Variations in Sexual Behavior

Sexual Minorities: 6. Transvestites

Famous Cross-dressers 2

As repeatedly emphasized, people may cross-dress for a variety of reasons and for differents lengths of time. For some, the behavior is episodic, for others habitual. In most cases, these individuals are otherwise ordinary citizens trying to lead ordinary lives. However, there are also some famous historical personalities known for their cross-dressing. For example, the case of the Chevalier d’Eon so fascinated 19th-century psychologists that they used the term “eonism” for what later came to be called “transvestism”. However, his motive for trying to pass as a woman is unknown. At least in his earlier years, he may have cross-dressed simply as a disguise on one of his secret spying missions, but he may also have been a transsexual at a time when this concept was still unknown and sex reassignment surgery was not yet possible. The very feminine French writer George Sand, the lover of several famous men, cross-dressed only at the beginnig of her career as an expression of her free, rebellious spirit. Radclyffe Hall, who was sexually attracted to women, lived at a time when a lesbian couple was supposed to consist of one masculine (“butch”) and one feminine partner (“femme”). For her, the “butch” role was more congenial.

Switching gender roles
(From the left) The Chevalier d’Eon de Beaumont (1728-1810), a French diplomat, was a renowned swordfighter. Physically male, he lived sometimes as a man (left), at other times as a woman (right). He displayed his fencing prowess in both gender roles. George Sand (1804-1876), born Amantine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin de Francueil, adopted a male name as a writer, and, for a while, also scandalized her contemporaries by dressing in male clothing and smoking cigars. Radclyffe Hall (1880 -1943), the British author of the influential lesbian novel ”The Well of Loneliness”, cultivated a masculine appearance.