Van personen die zich niet
met hun aangeboren geslacht identificeren, tegenwoordig aangeduid met
het begrip transgender aangeduid, komen we In
vroegmiddeleeuwse bronnen geen equivalent tegen, laat staan dat
gradaties als crossdressing of androgynie benoemd werden. Dat kunnen
we, als het meezit, slechts uit de context opmaken.
Many people have engaged
in
cross-dressing during wartime under various circumstances and for
various motives. This has been especially true of women, whether while
serving as a soldier in otherwise all-male armies, while protecting
themselves or disguising their identity in dangerous circumstances, or
for other purposes. Conversely, men would dress as women to avoid being
drafted, the mythological precedent for this being Achilles hiding at
the court of Lycomedes dressed as a girl to avoid participation in the
Trojan War.
In de vroeg-middeleeuwse tribale
samenleving werden mannen die zich vrouwelijk voelden en zich zo
manifesteerden, op een smadelijke wijze als ‘verwijfd’ bestempeld. Zij
ontmoetten over het algemeen veel meer afkeuring dan vrouwen die als
man door het leven gingen. Die werden weliswaar als onhandelbaar en
koppig beschouwd, maar uit Scandinavische teksten kunnen we afleiden
dat deze vrouwen, die ook wel manwijven genoemd werden, desondanks
maatschappelijk geaccepteerd waren. Onder kerkelijk regime kwam daar
verandering in en werden ook transmannen, degenen die als vrouw geboren
waren, maar zich met mannen identificeerden, als verdorven gehekeld.
In Engeland was
crossdressing noodzakelijk om vrouwenrollen te kunnen spelen in het
theater.
Crossdressing kwam in de theaterwereld
voor, waar mannen vrouwenrollen of vrouwen mannenrollen moesten spelen.During early
modern London,
religious authorities were against cross-dressing in theater due to it
disregarding social conduct and causing gender confusion. Later, during
the eighteenth century in London, crossdressing became a part of the
club culture. Crossdressing took a part in men’s only clubs where men
would meet at these clubs dressed as women and drink. One of the
most well known clubs for men to do this was known as the Molly Club or
Molly House.
By the end
of the 17th
century,
there was a completely developed gay subculture in London, with the
molly houses used
as clubs, where
gays met regularly to drink, dance
and have fun. These taverns are well known thanks to the Mother Clap's
molly house scandal from 1726, when a police raid discovered that her
molly house was a gay brothel.Frankrijk
Cross dressing also
became a more common strategy for women to conceal their gender as they
traveled, granting a safer and more efficient route. The practice of
crossdressing was present more so in literary works than in real life
situations despite its effective concealing propertiees.
In
de 18e eeuw is er volgens historici voor het eerst sprake van een
homoseksuele identiteit. Dat wil zeggen dat mensen zichzelf, hoewel in
andere bewoordingen, aanduiden als homoseksueel. Eerder waren er
natuurlijk ook homo’s, maar omdat homoseksualiteit in hun wereldbeeld
niet bestond, herkenden zij zichzelf niet als zodanig.
In de grote steden (Parijs, Londen) ontstond toen voor het eerst een
‘homosubcultuur’, met eigen gebruiken, ontmoetingsplaatsen, codes en
jargon. Zelfs de eerste ‘gaybar’ stamt uit deze tijd. Zo waren Het
Serpent in Amsterdam en De levendige Dood in Utrecht bekende
homokroegen uit de 18e eeuw.
Het ontstaan van een dergelijke subcultuur hangt samen met de opkomst
van verlichtingsidealen over gelijkheid en de scheiding van kerk en
staat. Bovendien werden mensen bewuster van hun identiteit en seksuele
gevoelens.
Aan het hof van Lodewijk XlV in Versailles was geen bal compleet zonder
crossdressers. De Saint-Simon, hertog
van Saint-Simon beschreef het leven aan het hof van Versailles en
iedereen die hij daar ontmoette met bijtende spot. Zijn beschrijvingen
zijn niet gespeend van venijnige overdrijvingen en getuigen van gebrek
aan respect. Afgezien daarvan droeg iedereen aan dit hof (de
Saint-Simon incluis...) hoge hakken, ringen, linten en andere
versierselen, en een pruik, en maskeerden vooral de heren hun gebrek
aan persoonlijke hygiëne door het gebruik van sterke parfums.
Filips l, de hertog van Orléans, de broer van koning Lodewijk XlV werd
door Louis de Rouvroy, hertog van Saint omschreven als "een
kleine mollige man, op hakken zo hoog dat het wel stelten leken; altijd
opgedirkt als een vrouw, volgehangen met ringen, armbanden, juwelen
allerhanden overal, met een lange zwarte gepoederde pruik netjes
vooraan geschikt, linten overal waar je er maar kon bevestigen, in een
wolk van allerlei parfums, en alles van de grootste reinheid."
Prins
Filips werd ondanks zijn
homoseksualiteit tweemaal uitgehuwelijkt.
Zie ook: de
Frans-Canades
historische televisieserie Versailles
2015 die het leven schetst van Lodewijk XlV en zijn hofhouding. De rol
van Filips van Orléans wordt in deze serie gespeeld door de
acteur Alexander Vlahos.
Spanje
Aan het Spaanse hof was crossdressing alleen toegestaan met
carnaval.
Groot-Brittannië
In GB was crossdressing verboden. In
1880 deed de politie van Manchester een inval in de in de Temperance
Hall waar een dragbal werd gehouden waar mannen als vrouw gekleed
waren.
In France, until the end
of the 19th
century, gays and lesbians met usually in private homes and literary
salons, hidden from the public, with the Opera Ball in
Paris one of the
few exceptions.
The Opera Ball, celebrated yearly for carnival, allowed
some small leeway. The first big public ball that allowed cross
dressing was the Bal Bullier in 1880, in the Avenue de l'Observatoire,
followed by the Bal Wagram in 1910
Duitsland
Crossdresser Hermann
von Teschenberg
(1866-1911)
was one of the founders
of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee.
Berlin's clandestine gay
underground
can be followed up to the 18th century, in spite of the persecution
gays were suffering. In Prussia, Paragraph 143 of the penal code, and
later the introduction of Paragraph 175 in the German penal code, with
other laws for public scandal, and child protection, made the life of
gays extremely difficult.
Clearly, not the activities of Magnus
Hirschfeld or the first homosexual movement could avoid the regular
police raids and closing of premises in the 1900s. And not just the
premises were being watched by the police, in 1883, the moral police
had 4799 "transvestite" and transgender woman under vigilance, even
though "permits" could be handed out to cross-dressers in cases
considered "medical".
It is thus surprising
that, beginning
mid 19th century, the Urningsball or Tuntenball
came to be, balls of
uranians, or queens, tolerated, but watched by the police.
By the
1900s, these balls had achieved such a fame in Germany, that people
from all around the country, and even foreign tourists, would travel to
Berlin to participate.
These balls were celebrated in large ballrooms,
as the Deutscher Kaiser, in the Lothringer Straße, or the Filarmonía,
in the Bernburgstraße, the Dresdner Kasino, in the Dresdner Straße, or
the Orpheum, in the Alter Jakobstraße 32. For example, the Berliner
Morgenpost described extensively on October 17, 1899, a gay ball that
had taken place in the hotel König von Portugal, where balls were still
being celebrated in 1918. The ball season used to begin in October and
go until Easter, with a frequency of several baa week, sometimes two
the same day. Hirschfeld, in his book Berlins drittes Geschlecht (1904;
"Berlín's Third Sex"), described the balls in following fashion:
The innkeepers of
uranian (= homosexsual) taverns,
but certainly not just them, organize large urning balls, especially in
the course of the winter, that, in their size and type, are a specialty
of Berlin. Outstanding strangers, especially foreigners, who want to
see something very special in the youngest European world-cities, are
shown by higher officials [to these balls] as one of the most
interesting sights. [...] During the high season from October to
Easter, these balls are held several times a week, often even several a
night. Even though the entrance fee is rarely less than 1.50 marks,
these events are usually well visited. Almost always, several secret
policemen are present that make sure that nothing disgraceful happens;
as far as I am informed, there was never any occasion to intervene. The
organizers have the right to admit, if possible, only people who are
known to them as homosexual.
Some of the balls were
especially
well known, particularly those shortly after New Year, on which the
new, often self-made dresses are presented. When I visited this ball
last year with some medical colleagues, there were about 800 people
participating. Around 10 o'clock in the evening, the large halls are
still almost deserted. The rooms begin to fill only after eleven
o'clock. Many visitors dress in formal or street suit, but many are
costumed. Some appear densely masked in impenetrable dominoes, they
come and go without anyone knowing who they are; others reveal their
faces at midnight, some come in fantastical costumes, a large part in
evening gowns, some in simple, others in very elaborate toilets. I saw
a South American man in a robe from Paris, it's price had to be over
2,000 francs.
Not few seem so feminine
in their
appearance and movements, that even connoisseurs find it hard to
recognize the man. [...] Real women are only very sparse on these
balls, only now and then does a uranist bring his landlady, a friend,
or... his wife. In the case of the uranist, one does not proceed so
strictly as on the analogous urninde balls, on which "real men" are
strictly denied access. Most distasteful and repulsive [sight] on the
balls are the not so infrequent gentlemen that, in spite of coming "as
women", keep their stately mustaches or even a full-beard. The most
beautiful costumes are greeted by a sign of the ceremony master with a
thundering fanfare and guided by him through the hall. Between 12 and 1
o'clock the ball usually reaches its peak. At about 2 o'clock, the
coffee break — the main source of income for the owner — takes place.
In a few minutes, long tables are installed and layed, with several
hundred people sitting at them; some humorous songs and dances of the
attendant "lady imitators" season the conversation, then the cheerful
activity continues until the early morning. As a consequence of the
Harden–Eulenburg affair, and the subsequent social upheaval, the balls
where prohibited; in 1910 they were allowed again, but they never
achieved the splendor of this golden age.
In de film Some Like it Hot
verkleden twee mannen zich als vrouw om als muzikanten aan de bak te
komen en zich te verbergen voor de maffia.. Crossdressing komt ook voor in
sommige volksgebruiken, zoals Hartjesdag
en carnaval.