History: Who wears the pants?

[Shana A]

History: Who wears the pants?

by John D'Emilio
2009-09-09

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=22829

Many of my students joke about the "gender police."

snip

What they often don't realize is that, for most of Chicago's history,
policing gender did actually fall to the police. Chicago passed its
first law against cross-dressing in 1851, when it was still not much
more than a frontier town. The prohibition against cross-dressing was
included in a broader statute that made it a crime if anyone "shall
appear in a public place in a state of nudity, or in a dress not
belonging to his or her sex, or in an indecent or lewd dress, or shall
make an indecent exposure of his or her person, or be guilty of an
indecent or lewd act."

[Julie Marie]

Here's a list of other articles by this author

[Constance]

In Susan Stryker's book Transgender History, she has a list of which states had what laws regarding cross-dressing, when these laws were established, and when they were repealed. Gender policing was indeed codified. I guess at some level, I shouldn't have been surprised. But, I was.