Medievalists.net

Where the Middle Ages Begin

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Online Courses
  • Podcast
  • Patreon Login
  • About Us & More
    • About Us
    • Books
    • Videos
    • Films & TV
    • Medieval Studies Programs
    • Places To See
    • Teaching Resources
    • Articles

Medievalists.net

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Online Courses
  • Podcast
  • Patreon Login
  • About Us & More
    • About Us
    • Books
    • Videos
    • Films & TV
    • Medieval Studies Programs
    • Places To See
    • Teaching Resources
    • Articles
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Articles

What Was Cross Dressing in the Middle Ages?

by Medievalists.net
November 18, 2010

What Was Cross Dressing in the Middle Ages?

By Shunichi Akasaka

Deviations and Alienations of Marginalized People in Medieval European Communities: The Seventh Korean-Japanese Symposium on Medieval History of Europe (2010)

St. Mary of Alexandria, died 508, accompanied her father to a monastery and adopted a monk’s habit as a disguise.

Introduction: First I should explain about my report. You may regard my report to be as ridiculous. But I am absolutely serious. Here I will talk about peculiar things but this is because I am trying to convey the medieval people’s mentality, which is too difficult to explain in a normal way.

Cross-dressing nowadays is the object of psycho-medical research or only for pleasure or for deceiving people. Male cross-dressing is generally considered to be psychologically abnormal but female cross-dressing is not controversial. In our times, if a woman dresses in male clothes no one considers it strange. Here I will tell you a famous cross-dressing example.

I live at a small townin Japan named Takarazuka. Takarazuka is also the name of a commercial theater and this theater has theatrical troupes which are famous for their female cross-dressing. They are all girls and play male roles in male clothesin a kind of musical.

Besides I see normal women in male attire almost everyday and everywhere even in this small town. I have, however, never seen men in female attire in this town. On the other hand, in the medieval period it appears that female cross dressing was not as popular as male cross dressing. Or more strictly speaking female cross-dressing was considered a criminal act.

In the medieval period many jousts or tournaments, including helmets, armors, chest protections, etc were held and we have some reports about the tournaments where participants dressed in female garments. And this cross dressing seems to have carried no penalties at all. For example, Cypriot knights were described as fighting in tournaments while dressed as women. Interestingly, one such tournament—held in 1286 to celebrate the coronation of Henry of Lusignan as King of Jerusalem—was reported in detail. The following description is taken from Philippe de Navarres’ eyewitness report:

The fest was the most beautiful one in one hundred years of feasts and tournaments, and they imitated the Round Table and the reign of Feminine, that is, knights dressed as ladies, and they jousted together. Then they played nuns that had with them monks and they jousted with each other; and they impersonated Lancelot and Tristan and Palamedes, and played many other splendid, delectable, and pleasant games.

Click here to read this article from the Korean Society for Western Medieval History

Subscribe to Medievalverse




Related Posts

  • Crises in the Pronoun Paradigm and the Transgendered Body: Crossdressing in the Old English Saints’ Lives of Euphrosyne and Eugenia
  • Religious Women in Medieval East Anglia: Not isolated, but marginalized
  • The Spanish Jews and Converts in Late Medieval Thought: Statutes of Purity of Blood and the Tract of Juan de Torquemada
  • New Medieval Books: Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages
  • To Rise beyond their Sex: The Representation of Female Cross-Dressing Saints in Caxton’s Vitas Patrum
TagsDaily Life in the Middle Ages • Gender in the Middle Ages • Medieval Social History

Post navigation

Previous Post Previous Post
Next Post Next Post

Medievalists Membership

Become a member to get ad-free access to our website and our articles. Thank you for supporting our website!

Sign Up Member Login

More from Medievalists.net

Become a Patron

We've created a Patreon for Medievalists.net as we want to transition to a more community-funded model.

 

We aim to be the leading content provider about all things medieval. Our website, podcast and Youtube page offers news and resources about the Middle Ages. We hope that are our audience wants to support us so that we can further develop our podcast, hire more writers, build more content, and remove the advertising on our platforms. This will also allow our fans to get more involved in what content we do produce.

Become a Patron Member Login

Medievalists.net

Footer Menu

  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Copyright © 2025 Medievalists.net
  • Powered by WordPress
  • Theme: Uku by Elmastudio
Follow us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter