As part of preparation for my novel Boy & Girl I collected photos related to gender ambiguity on a Pinterest board (*). It was not easy to find suitable material. For some reason, many males who dress as females feel a need to exhibit their masculinity in a way that is not suitable for the wider audience. Some commentators maintain that photos of ‘traps’ (crossdressers who could pass as female) are only valid if there is a photo proving they have a penis (**). Others go in for derision which doesn’t fit with the preoccupations of Boy & Girl either. Peter, one of the main characters in the story, wanted to look like a girl not parody them.
In Boy & Girl, Peter struggles with his desire to dress as a girl, at a time when such behaviour was seen as homosexual which in turn was illegal in Britain. Both in Boy & Girl and in the subsequent In Search of Lost Girls, Peter tries to come to terms with what cross-dressing means for him with the help of some extraordinary people he meets.
For sample chapters from Boy & Girl and In Search of Lost Girls, click on the titles.
The photo above is of Ella who went to great lengths to look like a girl and was very successful at it. She wrote extensively about her situation and about her desire to transition to being a girl. Her blog, Becoming Ella, was last updated in 2018 with a description of the difficult choices she was facing.
(*) Note that Pinterest (subsequently) deleted all my content and my account without the slightest explanation.
(**) This choice of posting photos of a man/boy dressed in female clothes while unambiguously displaying male genitals raises some interesting questions. As it was not the subject of the Boy & Girl series, I did not explore it further.
More about the Boy & Girl Saga
Boy & Girl – Twelve-year-old Peter secretly dresses as a girl. Imagine his delight when he finds himself in the head of a girl. Yet, despite his wild hopes, that girl is not him. She’s Kaitling, the daughter of a mage in a beleaguered world. Peter has his own problems when a vicious new girl at school threatens to reveal his girly ways. Becoming friends, Kaitlin and Peter join forces to do battle with those who oppose them.
In Search of Lost Girls – Dressed as a girl, Peter sets out in search of his soul-mate Kate who has been ripped from his arms and kidnapped. In his quest, he is hounded by fanatics bent on eliminating those who mess with gender. Meanwhile, Kate has been dumped in a nightmarish girls’ orphanage where she emerges as a decisive figure in the rescue of her fellow orphans. Will the two ever be together again?
We Girls – Retain his androgynous ambiguity or say goodbye to his girlish self, such is the existential choice that besets Peter. Circumstances, however, force both him and Kate to take up other challenges. By straddling the line between child and adult, between carefree creativity and weighty responsibility, between play and work, they find imaginative ways to confront far-reaching problems on which adults persistently turn a blind eye.
Colourful People – What happens when a boy who dresses as a girl, but has no wish to transition, is confronted with a boisterous crowd of transgender youth in a desperate search for a safe haven? The fierce will to be themselves despite the determined opposition of society is common to both the Lost Girls and the Colourful People. Not surprising then that they join forces and advance together. (Currently being written)
http://pinterest.com/andieburk/my-own-androgynous-outfits/ Note this link has also been suspended by Pinterest.
Do those help? I am just coming to terms with my androgynous gender identity and starting to explore it and how to express it visually.
Hi Andi. What are the “those” you refer to?
My book, Boy & Girl, which is fiction, explores how a twelve year old boy handles people’s extreme reactions to him dressing as a girl. Not that people actually see him doing so. There was no question of him exploring such tendencies in public in 1960. But a few people instinctively felt something was “different”.