The tolerance Level of Senior High School Students and

Teachers on Cross-dressing of Transwoman

Students at Liloan National High School

Chapter I

RATIONALE

In recent years studies about Crossdressing of transgender are

conducted. Cross Dressing refers to person who dress in clothing

of the opposite gender but do not live full time in that gender. It was

confirmed by Transgender Zone and according to their survey

results majority of the crossdressing aptitude is developed at the

early age (Marciano,1986).

One way in which law has played a role in enforcing gender

norms is by prohibiting cross-dressing. Sumptuary laws were

common in

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medieval Europe, Elizabethan England and colonial North America

and served to regulate public attire according to occupation, class

and gender. Colonial systems exported dress regulations to many

countries around the world. Contemporary sumptuary laws, known

as cross-dressing laws, have been used to target individuals who

transgress gender roles, whether they are gay, lesbian,

transgender or straight (Jan Beck 2018).

Adult men who cross-dress more often identify with wearing

/women's clothing as a means of relaxation and comfort

(Buckner,1970, Buhrich 1978, Woodhouse 1985, Zucker and

Blanchard,1997).

Transgender people are one of the most marginalized and

neglected sectors in the Philippines in terms of human rights

protection, promotion and fulfillment. Transpinays and transpinoys

(transgender/transsexual women and men of Filipino descent)

continue to face barriers in legal recognition, accessing education,

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employment, health care and public accommodations and in

seeking redress as victims of violence and bias-motivated crimes.

Up until the present, transgender Filipinos remain vulnerable to

widespread discrimination based on their gender identity and

gender expression. Filipino transmen and transwomen experience

human rights violations perpetuated both by transphobic State and

non-State actors.

Teenagers who push the limits of school dress codes are nothing

new. Experimenting with clothing, hairstyles, and even make-up is

a way for teens to explore their identities and test the limits of

socially acceptable behavior. Although schools’ officials might find

dress code enforcement challenging, dress code violations in the

past tended to be routine and usually revolved around prohibiting

overtly sexually suggestive clothing. But a new wrinkle in the dress

code debate has developed, with some students demanding to

express their gender or sexual identities by cross gender dressing.

Although cross-gender dressing is not particularly widespread in

schools a
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growing number of students throughout the country have begun

dressing according to the gender identity they have chosen, which

may not necessarily reflect their biological gender. Whether the

student is gay, lesbian, transgender, or just testing the limits of a

school dress-code, the issue has emerged as a dress-code

challenge for many school officials and evolving ideas of

acceptable dress.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has directed the

"strict implementation" of its executive order protecting the

community from gender-based violence and discrimination in

DepEd elementary and high schools across all regions in the

country. LGBTQIA+ advocate Mela Franco Habijan in a Facebook

post Sept. 2 shared DepEd's memo reminding regional directors

and school heads about its E.O. 32 series of 2017, or the Gender

Responsive Basic Education Policy in line with the gradual return to

in-person classes. Habijan has repeatedly called on DepEd—even

writing a letter to its secretary,

Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio — to implement the measure

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which several schools have not been complying with.

Therefore, this study needs more attention for it to be

implemented in schools, including the Liloan National High School.

Through the effort of the researchers, this study aims to identify the

acceptance level of teachers and students in Crossdressing of

trans genders in Liloan National High School.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This study contains the tolerance of the senior high school

students and teachers on cross-dressing of transwoman. This study

is assisted by the Tolerance Theory and Cross-dressing Theory:

cross-dressing and sex changing.

Tolerance Theory
 One premise underlying First Amendment jurisprudence is

the

tolerance theory — the belief that promoting expressive

freedom will make individuals and institutions more open to ideas

than they would be otherwise. Tolerance suggests that Nazis

should be permitted to parade down the streets of Skokie, Illinois,

as in Collin v. Smith (7th Cir. 1978), even though the community is

populated with survivors of the German Holocaust. The reasoning

is that protecting the speech of a Nazi group shields other forms of

political expression. In this photo, Frank Collin, center, leader of the

National Socialist Party of America, announces that the group had

called off its planned march to suburban Skokie, Ill. (AP Photo/Fred

Jewell, used with permission from the Associated Press) According

to Mill, the free exchange of ideas should be encouraged to

promote the discovery of the truth and enhance the cognitive

faculties of individuals. In tolerating or permitting different views to

challenge prevailing opinion, Mill argued that these ideas may be

true, contain part of the truth, or in fact be true themselves. Hence,

toleration and respect for a diversity of viewpoints is grounded in a

utilitarian calculus that stresses that we are all better off in allowing

a diversity of opinions rather than in censoring them.

Lee Bollinger has written a more modern expression of Mill’s

views in The Tolerant Society: Freedom of Speech and Extremist

Speech in America (1986). In that book Bollinger argues from a

standpoint of tolerance in favor of protecting extremist speech. For

example, tolerating extreme speech is important because by being

protected itself, it provides a shield for more mainstream political

discourse. In addition, toleration supposedly reduces racial and

ethnic tensions, diminishes the perception that other individuals are

threats, and encourages respect for the rights of others. Toleration

thus helps to promote a stable and open society — an end good in

itself — but it also makes individuals themselves open to new ideas

and respectful of the rights of others.

Cross-dressing Theory
 The glamour of transvestite fashion is the epitome of 90s

style, but the significance of cross-dressing and sex-changing goes

much deeper than the annals of fashion. Ekins vividly details the

innermost desires and the varied practices of males who wear the

clothes of women for the pleasure it gives them (cross-

dressers), or who wish to change sex and are actively going about

it (sex-changers). (Routledge, 2002)

This preliminary report is a study in grounded theory based

on eleven years of qualitative sociological research with male

cross‐dressers and sex‐changers in the United Kingdom. It reviews

the cognate literature from the standpoint of grounded theory and

re‐conceptualizes the research area in terms of the basic social

process of ‘male femaling’. ‘Male femalers’ are males who wish to

‘female’ in various ways, in various contexts, at various times, with

various staging’s and with varying consequences. Three major

modes of ‘male femaling’ are introduced: ‘body femaling’, ‘erotic

femaling’ and ‘gender femaling’, and set within a phased ‘femaling’

career path. Typical features of each phase are detailed, indicating

oscillations between the major facets of sex, sexuality and gender

frequently confronted in each phase. Reference is made to the

inter‐relations between the three modes of ‘femaling’, to the

categorization’s

‘transvestite’ and ‘transsexual’, and to the constitution of

‘femaling’ self and world as being variously sexed, sexualized and

gendered (Richard Ekins, 1993).

The Tolerance Level of Senior High School Students and

Teachers on cross-dressing of Transwoman Students at Liloan
National High School

Cross-dressing
Tolerance Theory
Theory

Senior High School

Students and Teachers

Tolerance Level
 10

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study determined the tolerance level of cross-dressing of

transwoman students by the senior high school students and

teachers at Liloan National High School during the year 2022 as

basis for recommendations.

Specifically, this study answered the following questions:

1. What is the tolerance level of students at Liloan National High

School on cross-dressing of transwoman students?

2. What is the tolerance level of teachers at Liloan National High

School on cross-dressing of transwoman students?

3. Is there a significant difference between teacher and student

tolerance?

4. Based on the findings, what recommendations can be made?

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SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

This study is focused on the tolerance level of senior high

school students and teachers on cross-dressing of transwoman

students of Liloan National High School.

The information needed to gather data in this study is

through a survey questionnaire made by the researchers in order to

measure the level of tolerance of the senior high school students

and teachers regarding the cross-dressing of transwoman students.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research will make a significant contribution to

understanding the tolerance level of senior high school students

and teachers on cross-dressing of transwoman students. The

findings of this study could be extremely important and beneficial to

the following:

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Transwoman Students. The findings of this study will be beneficial

to the transwoman students. The transwoman students will be

given an idea on what the other students and teachers can tolerate

about them.

Students. This study can be used as a guide by the students on

how to treat transwoman students. In this research, students will be

knowledgeable or understand more about transwoman students.

Teachers. This study would greatly help teachers in the means of

understanding and accepting transwoman's way of valuing

themselves and their chosen preferences to show the real them.

Future Researchers. The outcome of this study will benefit the

future researchers. This research could be their future reference

about the tolerance level of senior high school students and

teachers on cross-dressing of transwoman students.

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DEFINITION OF TERMS

Cross-dressing – In our study, cross-dressing is the most wanted

to implement to all transwoman students in our school. They want

the cross-dressing to be approved or accepted by the students and

teachers.
Tolerance – In our study, tolerance is used as the basis of all

students and teachers to consider all transwoman who cross-dress

inside the school.

Transwoman – Refers to the students who is willing to pursue for

their rights to cross-dress inside the school premises. Is also to

fight their beliefs that wearing women’s clothing doesn’t define your

intelligence in academics.

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Chapter II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Tolerance Level

Tolerance and prejudice are theoretically and empirically

distinct phenomena (e.g., Gibson, 2006; Hjerm et al., 2019; Klein &

Zick, 2013; Verkuyten et al., 2020). People can have negative

beliefs and feelings about a group but nevertheless support the civil

liberties of that group to live the life that they want. They can accept
practices and beliefs of those whom they dislike, disapprove of, or

disagree with. Furthermore, people can reject specific practices

(e.g., ritual slaughter of animals) of a group (e.g., Jews, Muslims) to

whom they have neutral or even positive feelings (Hurwitz &

Mondak, 2002; Van der Noll, 2014). Consequently, previous

research has found mixed results for the relation between tolerance

and prejudice (e.g., Fairlamb & Cinnirella, 2020). Since the two

forms of tolerance differ in their general reasons for allowing

minority groups to live their own way of life, the association

between tolerance and prejudice might depend on the specific form

of tolerance. This would further validate

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the meaningfulness of making a distinction between the two forms

and shed light on the extent to which tolerance and prejudice co-

occur.

Respect-based tolerance focuses on the civic status of

minority members as autonomous members of society. When

people respect members of another group as equals, it is likely that

they are not strongly negative towards this group. In research

among Tea Party supporters (Simon et al., 2018), it was found that

respect for homosexuals and Muslims as equal fellow citizens goes

together with more positive attitudes towards those out-groups.

Furthermore, a study in Sweden found respect-based tolerance to

be associated with lower prejudice towards immigrants (Hjerm et

al., 2019; but see Klein & Zick, 2013). Therefore, we expected that

stronger endorsement of respect tolerance is associated with lower

prejudice towards (immigrant) minorities (Hypothesis 2).

The coexistence conception of tolerance focuses on societal

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harmony and the peaceful functioning of society. Its instrumental

and more conditional nature makes it morally less imperative than

respect tolerance. Coexistence tolerance is a question of societal

risks and opportunities in a given time and place and emphasizes

that majority and minority groups live together in society. This might

imply a less clear and robust association with prejudice towards

minorities. For instance, Klein and Zick (2013) found no

independent relation between coexistence tolerance and prejudice.

In some situations, also people with prejudicial feelings might be

willing to accept others in order to prevent conflicts and secure

peaceful coexistence. They may think that in given circumstances it

is in society’s best interest to tolerate minorities to live the life that

they want. However, in other situations prejudiced people might feel

that suppression and exclusion rather than tolerance is in the best

interest of society. Thus, we will explore how coexistence tolerance

relates to prejudicial feelings, and whether it is associated with

prejudice independently of respect tolerance.

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Additionally, we examined whether the relations between the

two forms of tolerance and prejudice are similar for four types of

immigrant target groups (Western, non-Western, Muslim, non-

Muslim). It is possible, for example, that the coexistence-prejudice

association is more pronounced for immigrant groups that are

considered culturally more dissimilar, than for other groups for

instance accepted for pragmatic reasons. However, for principally

based respect tolerance, the relations with prejudice are likely to be

the same across different types of immigrant groups.

2.2 Cross-dressing

(Prerna Prakash, 2018) Many things in society are looked

down upon, from homosexuality, to going against the

heteronormative gender roles. One of the things that has always

made people frown is the idea of cross dressing and its

implications.

Cross dressing is something that has been going on for ages, and

yet; men who dress up as women are ridiculed, to a point of making

them ashamed of their identities. There have been many TV series

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and shows that made fun of men who enjoyed dressing up in what

is women's clothing. However, clothing does not need to be gender

normative, and making it so is only leading in limiting people who

may not identify with the gender they are born as.
 (Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, 2014) Cross-dressing covers a huge

range and can go from donning one or two items of women's

clothing, usually undergarments, for the purposes of arousal and

masturbation, to spending days or weeks living and performing as a

woman. It is quite remarkable that these widely different activities

fall under the same umbrella. Often a cross-dresser, especially one

with experience, will receive little or no sexual frisson from cross-

dressing and certainly will not maintain a state of arousal during the

entire episode. Indeed, as the cross-dresser matures, the sexual

aspect diminishes and an interest in the growth and development of

one's “woman-self” increases. What I have called the “committed

cross-dresser” is interested in discovering more about his her-self

and exploring his feminine side than he is about sexual release

(Gilbert

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2000: 2). Put simply, what may begin as a fetish need not end

there. V. L. Bullough and B. Bullough (1993: 212) cite Havelock

Ellis's objection to the term transvestite (and presumably cross-

dresser) as putting too much focus on clothing, whereas a great

many cross-dressers care at least as much if not more about the

social role of the woman they portray. For this reason, I would urge

the term cross-gender over cross-dresser.

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