Cross-dressing in film and television

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Film poster for Glen or Glenda?
Enlarge
Film poster for Glen or Glenda?

[edit] Film and video

Movies that feature cross-dressing as a central plot element:

Movies in which cross-dressing plays a minor but important role:

Most of the above films are comedies. Many other comedy films include instances of humorous cross-dressing, but do not feature it as a central plot element.

Films in which cross-dressing is treated in a more serious manner are relatively rare, although the above list does include several dramas and biopics.

  • Yentl (1983) - The title character is a young woman forced to cross-dress in order to fulfil her educational aspirations.
  • The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) - A lone woman in the Old West takes on a male role in order to survive.
  • Glen or Glenda? (1953) - This semi-autobiographical movie stars its director Ed Wood, who was a transvestite. The subject of the film was originally intended to be Christine Jorgensen, who became famous in 1952 after undergoing male-to-female sex reassignment surgery, but instead the film became a more personal plea from Wood for tolerance towards cross-dressing.
  • Ed Wood (1994) - The film about the cult movie maker himself. Directed by Tim Burton, the film stars Johnny Depp as Ed Wood.
  • Just Like a Woman (1992) - Based on the autobiographical book *Gerald/ine by Monica Jay.
  • Ma Vie en Rose (1997) - A Belgian film about a young boy named Ludovic, who believes that he was born in the wrong body and should have been a girl.
  • Mulan (1998) - A Chinese woman disguises herself as a soldier to fight in place of her father.
  • Baran (2001) - A young Afghan refugee disguises herself as a boy in order to work on a construction site in Iran.
  • Osama (2003) - A 12-year-old Afghan girl dresses like a boy in order to get a job during the regime of the Taliban.
  • Breakfast on Pluto (2005) - Patrick 'Kitten' Braden is a transvestite escort and cabaret singer.

[edit] Television

Milton Berle was one of the most famous early cross-dressing comedians in skits and such. Harvey Korman played a hefty Jewish mother character on The Carol Burnett Show. Some other comedy sketch shows, such as Monty Python's Flying Circus, Little Britain, The League of Gentlemen, Saturday Night Live and Kids in the Hall routinely feature visual cross-dressing, with men dressing as women and speaking in falsetto. Not to be outdone in this regard, the (female) British team of French and Saunders have produced many sketches in which one or both of the actresses portray men.

Other television programs that have featured recurrent cross-dressing:

  • Kids In The Hall - The majority of sketches performed on the show features one or more of the actors in drag.
  • M*A*S*H - Klinger regularly cross-dressed as part of a futile attempt to be dismissed from the military.
  • Arrested Development - Tobias Fünke (played by David Cross) disguises himself as a British nanny named Mrs. Featherbottom in order to maintain a relationship with his estranged family. (This is a direct reference to the film Mrs. Doubtfire). This development is an outcropping of the fact that, throughout the series, Tobias exhibits signs of being a latent homosexual.
  • Saved by the Bell - Zach and Screech occasionally dress as a women either to disguise themselves or for comic effect.
  • Lilo & Stitch - Agent Pleakley (voiced by Kevin McDonald, a Kids in the Hall veteran) dresses in female clothing because he misunderstands human gender roles. [citation needed]
  • Pokémon - the villain James often cross-dresses as a disguise.
  • Sailor Moon - In one episode of the first season, Zoicite (one of the villains) disguises himself as Sailor Moon. In the "Sailor Moon Super S" season, Fish-Eye always dresses like a woman.
  • Megaman NT Warrior (Rockman EXE) - Villain Magnus Gauss (Gauss Magnets) cross-dresses as a woman and is obsessed with Dr. Wily. In one episode (unaired in the dub), three of the main characters cross-dress as idol singer Aki-chan to rescue a group of kidnapped girls.
  • Bosom Buddies The plot of the television show, starring Tom Hanks, centered on cross-dressing.
  • He's a Lady - The 2004 reality television series involves male contestants competing with each other to act as effeminately as possible, including cross-dressing.
  • You Rang, M'Lord? - Cissy is a lesbian cross-dresser, complete with monocle, cravat and short hair.
  • Ouran High School Host Club - Main character Haruhi Fujioka crossdresses regularly and is initially mistaken as male by the members of the Host Club.

British stand-up comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, who describes himself as an 'executive' or 'action' transvestite and regularly cross-dresses both on and off stage, has acted in several films (including most recently Ocean's Twelve), as well as releasing his stand-up work on video and DVD (Live at the Ambassadors (1993), Unrepeatable (1994), Definite Article (1996), Glorious (1997), Dress to Kill (1999), Circle (2002), and Sexie (2003).

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../c/r/o/Cross-dressing_in_film_and_television.html"