There is no conclusive research to support that one’s attire can affect their gender or sexuality, says psychologist Deepak Kashyap
A Mumbai college principal recently created a furor for suggesting that female students should dress like women to avoid hormonal imbalance. In an interview to a mainline publication, Swati Deshpande, Principal, Government Polytechnic College was quoted as saying, “When they dress like men, they start thinking and behaving like them. There is a gender role reversal in their head. Their natural urge to reproduce diminishes and they suffer from PCOD.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” says 29-year-old Joey Deb Roy who underwent a complete gender transformation makeover and lived as a woman named Juhi for a month as part of a social experiment. “I understand that everyone has both a masculine and feminine side, but cross-dressing does not affect your sex or even sexuality. I’m still straight and a bit of an alpha male, truth be told,” asserts Joey who credits his time as Juhi in helping him get in touch with his emotions and finally finding the strength to tell his father how much he hated his job in finance and wanted to pursue acting full-time. “I’m so secure in my masculinity now that you can ask me to dress like a woman, dance like one or even kiss another man and I wouldn’t get ruffled,” explains Joey, who was earlier terrified of playing gay or mildly effeminate characters. Joey says understanding and embracing his feminine side helped him overcome his inhibitions, liberating him as an actor.
“There is no conclusive research to support that one’s attire can affect their gender or sexuality,” says psychologist Deepak Kashyap. “While there are people who cross-dress because they cannot relate to the gender assigned at birth, some others cross-dress for work-related reasons. Most people dress the way they do because it makes them comfortable. A woman wearing trousers will not become masculine. A man will not magically become a woman just by wearing a skirt. These notions are just a way for people to control women by taking away their basic choices,” he reasons.
39-year-old Pallav Patankar who works in a health-technology company has been cross-dressing for several years. “I grew up as an effeminate boy and was constantly bullied into being ‘macho’. Cross-dressing helped give my feminine side a voice and express myself in a way I always wanted to. It was liberating,” says Pallav who is openly gay, but insists his sexuality has nothing to do with his cross-dressing. “I’m not gay because I cross-dress or vice-versa. I just love dressing like a woman and wearing make-up sometimes. It’s not like wearing a saree makes me want to grow a uterus and pop out babies! If becoming like the other sex was as easy as cross-dressing, why would trans-persons need hormone replacement therapy to transition,” he asks.
Earlier Pallav cross-dressed in the privacy of his home. “It was difficult to buy girl things so I’d purchase make-up and lingerie online. Saree shopping in an actual shop was easy. I just had to pretend it was a gift for someone,” he shares. Later, he went on to document his cross-dressing transformation into his ‘avatar’ Urmi for the cameras. “We were shooting on Marine Drive and all the passersby as well as the cops were staring. But I didn’t care,” Pallav recalls. “Dressing like a woman helped me understand their day-to-day challenges from street harassment, to being stared at to finding a place to take a leak,” says Pallav.
Perhaps women’s clothes would not attract such scrutiny if more people started dressing like the opposite sex or even androgynously.
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