Talk:Cross-dressing in film and television

Looney Tunes
Bugs Bunny, in particular, often cross-dresses to foil his enemies. Does that deserve a mention?72.35.208.4 (talk) 09:07, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Not to mention the short "Banty Raids" where Foghorn Leghorn is crossdressed against his will. DudeWithAFeud (talk) 23:18, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Is this meant to be a list or not?
This article is currently a rather awkward and hard to read hodgepodge of lists, short summaries, and longer descriptions of films and TV programs. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to which films are covered in-depth. Why does "Glen or Glenda?" deserve a long paragraph while "Yentl" gets a single sentence? Do we really need to know exactly what kind of cross-dressing occurs in every television example? If the goal is to present an exhaustive list of films or TV programs that prominently feature cross-dressing, I think it's going to have to be a simple list of titles with perhaps some brief general analysis (e.g., cross-dressing is a time-honored comedy staple, while serious dramas about cross-dressing are rare). However, I didn't want to totally reformat the article without giving others the chance to present their opinions here. CKarnstein 05:56, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Its not true about Eric Idle being the main Python playing women. They all did, but if anything Terry Jones was the main 'woman'.

What about Joan of Arc?
Shouldn't the different movies on the historical character be mentioned? I mean, what is the difference with the female character of The Lord of the Rings? Nazroon 05:01, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

NBC pattern
The National Broadcasting Company appears to have many of these shows:
 * Uncle Miltie Berle
 * Flip Wilson
 * Saved by the Bell
 * Friends
 * Kenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live

Has anyone noticed this????? How shall we put this in the article? Arbol25 06:16, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

"As a non-comedic element"
The presence of this section seems rather misleading - a quick glance over the previous section reveals several where the cross-dressing is nothing to do with comedy (e.g., LOTR). I know it says "most" not "all", but it's going to be hard to track whether it really is "most" or not. Shouldn't the non-comedies be moved to this section? (Also there may be the problem that some films may be comedies, but the cross-dressing is not inherently part of the humour.) Or would it be best to do away with this separate section? I'm not sure what's the point of this section when we've already got a section for listing films? Mdwh 11:01, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Agreed with the above that this is misleading. Also, where do you put films where the cross-dressing is a minor comedic element? I would like to add The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1924), where several soldiers dress in drag during a night of drunken revelry. It is not clear what the intended scope of the lists is. -Krasnoludek (talk) 22:40, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Hairspray
How can John Travolta's "cross-dressing" be a "central plot element", when, in the film, he is NOT cross-dressing? Corvus cornix 03:19, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Eliminated Extreme POV on "Boys Don't Cry."
Teena Brandon was a girl pretending to be a boy, not a boy with female genitals as was previously written. Boys don't have female genitals unless they have chromosomal/hormonal/endicrinal problems that cause their male genitals to not develop. When that happens, they usually end up being raised as girls. Teena Brandon was a girl who dressed trying to pass as a boy, tried to fool people and paid dearly for it, period.JBDay 19:26, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


 * F2m transsexuals are not "pretending" to be male! Please see Brandon Teena, or indeed, transsexualism. Mdwh 03:56, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Sorry, the page is about films. It is not about promotion of ideology. Teena Brandon was a girl who pretended to be a boy for whatever reason and she got killed when she was discovered.You wish to espouse extreme POV i.e. promotion of an ideology. That is inconsistent with a NPOV policy. Perhaps you should write a page connected to the ts pages, but not this film page. Please do not provoke me on this, as I could easily argue with you. That is not my purpose, giving a correct account of the film is.JBDay 19:24, 18 August 2007 (UTC)
 * You are officially the most ignorant m-fer I have ever laid eyes upon. I actually do not think that Boys Don't Cry should be included on this list, nor do I think Transamerica, Ma Vie en Rose, and some others should either. That is because these films are about Transgendered people, not cross-dressers. Cross-dressing is very different. And it isn't transsexual either. All in all they should not be included.

Cross-dressing is more like a hobby (usually identifies with assigned gender)... Drag Queen/King is performance art (Usually identifies with assigned gender)... Transgender is an identity (does not identity with assigned gender, may or may not seek GRS)... Transsexual is normally considered to be a person who has completed Gender Reassignment Surgery... Tranvestitism is someone who gets sexual pleasure out of wearing clothing of the opposite gender (most typically STRAIGHT males) ... and just while I am educating....

Two-Spirited/Bigendered is a person who identifies with both genders equally... Non-Gendered/Genderless is a person who does not identify with either gender at all... (both of the 2spirit and Genderless are known as transcendent gender identities) Unidentified is a person who does not identify... (slightly different from genderless, more like saying "I opt out")

There is a wide range of gender-identities, and since this article is about only one of them (maybe two) I will remove every film that is about a gender identity that is not covered in the title. thank you for your time 138.192.78.134 (talk) 11:38, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Rudragpic.png
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BetacommandBot 21:06, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Claire Otoms
Barry Humphries portrayed Claire Otoms in Ally McBeal. Was this character female or a male character in drag? --Bensin (talk) 23:07, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Bad Education
Coincidentally, that would be a great title for this list; I can't say I truly know a lot about trans culture, or can name a lot of film and tv media that broach the subject. But I can't believe this film isn't on the list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.240.34.213 (talk) 08:21, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Sleepaway camp
(spoiler alert, sort of) I think this should be removed, since it basically spoils the ending. --71.203.149.71 (talk) 00:09, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Fatty Arbuckle
"Fatty" Arbuckle should be added to Chaplin and Laurel as an early originator in film. His short films were concurrent with the other two's and frequently featured Arbuckle dressed as woman (to get into a female dormitory, for example). -Krasnoludek (talk) 22:34, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Twin Peaks
I would say that Twin Peaks certainly deserves a mention here, considering its critical acclaim and enduring cult popularity. The character of Denise Bryson, portrayed by a pre-X Files David Duchovny, was a transvestite, an FBI agent, and a recurring character —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.141.108 (talk) 00:52, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Cross-dressing vs transgender
I recently proposed that the article List of transgender characters in film and television be merged into this article. It is not my intention to say that Crossdressing and Transgender are the same thing. But unfortunately, the editors who created these two articles were not as well informed. There are movies in this article which clearly deal with transgender issues in a non-comedic way, and do not belong here. Similarly, there are movies on the transgender characters article, which simply include drag queens or transvestites, and are not about transgender at all. Since some of the content appears on both lists, I think that that these two articles can easily be combined into a newly titled article, such as List of Cross-dressing and transgender characters in film and television, with a separate section for each. Fortdj33 (talk) 14:52, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and moved some of the more obvious links to their proper articles, but there is still some cleanup to be done, whether or not there is a consensus to keep the two articles separate. Movies such as Glen or Glenda, The Crying Game, Sleepaway Camp and Breakfast on Pluto are still on both lists, and their descriptions make it unclear as to whether they are about transgender characters, or people simply pretending to be the other gender. Fortdj33 (talk) 16:04, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Left Glen or Glenda where it belongs, moved the rest to the proper article, and removed the proposal for merger. Fortdj33 (talk) 19:12, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Doesn't belong in LGBT
Most transvestites are heterosexual. Including this as part of LGBT just reinforces ignorant stereotypes.

Delete the whole thing as it is not an article
This is just a long list of movies. And an incomplete one that is also poorly sorted. There isn't an actual article here or much in the way of factual info. I say just delete it.

Martin Show
For the cross-dressing in television section, the Martin show was not mentioned. It's stars Martin Lawrence where he cross dresses as characters such as his own mother or Shenehneh. --Datyger (talk) 09:06, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Tyler Perry
72.233.161.169 (talk) 10:18, 25 November 2014 (UTC)List of Tyler Perry films includes Norbit in which he was not an actor. The actor for that movie was Eddie Murphy who played two different female roles in that movie.
 * FixedCzolgolz (talk) 12:32, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Something I want to add here but can’t remember enough about - can anyone identify?
I vaguely remember seeing this thing one time, but I can’t remember enough details to add it or to be google able. It was American, a detective show or cop show or something along those lines I believe (actually, thinking about it, I’m only mostly sure it even WAS a show, could have been a movie, I have a goldfish memory), and I just remember two people going up to somebody’s door to question them, only to be greeting but a guy in (I think) their late teens wearing a french maid’s outfit. He lets them in and informs the master of the house that they’ve come to question him, which they proceed to do. Does anyone know what I’m half-remembering here?--StrexcorpEmployee (talk) 18:49, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

I really want to add this in the interest of completionism, but what would I even google to find it? Googling ‘guy dressed as maid’ just gives me pages upon pages of weird, creepy fetish porn and anything more specific turns up absolutely nothing at all.--StrexcorpEmployee (talk) 18:55, 5 February 2020 (UTC)
 * As this seems to be a throwaway joke and not a recurring character or even a major episode plot point, I'm not sure it needs to go here. Bkatcher (talk) 19:56, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Cross-dressing vs. Cross-gender casting
There appear to be a number of titles on these lists where the character on screen isn't cross dressing, but the actor is playing a gender different from their own. This includes Hairspray (as mentioned above), films listed because of Tyler Perry's Madea, and many of the examples in the television section. I believe these should be removed, especially as many are already listed on the Cross-gender acting page. Simmons 86 (talk) 09:08, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

Famous Polish film 1937
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSKvi5sB1Po

"One of the best scenes of polish 1930's films: Eugeniusz Bodo (most popular polish actor) in woman's clothes is singing a hit song "Sex appeal" in "Piętro wyżej" (Upstairs) film from 1937."

-> let us add it. Zezen (talk) 11:40, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

Split proposal
Given @JuanGLP's likely additions to this article, I suggest splitting the list content of this article to a separate article, titled List of films and television series featuring cross-dressing. Wracking talk! 20:34, 14 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Explicitly adding a link to Draft:Cross-dressing in television (piped above). Before considering a split (or maybe at the same time), please have a look at this discussion. Mathglot (talk) 23:42, 14 February 2024 (UTC)