Regular poster but NC as this is outing.
I've recently seen several different performances from a rep company and it's made me muse on the subject of men in dresses.
The nature of the company and the plays they put on means that in some roles the sexes have been switched so a woman plays a role originally intended for a man but as a woman, and vice versa. All quite standard.
In some cases however, men are required to play women and women to play men. Again, not unusual.
When the women play men, they may play it for laughs but it doesn't have much of an effect. Women in men's clothes or with fake beards aren't automatically funny apparently.
Where the men play women, simply seeing men in dresses provokes much hilarity. The hilarity is accepted and expected.
I'm assured some people find Mrs Brown's Boys hilarious. Again, largely due to a man in women's clothes. Same with pantomime dames.
There are some similarities with drag, though I know that's a grey area now with some claiming to be TW.
All these scenarios appeal to different audiences, but the reaction is always that laughter based merely on appearance and not the performance is accepted and expected.
If any of these men dressed in this manner and said they identified as women, they would be told how fabulous they were, how amazing they look. There would be no place for even the slightest snigger at a male with a beard in a dress. There would also be abuse, for sure, but that's not my point.
I don't personally find such things amusing because I don't think a man is demeaned by wearing a dress and we should be past that.
I'm just confused. Aren't actors / theatres all very progressive and TWAW? Does the BBC have no issue with Mrs Brown's Boys given their stance on these matters?
Why is it sometimes ok to find it funny/unexpected to see a male wearing a dress and other times not?