"Neither a Man nor a Maid": Sexualities and Gendered Meanings in Cross-Dressing Ballads

Abstract

Most folklorists' readings of transvestite, female-warrior, or cross-dressing ballads have assumed that these songs were about men and their experiences. Recent feminist readings have asserted that they are also about women. However, both assume that the ballads focus upon heterosexual relationships. This perverse reading of ten cross-dressing ballads from Peacock's Newfoundland collection suggests that these songs may explore a range of sexual orientations. WHEN I WAS A YOUNG WOMAN, the Mariposa Folk Festival was an experience of freedom and separation, requiring bus and subway travel from my parents' apartment in Don Mills, and then a ferry across Toronto Harbour to the Toronto Islands. To spend a sunny summer weekend away from the suburbs, surrounded by trees, water, and music was to be literally and figuratively transported to other historic and symbolic locations. It was probably at Mariposa that I first heard transvestite, warrior-maiden, female-sailor, or, as I call them here, cross-dressing ballads, likely sung by strong women folksong-revival performers like Frankie Armstrong.1