Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Putting On Her Man Pants: Social Reaction To Female Cross-Dressing And Gender Transgression In America 1850-1880, Kathryn L. Eichenlaub

Honors Papers

Between 1850 and 1880, Americans obsessed over cross-dressing women. Many women donned the breeches: ruined young daughters of respectable families, honest but poor girls looking for a living, and unseemly women who wished either to explore public places or prostitute themselves. This huge variation in station and intention of cross-dressing women allows an exploration of Victorian identity markers -- not just gender, but also race, class, and respectability. Many of these young ladies were described as Romantic adventurers -- they had heroic and beautiful, but often ultimately tragic, experiences. By studying the social reaction to these individuals, we discover that …