WAR OF WORDS : Difference between Cross Dressers, Drags, She males & Lady Boys

After My 1^st’ Article about Different Gender Identity Someone suggested me to write about difference between Cross Dressers, Drags, She males & Lady Boys. So here I am…

 These words bring lot of glitters, tinsels, hard make up and confusion about different roles and behaviors. So let’s see them closely and identify unique features of each set separately. 

Cross Dresser: It is a person mostly a man who dresses as a woman for the sake of fetish, fashion or his own comfort level. Conflict arises when even a man uses a simple woman clothing article like a scarf or handkerchief would fall under this category or not? Answer is not there! But mostly a person who wears women’s clothing, accessories and footwear is known as Cross Dresser. Sometimes straights also feel good by cross dressing.

  Drags: Drag is the one who wears the clothes of other gender to resemble with it. Like a man wears women’s clothing to portray him as a woman. This is mostly present in arts like cinema, dramas, and paintings. It started from Shakespeare′s Globe Theater where Males played the roles of Females in the acts and dramas due to no availability of female artists. Drag performance is not related to sex or vulgarity, It’s for entertainment, humor and can be an adjustment by putting males in the female roles because no availability female artists. It’s not necessary that Drags are Gays, Many times Straight Males be Drags to earn money.

There are two terms related to this word –

      

      Drag Queen: A biological Male who dresses as a Female for stage performance, entertainment or drag shows to earn money or for beauty contests with feminine expressions and behavior. It’s not necessary that he’s gay he can be a straight and acts in certain way just to earn his salary and may not have feminine behavior in his day to day life.

    Drag King: A biological Female who dresses as a Male with masculine attitude for the same reasons as above. This is not so popular and appreciated as Drag Queen.

Drag show is a vibrant part of nightlife and most popular in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas.

“So the person who cross dress for his/her own comfort is known as Cross dresser and person who dresses for his/her profession and to earn money is known as Drag.”

She males: A male-to-female transgendered person is referred to as ′transgender woman' or She-Male with male genitalia and mostly augmented female breasts. They dress, behave and act like a Female and they have kept their penis.

She males have different names throughout the world:

Lady Boys : Asia

Kathoey : Thailand

Newhalf : Japan

So She males, Lady Boys, Kathoey, Newhalf are different names given to Transgender. If they change their genders then they will be known as Transsexuals.

Transphobia (The irrational fear and hatred towards all those individuals who fall under this section) brings massive discrimination, violence and unbalanced society by giving less respect to these gender identities.

WAR OF WORDS : Difference Between Transgender, Transsexual, Intersex & Hijra.

There is lot of confusion among the people about these terms. Many of us don’t know the exact difference between these sexual minorities. So let’s clear the confusion and see the unique behavior of each set separately.

Transgender: 'Transgender' describes a person who dresses, behaves or presents themselves in a way that is different from their actual gender norm.

Transgenders are mostly men/women who want to keep their original body parts and without changing the gender they enjoy privileges of being a person of other gender.

Transgender is one who portrays himself as woman WITHOUT changing his gender and vice-versa.

It includes: Cross Dressers, Drag Queens/Kings, etc…

(A male-to-female transgendered person is referred to as ′transgender woman′ and a female-to-male transgendered person is referred to as ′transgender man′).

Transsexual: “Trans’’ means "to cross" and the “Sexual” part refers to the “physical body’’. To cross/change the gender there is only one option - ‘Sex Change Surgery’. It also implies surgery, since that is the only way to change the gender.

Transsexual is one who converts into male to female by changing his gender and vice-versa.

Intersex: It’s known as third gender in many cultures.

An intersex person is one who is born with or develops mixed sexual physiological abnormality.

He/She has born with both male and female biological organs and/or genitalia and it is difficult to identify the actual gender of that person. According to statistics, at least one in 2,000 children is intersex.

Hijra: Hijras (eunuchs) are born as biological males who reject their ′masculine′ identity in due course of time to identify either as women, or not-men, or in-between man and woman, or neither man nor woman.

They fall under category ‘Third Gender’, It’s more close to Transsexual concept but mostly eunuch prefers to be fall under Third Gender rather than any specific gender identitiy.

So this are the large differences between these 4 unique gender identity so treat them with love and respect cuz They are just “Born This Way’’.