Who Doesn't Like A Good Cross-Dressing Movie?
To be honest, I think the comedic “gender-bending comedies� that I saw as a child actually opened my mind to the idea of homosexuality and transgendered people.
One that jumps to mind (aside from the classics Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, neither of which I’ve seen, surprisingly)—is a lesser-known Disney movie from 1998, “Mr. Headmistress�. The basic premise involves a guy who gets out of jail, man is followed by the mobsters that he screwed over before going to jail; man escapes on a train, and beats up an old woman in a train car, steals her clothes, and takes her identity (which is the new headmistress job at an all-girl’s school). That sounds pretty farfetched now that I type it out- it didn’t seem so back when I saw it at age 11. Anyway, it’s your typical man-dresses-as-woman, Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like A Lady� and Tom Jones’ “She’s A Lady� play in the background while man struggles to put on pantyhose and lipstick shtick (though I have to say, in my defense, that star Harland Williams pulls of the whole scene with particular aplomb).
Well, I can glaze over a few of the glaring sexist flaws in this film (he beats up an old woman, ties her to a chair, and we don’t care because…. She’s a mean old lady???). What made me really think about gender at the age of 11 was that a male teacher at this school was attracted to the cross-dressing Williams- they have several encounters, and the male teacher is encouraged even more. He tries to woo the male headmistress that he perceives to be female. Yes, this is aimed to get a laugh as opposed to make a social statement—but the questions that such an attraction raises are undeniable. The protagonist’s relationship with another female teacher at the school (who he was sexually attracted to) added yet another layer.
This made me wonder about attraction—what does it mean if you’re attracted to someone that you think is the gender you’re attracted to, but then discover that they aren’t biologically? Does this make you straight if you’re gay or gay if you’re straight? Even at a young age, I theorized about a spectrum. It must be an easy mistake to make! In a world where transgendered individuals can express themselves more than ever before, it can be very hard to tell what the biological gender of a person is. I think the shock or surprise at finding out that you are attracted to someone you hadn’t though possible must be our response to the compulsory heterosexuality (Feminist Frontiers, Tolman 307) that’s been imposed upon us growing up in our heterosexist society. Why should the biological gender of a person come into play, when all that matters are our outer perceptions (which can be fooled)?
The film Southern Comfort asks these questions, too—since the born-female-turned male character had a sexual, romantic relationship with a born-male-turned female person—if either one of them had been both transsexual and gay, they might not have been attracted to one another. Or would they? It’s so complicated! The nuances of psychology, biology—in the end, we’re dealing with human-to-human bonds, and these bonds defy gender and sexuality.
When I attended Jack Halberstam’s talk about animating counterculture, he mentioned that animated films can break certain boundaries but reinforce others (like racist stereotypes). These comedic cross dressing films do this as well—although they can challenge young minds to question gender and attraction, they include their fair share of gender stereotypes (thus the films are funny). Though I’d have to say we’re far from making perfect films that don’t hurt or offend anyone, my mind-bending experiences as a child were very important and noteworthy. I’ve come to have an open mind about gender and sexuality partly because of them.