Transworld

A laugh is quite easily elicited from almost all whenever a man is seen in a woman's dress.A transvestite is,i understand,a person who dresses and acts in a style or manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex.This does not necessarily translate to a man in a woman's dress.If the definition of the word is anything to go by,a woman in the traditional attire of men is no exception either.Then why do such a sight instigate a reaction which is something other than a comic one?
Comedienne may be the feminine equivalent of a man who makes others laugh.But isn't it true that almost always the clown is a man?Picture the so-called comic situations,both in real and reel life.The differences in their gender play the least role in people's hilariousness whenever a man is caught unawares,seen crumbling,falling down etc.Both men and women alike laugh out loud at the sight of a man in distress,irrespective of the victim's awareness of the situation that,probably,he himself has brought upon.A far cry from the reaction of the public if a woman were to meet with the same kind of fate.Why is that?
Ever wondered why jokes based on gay relationships are more popular than their lesbian counterparts?Or why a woman who has assumed the role of a man towards another of her sex isn't met with humour as in the case of a man who goes for a reversal of role?
The answer to all these questions is that even in these days of gender equality,deep in our minds we have the strongest of beliefs that men are superior to women in all aspects.It's when a person who is supposed to be authoritative receives a set back that we are prompted to laugh.No such hassles in case of the female of the species because both men and they themselves consider them to be downtrodden.Both think that it's derogatory to be a woman.It's the 'stooping down' of a member of the dominant sex to the level of a woman that triggers the laugh riot as opposed to the skepticism that a woman receives when she 'elevates' herself to the level of a man.And as long as the hierarchy remains so,I have no qualms on being part of an audience which laughs at the feminine attire of a man or his presumptive comical antics.