TASK FOURTEEN

How is cross-dressing portrayed in film? With particular reference to “Breakfast on Pluto”.

On television, men dressed as women and occasionally women dressed as men have been a source of mirth for decades and remain a steadfast of British comedy. Iconic comedians such as the two Ronnies, Morecambe & Wise and the cast of Monty Python often donned wigs and dresses, all in the name of entertainment. Similarly, the silver screen has offered humorous images of cross-dressing, such as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis tottering along a train platform on high heels in Some Like it Hot. Yet the film industry has also offered a number of alternative portrayals to the caricatured, comedic and often-mustachioed man in a dress. From the strangely sexy Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to poignant Dil in The Crying Game the portrayal of cross-dressing in film seems varied. This essay will illuminate the ways in which cross-dressing is portrayed in film on the hypothetical basis that the depiction can be categorised in four ways: cross-dressing as glamorous; demonic; humorous or personalised.