In the diverse world of current fashion, it's become commonplace for men to incorporate women's fashion items into their wardrobe and for women to enjoy wearing menswear-styled coordinates. Reflecting today's societal changes, fashion brands too have started adopting non-gender-specific designs.
Historically, the act of wearing clothes of the opposite sex was viewed as peculiar and was closely related to gender norms of the time, but there have always been people who cross-dressed, and the reasons for this are beginning to be elucidated through research.
So, how did gender differences in clothing originate in the first place? What motivations do people have for cross-dressing, and how is it related to the genderless fashion trends of recent years?
In this feature, we spoke with Associate Professor Iho Niimi of Ochanomizu University, who specializes in Western fashion history, about the history of cross-dressing and the present state of genderless fashion.
PROFILE
Iho Niimi
Associate Professor at the Human and Sciences Department of the Faculty of Core Research Humanities Division at Ochanomizu University.
Her specialization is Western fashion history and fashion culture studies.
Primary works include her book "社会表象としての服飾―近代フランスにおける異性装の研究―"(Toshindo, 2010), the coauthored work "フランス・モード史への招待" (Yushokan, 2016), and edited work "歴史のなかの異性装" (Benseisha Publishing, 2017).
First, could you please tell us about your research, Professor Niimi?
I've been studying gender differences in fashion. You could perhaps call it a gender study using clothing as a case study. Specifically, I am investigating how gender norms, customary dress codes, and ideal body images were constructed in 19th-century France, considered the birthplace of the fashion industry.During my student years, I was particularly intrigued by the question, "Why do women dress as men?" and began researching cross-dressing by women. The large impact on the use of the term "cross-dressing" is from the "岩波女性学事典" (2002, Iwanami Shoten). In this encyclopedia, cross-dressing is defined as "an act or condition of changing one's outward appearance to that of a different gender, even though the physical sex and gender identity are in alignment." However, this definition does not consider incongruence between physical sex and gender identity, and needs to be used with caution.
With that in mind, research on cross-dressing falls into a few categories. The earliest research consisted of case studies by doctors, where instances of cross-dressing were collected. Cross-dressing was seen as sexual deviance, and research was conducted to understand its causes and consider treatment methods. Initially, cross-dressing was perceived as a peculiar occurrence.
The shift came with the rise of gender studies in the 1980s. Cross-dressing began to be viewed as a construct of society and culture, and considered within the context of popular culture.
However, in historical research on cross-dressing focusing on Europe, the abundant cases from the modern period have been widely studied. The main subjects have often been women posing as soldiers, commonly associated with patriotisms and often heroized.
Additionally, research on cross-dressing by women has largely been based on police and court records, leading to a tendency for proclaimed motivations for cross-dressing to be more readily garnered societal sympathy and acceptance. This posed an issue within research.
Unsatisfied with this approach, I wanted to study whether there were instances in everyday life where women cross-dressed, and if so, what was their reason? Rather than focusing on the personal histories of famous individuals who cross-dressed, I wanted to put cross-dressing in a historical context.
With these considerations, I started my research on women cross-dressing in everyday life using the man-dressing of 19th-century female author George Sand and Saint-Simonian women (pioneers of female activism) who wore trouser-like underwear at around the same time as George Sand, as examples.
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