ABSTRACT
Most discussion of cross-dressing, whether on stage or in the streets (another distinction rarely examined), focuses on instances of men playing women. While, granted, such instances have a long tradition in the history of theatre, and are more abundant in contemporary popular culture as well, to make male-tofemale drag the point from which all discussion of cross-dressing follows simply reinstates the presumption of the male as universal; he remains the standard, the given, even when wearing feather boas and four-inch stilettos.
