Why do people act like it's a big deal if a guy wears women's clothes, but not the other way around?

Lol..Simply put, most fashions are asexual. Tshirt and jeans, khakis and wife beater, jeans and sweater can basically be interchangeable between the sexes. So technically if a man wears these he is wearing women's clothes.

Now if you want to talk about cross dressing where a man wears non-interchangeable clothes like dresses, skirts and pantyhose well understand many women don't choose to dress that way anymore. Moreover, society today is so sophisticated we hardly bat an eye at cross dressing men any more so your argument, if that's what it is, is moot.

Being a crossdresser myself I am thankful you picked up this problem.

I agree with Amandama: it is still a huge problem.

Sure, in our bipolar gender world it would look somewhat strange if a man was just wearing a dress and did nothing else about his appearance. The good taste demands that we are doing everything possible to get an overall feminine passing. Provided this, I can go out en-femme in every city throughout the country. Some people will be disgusted with it, some will just wonder, and others will even show their acceptance or sympathy. Many will not even notive there could be something wrong with me. Rejection is most often shown by men, approval most often by women. - If I would open up and show in a dress in my village where I live, being known as a respectable, reliable person, I would run the gauntlet.

This shows that an anonymous, urban, cosmopolitan environment may well accept men dressing like women, but the social environment close to you will never accept it. I know quite a number of transgenders who have recently lost their jobs or were ridiculed by colleagues, neighbours, or their own family. A woman wearing men´s clothes would never have such problems.

The rejection especially by our male contemporaries shows the perpetual values of a patriarchal society. It is demeaning, kind of self-discrimination if, as a man, you are wearing the clothes of the "inferior" sex. And for a huge part of the male population transgenders, who want to explore and show their inner femininity, are threatening the patterns of male superiority. Women are devided about the problem, whereas a majority of males are showing disapproval or even hostility. Societal pressure is mostly coming from men, not from women in our society. Not only the clothes are the problem but confessing traits of a feminine identification in general.

In a truly open society, with true equality between women and men, thse mainstream values and attitudes will hopefully change for the better.

Men have more power in setting social norms than women do and it is what they tend to do (as a gender as a whole) that defines what is considered acceptable.

One theory I have heard for it being acceptable for women to adopt male fashion is that they are emulating the gender with more power, and if power is the main issue, then why would those with the power emulate those with less?

As a man who wears kilts on a fairly regular basis, I have noticed a few strange looks from time to time, and the first few times I wore one around my Christian Fundamentalist and Homophobic brother, he disparaged me for it.

However, the advantage I have is that I am over 6 feet tall, robust in build, and have a lot of facial hair--in short, I look a lot like a biker, and people tend not to mess with me no matter what I decide to wear.

I have only ever had one problem being in public dressed like this, and the person causing the problem was very drunk.

I think it's because there's still so much prejudice against homosexuality, that any man seen in women's clothing is assumed to be either gay, or bi, or wanting to be a woman which means they still call him gay because he wants to be with men most likely, yanno?

There are probably some who think it's degrading the man to want anything to do with being female, actually, I'd say I definitely believe some are thinking exactly that.

I'd think they're far fewer than those who just associate it with homosexuality or someone who's 'warped' because they're 'confused' about their gender/sexual identity.

Sad really. And those who said nobody would care or blink an eye are fooling themselves. It's still a huge issue. It's sad to see people turn a blind eye to these things and pretend we're 'past it' by now =o(

** Also agree the same feelings are had by many about women who dress/appear more like men, it slipped my mind when I initially answered.

It isn't demeaning for a girl to act like a "tom boy" (masculine) In fact, some consider it quite charming. For a man to act feminine however, he is often taunted as a "f***ot and other derogatory terms. People can rationalise why a young woman would find some masculine qualities to be appealing, but certainly not the other way around.

I think it's party sexism, but mostly about homophobia. Society in general is much more tolerant of lesbianism, than it is about homosexuality. In fact, lesbianism is considered erotic by most straight men. Think of the billions of dollars that are spent by men watching lesbian porn, since the industry became a multi billion dollar industry.

In terms of where sexism comes into it, we live in a society where "acceptable" sexuality is generally defined from a male perspective. What men find sexual appealing, seem to take precedence over what women find sexually appealing.

There used to be equally strict rules about men and women not wearing clothes of the opposite gender. One of the main charges against Joan of Arc for instance was that she had worn men's clothing.

But nowadays nobody seems to be bothered by women wearing trousers etc, whereas the sight of a man in a dress is likely to cause adverse comment.

I do think you are probaby right about there being an element of it being considered demeaning for a man to dress like a woman. It used to be a punishment inflicted on boys in the 19th and early 20th century, being made to wear a dress was a humilation for a boy. I remember in one of the 'Anne of Green Gables' books, Davey, the little boy who is staying at Green Gables is punished on one occasion by being made to wear his sister's apron.

I have to admit that, quite frankly, I would find it a big turn-off if my husband took to wearing a dress. On the other hand, he doesn't have any objection to me wearing jeans, so long as they are tight. It does seem somewhat unreasonable that there should be this different standard, but that's the way I feel about it.

And differences in clothing are not always that evident. In ancient Rome for example the toga was worn by both men and women, there wasn't much difference between what they wore, but the sexes were strongly differentiated between when it came to duties, rights, privilges etc. I think clothing can be a manifestation of differences, but not necesarily. China is another example. Trousers have always been considered normal wear for chinese women, and histroically the differences between men and women's dress in China was minimal compared to the differences in western dress, but women were very much regarded as men's inferiors.

We have yet to evolve. Maybe this whole thing about men thinking they are the superior gender over generations did not allow this thought to evolve and be accepted. Maybe with women gaining more equality,the whole of mankind may start evolving, in relation to stereotype ideas, and start accepting that men and women are equal and see beauty in men wearing women's clothes

I blame Annie Hall. Diane Keaton in a tie, and suddenly women in men's clothes are appealing and fashionable 30 years ago. If it had been Benny Hall, with Woody Allen in a skirt... well, nevermind, still wouldn't have caught on. :)

those are the norms of our culture. If a guy wears a dress, he's going to be laughed at and ridiculed. I wonder what would happen if he tried it in some middle eastern countries? I wonder if he'd be imprisoned or stoned (with rocks) for wearing a dress?

because a woman wearing a mans dress shirt (and nothign else) is extremely sexy, whereas a man wearing a skirt is just kind of dirty and disgusting.