A Matter of Wardrobe? Mary Edwards Walker, a Nineteenth-Century American Cross-Dresser

Publisher： Bloomsbury Journals (formerly Berg Journals)

ISSN： 1751-7419

Source： Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, Vol.2, Iss.3, 1998-08, pp. : 245-268

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Abstract

The article examines the ambiguous nature of clothing as an indicator of gender. It demonstrates that the category “cross-dresser” is inadequate for understanding the experiences of Dr Mary Edwards Walker, a nineteenth-century woman who wore “men’s garments”. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the nineteenth-century teemed with women who cross-dressed and masqueraded as men. Walker differs from them as she refused to hide her biological sex and live as a man, and therefore challenged traditional gender categories. Walker’s clothing illustrates how apparel can create new notions and categories of gender, and possibly sexuality. But in dismissing cross-dressing as a sexual quirk, we risk losing an opportunity to understand the cultural construction of gender on another, more complex level. In refusing to recognize her attire as “male”, Walker did not consider herself a cross-dresser. In asserting her right to her own garments, in a sense she broke away from the bondage and visual symbols of gender. Fischer concludes that cross-dressing is becoming a more complicated issue. We can no longer be satisfied with studies that focus on sexuality or attempts to “normalize” the activity, but must re-examine what cross-dressing meant in other times and places versus what it means today. The cross-dresser’s motivation is more important and significant than their choice of clothing.