This document discusses how clothing and dress can signal membership in various cults and subcultures throughout history. Specific examples mentioned include Hare Krishna devotees using simple, homemade clothing to signal anti-materialism; biker gangs using leather to proclaim rebellion; and the Amish using plain dress to maintain cultural separation and conformity within the community. The document also explores how cross-dressing was viewed in different time periods and cultures, from Joan of Arc dressing as a man to fight in battle to theatrical cross-dressing traditions.

1. CROSSDRESSING & CULTS WHAT CLOTHES ANNOUNCE TO THE WORLD

2. IT IS THE SIGNAL THAT COUNTS The clad body sends out a mass of social signals. (these signals like the dress change with time and fashion) The Signals function as a language particularly for those in the know. E.g.: Students Prisons have a huge sub-culture of dress And in this talk I will not even mention blue jeans. Or Doctors

3. HOW DO THESE PEOPLE GET THAT SARTORIAL IMAGE?

4. Clothing and Dress is by itself totally neutral Clothing and Dress is by itself totally neutral, but it is the significance put on dress that counts. Sub-cultures in youth culture have come to mean associations with musical genre, but in society these sub cultures can be quite perverse. What about these folk

5. CAN WE LOOK AT THE SIGNALS THAT WE GIVE? A JUDGE TO A WOMAN ON TRIAL IN 1960s LONDON ON SHOP-LIFTING CHARGES “ Women cannot be expected to renounce any essential feature of femininity. Dress is after all one of the chief methods of a woman’s self expression. In matters of dress woman remain children to the end” He was dressed in an ermine cape, curled long Queen Ann wig, silk breeches, silk stockings and buckled shoes.

6. NO PARTICULAR COMMENT BUT THE TWO NEATEST GROUPS THAT EVER COME TO MY DOOR

7. WHAT DO YOU CALL A GLASWEGIAN IN A SUIT? There are more ill fitting suits worn in court than any other place. The accused (Unless completely mad) wants to look like a respectable member of society and to have the values of that society.

8. AND THAT INTERVIEW: DEMONSTRATE INCLUSIVENESS AND POTENTIAL

9. WHAT ABOUT THESE FUNNY LOOKING PEOPLE? Earliest academic dress was clerical. At Oxford and Cambridge, students were ordained into minor or major clerical orders, and confined by the dress regulations of that order. Clerics wore robes with a cowl or hood, which evolved into the garments of today. This style was worn at universities until the reformation, when doctors adopted the Tudor robe, worn by gentlemen throughout Northern Europe in the 16 t century. Sumptuary laws and university regulations were relaxed, allowing robes to be furred or lined in silks of bright colors. The gown, hood, and mortarboard which we generally associate with Cambridge and Oxford has evolved from the sixteenth century Tudor loose robe and the biretta cap, sported by Erasmus in the inset .The color of a doctor's hood was restricted by sumptuary to black, red, or blue, except doctors of theology and canon law, who, as religious men, were restricted to black. These limitations provided the justification for the modern practice of assigning different hood colors to each discipline, which was not done until the 18th century

10. WHAT ABOUT THESE? AGAIN, IT DEPENDS ON CULTURE AND UPBRINGING.

11. NOTE CHANGES IN MEANINGS AND FASHION (AND GREEN CARNATIONS, AND RED TIES, AND SUEDE SHOES)

12. SOME DEFINITIONS OF CULT OR SUB-CULT System of religious belief, sect, a great or often excessive admiration for a person or idea, pagan worship, extremely fashionable, For some groups being unrecognizable as an individual may be important

13. WHAT ABOUT THESE?

14. AND???????

15. AND??????

16. MANY CULTS AND SUB CULTS TRANSMIT MESSAGES BY DRESS. ANTI MATERIALIST Hare Krishna . Can anything look dafter on the wet winter streets of a city? Imported from India in the 1960s. An anti materialism message which wearers believe is more important than any discomfort or ridicule.

17. BORN TO BE WILD Proclaiming an inferior outcast identity and glorifying in it. Victims because they lack what society sees as desirable-normally education. They do not expect to win anything but they have nothing to lose. But you may ‘talk the talk’ but can you ‘walk the walk’?

18. EVERYBODY GETS A MESSAGE FROM THIS WAY OF DRESSING IT REALLY WAS BED SHEETS Has the nature of this outfit and the message changed over time? Founded after the civil war to protest against northern reconstruction. A sub-cult of white culture and grievances. Degenerated into a phantom anti-negro lynch mob that shamed the USA. Has it gone away?

19. AMISH Jacob Amman from a division with Swiss Anabaptists in 1693-1697 – In Holland movement was Mennonites after their pastor Menno Simons. Settled in early 1700s. A sealed community who wanted to live without interference from the outside world. Clothing is used as a mechanical mechanism to share their identity and show conformity to group norms. But, the clothing is also used to reinforce group identity and keep young people within the community. Homemade devoid of zippers, buttons and ,immodest frippery’. “ The old is best and the new is of the devil” The Dress Code establishes cultural separation

20. SALVATION ARMY Reorganization of British Army at that time. Women in this army could command men. Instant recognition as to who they were and what they wanted. Intention of uniform is not isolation but proclaiming service. And brought members together. Ministered to ‘undeserving poor’ Mrs. Booth thought fashion was evil. Uniform better than a shield. Only organization allowed in most East End pubs to collect for charity.

21. MACARONI 1764

22. JOHN BULL COULD NOT ABIDE THEM

23. CULT PROTEST FROM THE BOTTOM

24. AND THEIR GIRLS 15 year old girls on a bombsite in South London 1955. Very much carrying on wartime working class protest against the established order.

25. IT DOES NOT TAKE MUCH TO GET MEN INTO DRAG (Its all a laugh?)

26. AND IT EVER WAS (Questioning of John Rykener 1395) Examination of two men charged with immorality, one of which implicated several persons, male and female, in religious orders" Thus this case stands not only as a rare source for the history of tranvestite and homosexually active people in late Medieval England, but as evdience of the suppression of that history by scholarly historians in the 19th and 20th centuries. As to the outcome of this case, it is not known. Nor is it know if the case was also prosecuted as sodomy in Church courts (since no records survive from the period). It is not even clear that a formal charge was made.

27. Cross-dressing (Saint Marina the ‘Monk’) Billy Tipton (Dorothy Lucille) 1914-1989 Transvestite not an entity until the 20 th Century Both men and women may cross-dress in order to disguise their true identity. Some women have cross-dressed in order to take up male-dominated or male-exclusive professions, such as military service. Some men have cross-dressed in order to escape from mandatory military service The actual determination is socially constructed. In Western society, trousers have been adopted for wear by women, and is not regarded as cross-dressing. In cultures where men have traditionally worn skirt-like garments such as the Kilt or Sarong these are not seen as female clothing, and wearing them is not seen as cross-dressing for men.

28. Even Some Well Known Historical Examples Chevalier D’eon Cross-dressing was referred to as "Eonism" after history's most important cross-dresser, a French diplomat and agent named the Chevalier D'Eon.. D'Eon took up arms and became one of France's master swordsmen. An agreement was reached that stands today as the all time crossdresser's dream. In exchange for his life, D'Eon would not only turn his document collection over to the French Foreign minister and agree never to leave his native France again but he had to "henceforth dress in the garments of a woman, never to leave off wearing them". In return D'Eon received a pension 12,000 livres, paid quarterly. And so from the time he was 49 D'Eon was forced to spend the rest of his life dressed as a woman. To accommodate this sentence Marie-Antoinette sent Mademoiselle D'Eon corsetters, courtiers and maids to wait on her. The French Queen further had insisted that D'Eon be the center of interest wherever she went, to be presented at court, and invited to the drawing rooms of the foremost hostesses of Paris and Versailles.

29. FROM 1700 IN ENGLAND HOMOSEXUALITY APPEARS A Molly house is an archaic term for a tavern or private room where males could meet each other and possible sexual partners. Found in most of the larger cities, Molly houses were a precursor to the modern gay bar. The most famous of these was Mother Clap’s molly house in the Holborn area of London. In the 18 th Century homosexual males in England were prosecuted under sodomy laws for which the penalty was death by hanging. The court records of their trials are the main documentary evidence of such establishments that survive today. Patrons of Molly houses (who were called "Mollies") often dressed in women's clothing, took on female personae, and affected effeminate mannerisms and speech.

30. DEPENDS ON THE CULTURE

31. AND TIME AND PLACE

32. IT CAN LOOK GREAT Indian Churidar

33. SOMEWHAT UNUSUAL

34. OR ADAPTED TO BE PRACTICAL Hem lengths – bloomers for waltz

35. IT DEPENDS ON THE TIME AND THE MESSAGE Jeanne d’Arc 1412-1431 the most documented medieval transvestite . WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT SHE LOOKED LIKE. the name she herself used was Jehanne la Pucelle (Joan the Maid). She lived in the fifteenth century, during the later years of the Hundred Years War, when England, in alliance with Burgundy occupied most of what is now modern France. After hearing the voices of Saints Catherine, Margaret, and Michael, Joan took an oath of chastity and faithfully followed her vocation

36. CHINON

37. Joan the Warrior Occupation: Religion , Victim Chinon 1429 put on male clothes. Usually no problems from the Church for virgins Henry VI wrote to the inquisitor Pierre Cauchon Bishop of Beavais. “ It is sufficiently notorious and well known that for sometime past a woman calling herself Joan the Pucelle leaving off the dress and clothing of the feminine sex, a thing contrary to divine law and abominable before God and forbidden by all laws wore clothing and armour such is worn by a man. Bishop kept her chained in a cage Agreed to wear womens clothes and sentenced to life. 4 days later she put on mens clothes proof that she had relapsed Maleness the gender of empowerment- female dress a demotion in caste.

38. SHE DIED BECAUSE SHE WAS A CROSS DRESSER AND THE SIGNAL THAT GAVE It was oncetaboo in Western society for women to wear clothes traditionally associated with men. Cross dressing is specifically cited as an "abomination" in the Bible in the book of Deuteronomy (22:5). A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God. Natural l for a women to be subject to men – men as women defies reason 1 Cor. 14:34-35 As in all congregations of God’s people women shall not address the meeting. They have no licence to speak but should keep their place as the law directs. If there is something they want to know they can ask their own husbands at home. It is shocking that a woman should address the congregation. Epistle to St. Timothy St Paul deplored 1 st century habit of men and women dressing alike. He said women must keep their heads covered when praying as a sign of subservience to men: Adam created first. As women cannot control their sexual urges they had to be covered. Church defined seductive dress. If God had wanted coloured clothing he would have made coloured sheep. Women emissaries of the devil causing men to sin. Church insists on gender specific clothing as the male is the superior being.

39. IT CAN EVEN CAUSE MAYHEM (REBECCA RIOTS) Between 1839-1844 in rural Wales. Growing discontent among rural poor particularly violent attacks on Toll Gates as symptoms of authority. High charges preventing bringing animals to market. Genesis XXIV “Rebecca recommended to possess the gates of those which hate them” Non conformist chapel people.

40. Rebecca and her Daughters A huge step at this time for men to dress as women. Group identity as disguise. Ringleaders transported to Australia. (Does this mean Australian sheep farmers are descended from a bunch of transvestites?)

41. BUT DRESS FOR MOST GAY MEN CASTRO STEET CLONE STONEWALL RIOT It was ok to be effeminate if you were not working class. Actors ok but not bricklayers. Huge amount of spending power. If you are attracted to men why would you want to go with somebody who looks like a woman? Labouchere ammendment 1885 turned the aesthete into a camp figure.

42. TRADITION OF X DRESS IN THE THEATRE In theatre as you like it Gannymede Modern drama in church MARRIONETTES Shakespeare did depict more equal women )Lady Macbeth) Homosexuality did not involve property so was not a problem Pantomime full of inuendo and crossdress.

43. ARTY CROSSDRESSING WAS OK

44. THEATRE WAS MALE: BANNED FOR FEMALES Recent scholarship on women's involvement in theatrical production in early modern England has begun to question the paradigm of the "all-male stage." "Moll" or Mary Frith, who is recorded in the Consistory of London Correction Book in 1612 as having made an appearance "at the ffortune” where she appeared "vppon the stage in the publique viewe of all the people there p rese nte in mans apparrell & playd vppon her lute & sange a songe" But the theatre was always regarded as being outside normal society.

45. UNTIL THE 20 th CENTURY ALL THEATRE WAS OUTSIDE GOOD SOCIETY

46. BUT THE IMAGE OF A WHOLE SECTION OF SOCIETY CAN BE HARMED

47. La Monocle Paris 1930s

48. BUT IT WAS THE FASHION OF THE MOMENT A fashion that lasted for a fleeting moment before the feminine image of the 1930s appeared. Certain clothing styles at this time were more likely to be thought playful or elegant than a clear marker of sexual identity. From the perspective of a viewer in the 1920s, Mrs. W. may have been happily married to Mr. W. or she may have been married and a lesbian or any other permutation.

49. Una Troubridge Hall was not considered especially masculine in the 1920s Her haircut was thought to be the most feminine of all the short cuts popular at the time, and she had her hair done at Harrods -- not a barbershop. Nor did Hall and her partner Una Troubridge dress in a bizarre manner, wearing, as some biographers have claimed, clothing from a costume shop. The couple studied fashion magazines and built their wardrobes not from men's tailors in Savile Row, but from the most chic of London's department stores for women. Hall always wore a skirt and conducted herself in a completely womanly way It was only when Hall's manner of self-presentation became inextricably connected to lesbianism after her trial that her elegant style basis of his utopian evolutionary theories. The cultural ideal promulgated in most fashion magazines in this era was "boyishness": women were thought hip if they possessed slender, youthful bodies and sported extremely short hair cuts. The aim was to look as boyish as possible, though always to be recognized as a boyish female -- or flapper -- rather than as a boy. The press dubbed this sort of woman the "boyette." Some of these women were members of the smart set, known as the Bright Young People -- often aristocratic or upper-class,

50. TIMES HAVE CHANGED AND SO HAS THE IMAGE

51. CROSSDRESSING & CULTS WHAT CLOTHES ANNOUNCE TO THE WORLD