On Mon, Feb 06, 2006 at 11:04:37AM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 2/5/2006 10:35:52 AM Pacific Standard Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > Actually, I fail to see why dressing up as a woman is funny. > > It's a very british thing. They quite succesfully exported it to > australia. Not sure about the rest of the commonwealth ;-) > > -- > Regards, Lucas > ========= > Yeah, I've seen it mainly (as a big humorous thing) in British TV shows > (exports). Monty Python, Barney Hill, that one where they all work in a > department > store, etc.
What you are missing here, though, is the British tradition of Pantomime (and, for even earlier examples, both Mummers and Morris), where there is always a strong comedy lead played as a cross-dressed 'female'. > I figure the British are really uptight about sex and/or have very strict > gender roles. > Or both. I can assure you, having lived in both societies, that the Americans are far, *far* more uptight about sex than even the most represssed of Brits. Can you imagine a US national newspaper publisher even considering for an instant publishing a topless photograph of a woman? Yet for many years that has been a regular feature of the Sun - so long, in fact, that when Murdoch's publishing group (which owns the Sun) purchased the Times newspaper group Fison's agricultural products took the opportunity to take out a full-page advertisement on page three of the first issue of the Times under the new management (page three is where the Sun pictures appear: see "page three girl" for details). The advertisement featured a topless woman - the Venus de Milo.
