Recursive Crossdressing: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Ronnie Barker:''' You'll have to bear with me, because remember, I'm a woman playing a man who is playing a woman -- aren't I dear?<br />

Often this overlaps with [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] and [[Wholesome Crossdresser]].

** A later chapter features an event hosted by the Peacock where the talent managers dress in drag, including Yukari.

** She ''also'' dresses in 17th century French "drag" for a host club event, as seen [[media:host_club_smallerhost club smaller.jpg|here]].

* Played with in [[Family Compo]]: for Masahiko's entry ceremony, he asks his [[Cross DresserCrossdresser|crossdressing]] [[Nephewism|aunt and uncle/adoptive parents]] to dress according to their biological sex. [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/family_compo/v01/c004/10.html The result] [[Hilarity Ensues|isn't what he expected]]. They look like genuine crossdressers, but are in fact Recursive Crossdressers.

* [[Wholesome Crossdresser|Minoru]] in ''[[AKB49: Ren'ai Kinshi Jourei|AKB 49 Renai Kinshi Jourei]]'' claims to be working in a crossdressing café when he was caught by his senior in his normal male self. Luckily for him, she was convinced and was even impressed by the perfectness of his "disguise".

* ''[[Transamerica]]'', like many works where a non-TG actress plays a TG character, provides an example from the perspective of [[Real Life]]. Actress Felicity Huffman plays Bree, awho is male-to-female [[Transsexualtransgender]]. Thus, in scenes where the preoperative Bree is cross-dressing, a woman is playing a biologically male character who is taking on the typical appearance of a woman.

** In ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'', protagonist Polly Perks {{spoiler|(along with her fellow women-disguised-as-men from the squad)}} dresses up as a washerwoman to sneak into an occupied fortress. Which, as she points out, means she's a woman disguised as a man disguised as a woman. True to the trope, their "disguise" as women is immediately caught when they try to enter, and one of their number (who is with child) winds up having to prove her gender in the most obvious way possible. Meanwhile, the actual man who disguised himself as a woman gets in without a hitch, which irks Polly to no end. This is even more convoluted at the end, when {{spoiler|the entire squad is discovered to be actually female, brought up on charges for dressing like men, which is illegal, and their lawyers point out they are actually dressed as washerwomen.}} Polly turns down an offer of male clothing because "Then I'd be a woman dressed as a man dressed as a woman dressed as a man," which would be too confusing even for ''this'' book.

** Likewise in ''[[Discworld/The Last Continent|The Last Continent]]'' there is a woman who filled in for her brother in his friends' drag act after a nasty surfboarding accident, but after her fellow drag queens get into yet another fight, she decides "Being a female impersonator is no job for a woman."

* A slight twist occurs in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "The Outcast'': an actress plays an androgynous alien who finds itself becoming female due to its attraction for Commander Riker, and has to cover this up because of societal taboo.

* ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'' sends up this trope in "Drew's Inheritance," centered on the [[Hilarity Ensues|wacky hijinx]] resulting from the [[On One Condition|eccentric will]] of the Careys' late eccentric television-and-movies-obsessed relative. His condition for Steve Carey-- aCarey—a [[Wholesome Crossdresser|heterosexual cross-dresser]]-- receiving—receiving his share was to dress like a recursive crossdresser, with a male layer of deception on top. Wearing a suit for such a formal occasion, Steve remarks that he can just dress as he is, and the executor realizes that Uncle Cecil didn't think that one through very far.

{{quote| '''Joey''': In all the original stage productions, the women's parts were actually played by men.<br />

'''Jesse''': Oh, you mean like that weird show we saw in Vegas?<br />

* Happens quite frequently in [[Opera]] -- particularly—particularly when a female singer plays a guy who dresses as a woman at some point.

* The [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] operetta ''[[Princess Ida]]'' has men all-too-ready to crossdress as women, in order to slip into the women's college, where most of the opera takes place. In Gilbert's original play, ''The Princess'', the men were played by women actresses, and after the recursive crossdressing, then spent most of the play dressed as women.

* Chris in ''[[Princess Waltz]]'' is a girl who dresses like the boy she intends to become. At one point she is forced to dress like a female cheerleader by the rest of her class. The main character expects Chris to be angered by this (as she normally blows her top when treated like a girl), but Chris explains she doesn't care that much because she's being treated like a cross-dressing boy.

* Sarah Edmonds was a [[Sweet Polly Oliver]] who enlisted with the Union army during the American Civil War. She spent most of the war working for the intelligence division behind enemy lines, in variousvarious—mostly -- mostly female -- disguisesfemale—disguises.

* If the [[Shakespeare]] example above was not badwasn't enough, there are more than a few recorded instances of women dressing up as men to become actors, possibly adding an extra layer of cross-dressing to an already heavily cross-dressed plot.