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Return to Cross-Dressing and Drag Further explanation of the Tur's opinion In this text, author Jacob ben Asher condenses prior rabbinic opinions and offers his own understanding of what the Jewish laws on cross-dressing should be. It is interesting to note that the law, as he defines it, is not parallel for women and for men. Women are prohibited from wearing clothing that is miyuchadin l'ish—"especially for a man." Women are not prohibited from wearing everything that a man wears; only items that are particularly for men in some respect. By contrast here men are prohibited from wearing bigdei isha—"clothing of a woman." Therefore, it seems that the Tur prohibits men from wearing any clothing that women wore. This demonstrates an apparent pattern in many of our texts: options for dress and accessories are being expanded for women and narrowed for men (see for example Rabbi Elizer in the Babylonian Talmud, Nazir 59a). Further on in this chapter, the text goes on to say that men may not even pluck gray hair from their heads, since to do so is the custom of women. In this respect, some traditional Jewish law is quite similar to the culture of the Western world in the twenty-first century. Options for what is "okay" for women to wear in mainstream society continue to expand. For example, it is now generally acceptable for women to wear pants in virtually all situations, and short hair among women has become very common. By contrast, dress and hair standards for men have remained virtually unchanged. It is interesting to note that in this text which items of clothing are designated for men and which fashions are exclusively for women is determined entirely by local customs and fashion standards. Given the fact that community norms fluctuate widely through time and geography it is safe to assume that what was considered "especially for men" in one place would have been quite different in some other corner of the Jewish world. It was, and is, within the power of each community to determine what their dress standards are and how open or how narrow these standards can be.