 5-27-2014; 5-3-2018;

Related Bibliographies

    This bibliography is related to several others in sexology.
Here is the complete list:

Sexology                                      B-SEXOLO

Sex-Script Hypothesis                 B-SEX-SC

Variations of Sex and Gender      B-V-SG

I. Intersex                                     B-CRIT

II. Transsexualism                        B-TS

Transsexual Autobiographies      B-TS-AB

III. Sex-Roles                                B-ROLE

IV. Gender-Personality                 B-GEND

V. Sexual Orientation                   B-ORNT

VI. Cross-Dressing                       B-TV


Return to the SEXOLOGY page.

Go to the Book Review Index
to discover 350 other reviews
organized into more than 60 bibliographies.

Go to the beginning of this website
James Leonard Park—Free Library