Oh boy, I love a man in a dress

Liz Hoggard
24 Mar 2009

When Jason Donovan stepped on stage last night in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, clad in sequins and make-up, he crossed an important cultural line. The married father of two, who once sued The Face magazine for claiming he was gay, is now quite comfortable in a dress.

There's no denying the fascination that drag holds for men. "It is a wonderful excuse for me to live out my fantasy," said Donovan.

Neither is he the only one indulging a secret passion for cross-dressing. Jude Law plays a transvestite supermodel in his latest film, Rage, a murder mystery set in the world of high fashion. Ang Lee has cast Liev Schreiber (Mr Naomi Watts) as a dress-wearing security guard in his new comedy, Taking Woodstock. And Graham Norton is the toast of the West End in La Cage aux Folles at the Playhouse.

It's no surprise that the entertainment industry loves a good frock, with its intimations of disguise, deceit and mistaken identity. From Shakespeare to panto, it's the safest way to transgress.

Even conservative Hollywood agrees. Some Like It Hot was voted the funniest movie of all time by the American Film Institute, with Tootsie coming in second place. (Dustin Hoffman was furious when people laughed at him as Dorothy in Tootsie. He truly believed that, as a handsome man, he also made the best-looking woman.)

Now here's my confession: I love a man in a dress. For me, there's nothing to beat that thrill of seeing your "gender opposite" wearing your clothes. Growing up in the 1980s, the sexiest men seemed to wear ballgowns with Doc Martens. There's something so appealing about a man who wears his masculinity lightly.

For one thing, it signals a man who's secure in his sexuality. Think David Beckham in a sarong. Or butch film director Steve McQueen wearing his "man-skirt" by Yamamoto.

Maybe Beckham was ahead of the curve, but McQueen is right on the money. Commes des Garçons, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs were pioneering the gender-bending trend for the male skirt at New York Fashion Week this January. And the last time I saw Grayson Perry, I swear we were wearing matching outfits from Whistles.

Over the years I've had serial crushes on Eddie Izzard, David Walliams and Rupert Everett (who based his headmistress in St Trinians on Camilla Parker Bowles). When I saw Walliams wearing a delicate coral silk Stella McCartney dress with bare, hairy legs, I just thought: "Wow, he's hot!"

For decades girls have experimented with smoking jackets, cropped hair and biker boots and still kept our feminity. It's time to offer equal clothing rights to men.