Transmissions: It doesn't work
Published 12/29/2011
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=67284 (http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=67284)
The basic premise goes back much further than Billy Wilder's 1959 film. The earliest example I could find was Shakespeare's As You Like I t, where Rosalind disguises herself as a young man to escape Duke Fredrick, and familiar hijinks ensue.
I talked with many people before working on this column, trying to find pop culture examples outside of transgender identities where this same story played out. A handful of examples emerged. Jack Tripper being a "pretend gay" on Three's Company. The dreadful blackface of the 1986 movie Soul Man , and science fiction examples of aliens, enhanced humans, and robots passing themselves off as human. All of these pale against the sheer number of "someone cross-dresses to get away with something" stories.
So why all the history?
Because next week, ABC will be unveiling a midseason replacement program, Work It, featuring two men who are out of work in the current recession. In order to find employment, they cross-dress to work for a pharmaceutical company.