Quote:
Originally Posted by MissBrattified
I see. So you just didn't want to talk about my pictures. 
It's really hard to research this subject, because reliable sources are few and far between and many of the best ones are offline. (books/libraries/universities/experts)
Personally, I think that within a culture there are understood ideas about what is feminine and what is masculine, but those ideas can't be universally applied. For centuries, many cultures have worn fairly unisex clothing with the exception of European countries, and it seems important to me to remember that the Bible was written in Hebrew--not English, French, German, etc. We so often look through things with the American or European microscope, but if you view scripture through the light of those times--when men and women wore very similar clothing according to history, you have to then wonder what even constituted cross-dressing. It had to be something more than wearing clothing that has a similar cut or flow; it had to extend into motives, mannerisms, behavior, etc.
From that perspective, the origin of women wearing pants becomes irrelevant to me, because the scripture was written in a time when men and women wore somewhat unisex clothing. That would render the popular Apostolic application rather moot. It would render discovering the origin of pants rather moot, although we can have an intellectual curiosity in any direction. (And I'm curious about it, too.) In our culture, pants are definitely not exclusively masculine, but at the same time, most of us can spot a cross dresser. Why is that? You can line up 10 women in pants and we can tell which one is truly trying to pass herself off as a man. Which woman is "manly." Occasionally, I've encountered women with masculine traits in skirts--right in Apostolic realms. Women who I had to consciously give the benefit of the doubt, because in my mind I was thinking "lesbian!" 
IMO, a woman participates in cross dressing by cross dressing. By deliberately taking on manly traits and characteristics and trying to appear to others as a man. It's not so simple as putting on a pair of jeans. |
I found out that it was
very hard to research the subject, of course on-line, but when I went to a couple of libraries as well. I found that studying even geography, you could run across some information being inside a subject. That is always very intriguing to me. It's like going down a rabbit trail. It's like finding a little treasure. LOL! And always very exciting!
I agree that it is much more involved than donning a pair of jeans. What interests me, is that even though women are wearing pants, dresses are still universally a woman's garment. Pants are universally still related to men. And in times past it was very daring to wear men's trousers or to smoke a cigar or cigarette.
Katherine Hepburn involved herself in pushing for women to wear pants. That was her thing. So, on that account, and because of the daring that it used to be, it still interests me today. I can't file it away as moot. Not yet.
It interests me also that the Orthodox Jewish women only wear pants to exercise, etc. if a man is not present. There still seems to be a stigma attached to a pair of trousers. It hasn't totally crossed over and become moot, IMO.
And really, just because it interests me, doesn't mean it does anyone else.
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