Why aren't women who wear pants considered to be transvestites?

Question

Why aren't women who wear pants considered to be transvestites?

Answer 1

Because the very first pair of pants were worn by Egyptian belly dancers...  women.  Then they were adapted for cold climates, where both the males and females of the Eurasian Nomads wore them.

Answer 2

Because women who wear pants aren't generally trying to pass themselves off as men.  I wouldn't call a man who wore a skirt a transvestite if it comes to that, unless he was wearing makeup and a wig and false b*****s etc and trying to make himself look like a woman.

There are plenty of other societies other than western where trousers are considered normal wear for women, and even more appropriate for women than dresses.  I remember years ago when I was collecting my oldest son from school I heard a Muslim woman having a conversation with her friend.  She said that as the weather was really hot she had asked her husband if she could wear a skirt instead of the trousers that were considered more respectable.  he said no, but she could wear shorts if she wanted to.  As the woman pointed out in exasperation to her friend, the shorts that her husband had said she could wear were actually more reveailing than the skirt she had wanted to wear, but because shorts officialy counted as trousers, her husband viewed them as more modest and appropriate for his wife.

Answer 3

The idea of transvestites is a deviation to the social convention that it is healthy for boys to want to be boys, and for girls to want to be girls.

For many years women did not wear trousers out of social convention.  During WWII women took jobs that were traditionally done by men.  With many of these jobs the women wore their husband's trousers simply because it was the only practical way to dress for the work. After the war, women were used to wearing trousers and continued to wear them because they were comfortable.  Of course society claimed that these women were trying to "act like men", or they were doing this because, "they were jealous of men".

Society attempted to drive women back to their place before WWII.  Churches would not allow women in their congregations to wear pants.  Places of employment would not allow their women employees to wear pants.  Women who wore pants were thought of as being less feminine.  Women were encouraged to be more feminine.  Fashion did not include women in pants.  However, women continued to wear trousers and pants.  Slowly clothing manufacturers responded by introducing, "pedal pushers" and other female wear of trousers.  Women continued wearing pants and clothing manufacturers have found that there is a good market for feminine pants.  In the late 1970's the first "designer jeans" were made.

Nowadays women wear pants more often than skirts or dresses.  They do so because they have earned the right.  They have changed social convention.

The old social beliefs that healthy boys should be happy being boys, and healthy girls should be happy being girls still hold true today.  Girls who wear pants are no longer considered as trying to act like boys.  What defines social convention is always being changed.  Perhaps some day boys will challenge social convention and wear skirts.

Answer 4

Because this isn't the 19th century. :]

Answer 5

Because transvestites aren't just wearing an article of women's clothing. They are wearing earrings, makeup, wigs, high heels etc...

The equivalent in women would be a woman wearing men's pants, shoes, tie, jacket, haircut  and a glue-on mustache or beard.

Answer 6

Because women won the right to wear pants and still be considered women. Voting rights movements, women's rights, etc. contributed to the 'right' of women to wear pants usually without harassment and almost always without being considered transvestites. If men want the right to wear 'female' clothes (and most people wouldn't understand why a man would fight to lose masculine/male privelege), they can do so.

Consider the dictionary definition of transvestite: A person, especially a male, who assumes the dress and manner usually associated with the opposite s*x.

So if you take the 'manner' of a person to be as or more important, most women wearing pants are not acting particularly masculine. Thus they're not considered transvestites. Now, there are women who act masculine, and wear pants; and they can be women, transvestite or not. Sexuality, BTW, has nothing to do with it; a masculine woman can be straight or L*****n.

So can a woman wearing pants (and probably other 'male' attire) and having the mannerisms of a 'man' be a transvestite? Yes. So sometimes they are considered transvestites; simply not usually.

Answer 7

The world is ok with women wearing pants but men wearing skirts people find it weird. I don't care be happy if a man wants to wear a skirt go for it I have their back.

Answer 8

Because society says it's ok for a chick to wear pants.

If you're a man who likes to wear dresses though...well, sucks to be you.

Answer 9

Because men who wear kilts are never labeled as being anything other than manly men.

Answer 10

Because women are not expected to exhibit integrity or to follow any sort of rubric-- all they are needed for (as society has determined) is their looks.

Answer 11

why aren't guys that wear kilts girls

Answer 12

In the US in the 1930's women who wore pants WERE considered to be cross-dressing.  When Marlene Dietrich the movie star did it, she was considered a cross dresser.  Even when Katherine Hepburn wore pants it was considered strange.  Pants didn't really become vogue for women until the WWII years, when women worked all the jobs left by the men.  They wore pants because they were more utile than dresses at work - climbing around planes, etc.  

In the 1960's girls were still required to wear dresses to school.  It wasn't until the early 1970's when girl's were allowed to wear pants suits to school.  Jeans were for Friday.  

Answer 13

For the same reason that men who wear Kilts aren't.

Answer 14

because girls can do pretty much anything and make it look glamorous :D

Answer 15

Because we don't wear men's pants.  We wear women's pants.  

If men had men's skirts they wouldn't be transvestites either.  Just imagine a man in a long narrow pinstripe skirt, with a smart shirt and a jacket and tie, at the office.  He might look odd, but he'd still look like a man in a skirt instead of a man trying to dress as a woman.

Answer 16

Because they aren't packin' a pickle.

Answer 17

good question.

Wearing pants is uni-s*x. It's like wearing a toque, hat, scarf, etc.

Fashion is becoming a little more unisex, like purses, they are making purses for men, usually called man-bags.

Answer 18

He he. Indeed, a skirt seems to be exclusively female for some reason (yeah we know all about kilts, no-one really wears them! Except at weddings).

The only near comparison are sarongs that men wear on the Indian sub-continent.

Answer 19

Because pants look hot too dumbA$$

PS and because transvestites are half and half doesn't matter what their wearing.

Answer 20

Um... because that doesn't make them transvestites?

Meanwhile, are do men who wear kilts not considered transvestites?