Cross Dressing and other Interesting Things
So I’m reading my psychology chapter for the week, and we’re covering Pavlovian conditioning. Anybody who knows anything about psychology knows a good bit about Pavlov already: I first studied him five years ago or so. I’m reading a part of the chapter that mentions paraphilias, which translates as “incorrect love”. A paraphilia is anything relating to love or desire that is deemed “unfit” by society or a culture. Needless to say, what is considered a paraphiliac behavior by one social group will not be considered weird or creepy to another, but considered “normal”. So really, it depends on each society particularly.
Anyway, I was reading in my chapter about various types of paraphilas and one mentioned voyeurism. Ok. I agree. That’s creepy. And weird. Not ok. Then the next thing mentioned is transvestism or “cross dressing”. (Yes, my 2015 psychology book just listed cross dressing as a paraphilia.) What blows me away by this is that men who wear “women’s clothing” are considered to be perverted. The book just said so! But women who wear “men’s clothing” are considered “normal”. There’s clearly a biased double standard here. How can this be alright to say, think, and believe? Isn’t what’s good for the goose, good for the gander? Where’s the equality?
Rather than label a man who wears “women’s clothing” weird, how about we eradicate the ideal that a person who wears the “opposite sex’s clothing” be considered perverted? Do clothes have genders?
Clothes are clothes! If a man wears a skirt, it doesn’t mean he’s wearing a “woman’s skirt”. It means he’s wearing a man’s skirt, because he’s a man. Consider a Scottish kilt. Right.
I can’t condone the labeling and mistreatment of people based on his or her clothing. So inappropriate!
That’s my psychology rant for the day. Carry on chickens!
Josh in a cornfield- Lensbaby Composer
m o n o c h r o m e j u n k i e † 