Cross-dressing is the act of wearing items of clothing and other account remnants 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 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 behavior without attributing or implying any specific causes for that behavior. It is often assumed that the connotation is correlated with behaviors of transgender identity, sexual fetishist, or homosexual behavior, but the term itself doesn't imply any motive and is not synonymous to one's gender identity. There are many different kinds of cross-dressing and many different reasons for people engage in crossdresser behavior.
Some people crossdress as a matter of comfort or style out of personal preference for clothing associated with the opposite gender. In this case, a person's crossdressing may or may not be apparent to other people. Some people cross dress to shock other people or challenge social norms. Gender disguise has been used by women and girls to passes male in society, and by men and boys to pass themselves off as female. Some transgender crossdress to take up male-dominated or male exclusive professions. The depiction of males wearing dress is often used for comic on stage and screen. This is a special form of performance art. A drag queen is usually a male assigned person who performs as a female character. A drag queen may imitate famous female film or pop music stars. A full queen is a female assigned person employing the same techniques, a drag king is the counterpart of a drag queen, but usually for much different audiences and is defined as a female assigned person who adopts a masculine person in performance or imitates a male film of pop star.
Some females find people undergoing gender reassignment therapy also self-identify as drag kings, although this youth of drag king would generally be considered inaccurate. A transvestite fetishist is a person typically a heterosexual male who crossdress as part of a sexual fetish. They want to have a trans dating. The term under dressing is used by male crossdressers to describe wearing female undergarments under their male clothes. A famous low-budget filmmaker said he often dwarfs women's underwear under his military uniform during World War Two. Some people who cross dress may endeavor to project a complete impression of belonging to another gender, including mannerisms speech patterns and emulation of sexual characteristics. This is referred to as passing or trying to pass. Depending on how successful the person is, an observer who sees through crossdressers attempt to pass is said to have read or clock them. Female masking is a form of cross-dressing, in which men wear masks that present them as female, sometimes either member of a heterosexual couple will cross dress in order to arouse the other, for example, the male might wear skirts or lingerie, and the female will wear boxers or other male clothing. Others may choose to take a mixed approach adopting some female traits and some masculine traits and their appearance. For instance, a man might wear both a dress and a beard.