Making a Man of Her

Background

Making a Man of Her was one of several films of this period that featured a cross-dressing female character. In this film, Louise Glaum's character puts on men's clothes in order to secure a job as a cook at a ranch. Superficially, these stories are suppose to be comical and lighthearted. But underneath, they shined a light on the inherent homoerotic nature of being surrounded by men all day, as Laura Horak writes, "cross-dressing... provided a means of visualizing the homoeroticism of gender-imbalanced frontier spaces."

Movie Databases

Making a Man of Her - IMDB
Making a Man of Her - Letterboxd

Essays

Landscape, Vitality, and Desire: Cross-Dressed Frontier Girls in Transitional-Era American Cinema