According to WIKIPEDIA, Cross-dressing is the act of wearing items of clothing and other accouterments commonly associated with the opposite sex within a particular society. Cross-dressing has been used for purposes of disguise, comfort, and self-discovery in modern times and throughout history.

Almost every human society throughout history has had expected norms for each gender relating to style, color, or type of clothing they are expected to wear, and likewise, most societies have had a set of guidelines, views or even laws defining what type of clothing is appropriate for each gender.

The term cross-dressing denotes an action or a behavior without attributing or implying any specific causes for that behavior. It is often assumed that the connotation is directly correlated with behaviors of transgender identity or sexual, fetishist, and homosexual, behavior, but the term itself does not imply any motives and is not synonymous with one’s gender identity.

Before I started my research,  I misunderstood transvestite, regarded them as abnormal, exhibitionist, homosexuality. Many people have the same feeling with me when they don’t understand what is the transvestite. When I handed over some information about MUSEUM OF TRANSOLOGY( An exhibition of trans, I have a detailed record in another blog) to my classmate, Xiao Ye, she said:”Oh it looks like a freak show.” I feel sorry for cross-dressers.


TRANS: An umbrella term used to indicate a wide variety of people whose gender identities are not aligned with their biological sex.

TRANSOLOGY: The practice of collecting trans objects and narratives.

TRANSCESTRY: Evidence of trans lives lived before us.

THEIRSTORY : The study of past events beyond the cisgender binary

GENDER IDENTITY: Personal, internal and cultural, and not necessarily physically visible to others.

QTIPOC: Queer, Trans and Intersex Person/People Of color.

INTERSEX  :  Born with sexual anatomy that does not fit typical medical definitions of female or male.

NON-BINARY: To be on the gender spectrum and not bound by the constructs.

GENDERQUEER: To  ‘queer’ gender, often by taking a visual and political stance against gender conformity./gay

CISGENDERED: Not trans. People whose gender identity happens to align with their biological sex.

At no point can these definitions limit, label or govern us.