Transvestism
In this sense the cross-dresser who successfully attempts to "pass," to go unnoticed as a member of another sex, incorporates the socially constructed gender, exposing what culture has made invisible: gender is taught, learnt and can be accomplished (Solomon 5). Thus, the presence of the transvestite interrupts and reconfigures that established definition of and relationship between genders, which were hitherto conceived as unchangeable and fully explored.
It is interesting to investigate the possibility that "transvestite theatre" may be an "internal critique of the forces that govern the representation of women both on stage and off" (Solomon 9), a challenge to the binary opposition between male and female, facilitated precisely by the Dionysiac context in which the performances were taking place.
Dionysus was a god inextricably linked with theatre and, therefore, with false realities, deceptive images and the representation or exaggeration of reality. He was also a god known to have an identity oscillating between extremes: he was both Theban and Asian, both Greek and barbarian, raised as a girl, dismembered by the Titans, and transformed into a bull. He also delighting in imitating newborn children, small girls and women, in appearance, dress and comportment.
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