Ann Non

WOMEN DRESSING MEN

ARTICLE

This article will pose more questions than supply answers. It is designed to reflect some of my thoughts on and experiences with TV, the hopes of soliciting thoughts from other readers concerning similar happenings.

The premise of my article, I suspect already known to other TV's, is that there are many women who enjoy either dressing men as women, or seeing them already dressed as such. We all have heard of the mother dressing her young boy as a girl because she ended up without a daughter. Yet later when the child reaches puberty and then adult status, why do some women still enjoy, for instance, making men up as women for a skit, or seeing boys in a dance line in a humorous musical production? Is this in some cases a carry-over from this "baby- boy-into-girl" phenomenon, is it simply a novelty, or could it be that some women get a sexual tingle by seeing or dressing a man as a woman? I do not have the answer to this question, quite frankly, but I do have some thoughts based on observations I have made. Some of my generalizations may be too sweeping, but I have not consciously in- tended any to be.

It is interesting to note the preponderance of boys' and men's dance or "kick" lines in various school and organizational productions around the country. Usually, these "lines" are supposed to be chorus girls, can-can dancers, or perhaps ballerinas. Once in a while, one will even spot a male "beauty contest" complete with evening gowns and bathing suits as required attire.

Look at the ones who invent, organize, costume, and seem to get the biggest "kick" out of these skits women. Granted, men know it

59