Ms Jillian Clare
TBA
Cross-Dressing Legitimately
Cultural legibility is perpetually inventing its own fashions, symbols, and images as an index of socio-political and cultural norms. It is one thing to understand the corporeal and image shifts and manoeuvres required of transsexual (former) New Zealand Mayor and politician Georgina Sparkes, where the spectacle of the 'real' has been replaced by its image as 'simulacra'. It is another thing to understand the shifts and crossings involved when women leaders newly enter male-defined leadership domains. The crossings, made evident when women take on the garments, symbols and accoutrements of leadership: such as judge's robes and wigs; the uniform and insignia of a General or a Chief Commissioner; and so on, has the power to unsettle assumptions about the homogeneity of leadership. Examining what cross-dressing, in terms of woman as leaders, produces by way of spectacle, is one way of examining the logics and effects of power, and how the appearance of women leaders can disappear in the public gaze. Cross-dressing, as a woman leader, points to the gaps and the differences in image and identity-formation within leadership domains, such as law, business, politics, and the military. This paper examines the tactical manoeuvres deployed by current women leaders, such as judges, commanders, chief commissioners, and politicians, to 'properly' and 'legitimately' appear as leaders in the public domain.
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