UNZIPPING GENDER: SEX, CROSS-DRESSING AND CULTURE

How does culture shape notions of sexuality and gender? Why are transvestites in the West so often seen as deviant or perverse, while they are accepted in other societies? What are the implications for the categories of male and female when consideri ng transvestism? Transvestism, and its cultural practice, is a useful lens through which we can view and thus debate models of sex, gender and sexuality. Drawing on primary fieldwork, Unzipping Gender offers a cross-cultural study of transvestism thr ough an examination of transvestites in Britain and the Hijras of India. The author tackles the cr.