Cult Films- A byproduct of society

Eisenhower prohibited gays and lesbians to work at federal jobs. Ironically, the establishment of these regulations and laws inspired the cult film, Glen or Glenda (1953) by Ed Wood, to question these social values.
             Glen or Glenda, by Ed Wood was originally conceptualized to be a documentary detailing the sex change of New Yorker George Jorgenson but was later adapted by Wood. After Wood restructured the film, Glen or Glenda resembled more of a public address on why a man should wear woman's clothing. Although Wood failed in his attempt to validate, "A man needs to wear comfortable clothing and dress as a women ", he did succeed in gaining attention of a taboo subject. The idea of a man cross-dressing was revisited 6 years later with the highly acclaimed and successful movie Some Like it Hot (1959) by Jonathan L. Bowen.
             The most profound difference between these two films was how Some Like it Hot (1959) by Jonathan L. Bowe validated cross-dressing. In Bowe's film the men who cross-dressed were required to do so in order to avoid the mob. Since this was a matter of survival, the social value system of the 1950's was not blatantly attacked. Never the less, the repeated inundation of this abnormal social behavior forced society to subconsciously establish a new foundation to grant exceptions of societies rules. Although it can be speculated that this film established a change to the social doctrine associated with men who dress like woman it failed to address other situations that a man may wish to appear as a woman. .
             The phenomenon of the cross-dressing taboo was further explored in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), which depicted a deranged, mentally disturbed killer who cross-dressed in his mother's clothing. This film offered a copasetic explanation that appeased the general society by insinuating that the destruction of the nuclear family by a cross-dresser is relative to a mental condition.