Clothes Make the Man

by Valerie R. Hotchkiss

In this book, the author explores medieval society's fascination with the cross-dressed woman. The author examines a wide variety of religious, literary, and historical sources, which record interpretations of sartorial attempts to overcome gender hierarchy and also illustrate, mainly through the device of inversion, a remarkably sustained desire to examine and reexamine the nature of social gender identities.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Queer, Gender, Feminism, Sexuality, Research

214 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 1996

Reviews

[Becky]

Very academic, not a light read but good.

[Amaranta]

no pude leerlo completo porque no lo encontré completo, pero lo marco como leído porque así me es más fácil releerlo. creo que es muy fácil de leer y muy interesante, las mujeres se vestían de hombres para ser más libres y hacer más cosas, los hombres con propósitos humorísticos, oh wow...

[Ella]

Super dated, and I’ve definitely read better approaches to crossdressing saints in other work (particularly with regards to medieval gender more generally). I can see how this was pretty foundational though, and I don’t particularly regret reading it.

[Potatoes]

Very informative

[person man]

good book i enjoyd

[Em1ly M]

dissertation research WILL count towards my reading goal given how long it takes me to read all these

[Galina Krasskova]

could have used a more nuanced view of the ancient world and early Christianity ... so much of what was given to the medieval world here easily existed in late antiquity if not earlier.