Letter to the Editor
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Toronto Star
Re: A husband’s inner femme, Insight Jan. 9
I found the article about heterosexual cross-dressing to be very interesting. As an out cross-dresser, I would like to applaud the Star, writer Helen Wolkowicz and especially Andrew/Linda for the sensitive handling of a much misunderstood and little considered activity.
However, Dr. Oliver Robinow’s statement that cross-dressing is the result of trauma such as divorce or abuse in early childhood is by no means universally accepted. To the contrary, there is widespread disagreement regarding the causes of heterosexual cross-dressing.
One currently popular theory, for example, attributes it to a “wash,” a sudden excess of hormones, at a critical point in fetal development. There are other theories as well. In short, we know that cross-dressing happens, but we do not know why.
Michael A. Gilbert, Professor, Department of Philosophy, York University