Testing the so-called Binary

Today was cross-dressing day at HIS. A small majority of the kids actually participated, which leads me to wonder, why? Are the kids who chose not to cross dress scared of how others will react? Do they feel uncomfortable blurring binary lines? Did they think it was a joke and we should never dress like the opposite sex?

I'm sure a lot of these questions arose in each individual who chose not to dress up. To me, I think cross-dress day is fun. It is a time where cultural taboos are not important. Is it healthy? I'm not really sure how to answer this. I mean, sure it might be important to see the world from another perspective, in my case, as a girl, but I don't think it is necessary. It is definitely easier for girls to dress as guys, as we saw today. Girls seem to transgress the binary line without much cultural or social attention. Guys on the other hand are easily noticed and laughed at.

Today's society is patriarchal, which means the man is, essentially, in charge, or dominant. For a guy to cross-dress involves a downgrade of social status, where as a girl cross-dressing entails a considerable rise in social status. Also, there are far more ways to look like a girl than there are ways to look like a guy. Girls have nail polish, earrings, make-up, rings, stockings, bracelets, hair bands, hair ties, necklaces, and many other necessities. Guys? Guys tend to keep it simple, which makes it easier for a girl to portray a them.

I thought cross-dress day went pretty good. The trip to 7-11 was interesting. I was reading Aled's blog entry earlier and I saw that he mentioned how people just laughed. I wonder if we would have kept a serious composure if the people on the street would have laughed. Because, I mean, we were joking around and giving people reasons to laugh. If we acted serious, and were not videotaping it, would people have responded the same way? Cross-dressing raises a lot of issues, and its interesting to see how people react. I thought today was fun, and seemed to bring everyone together, as a communal group.