Crossplay
From Free net encyclopedia
Crossplay is cosplay in which the person dresses up as a character of the opposite sex.
In America, males crossplaying as female characters have received some attention on the internet. Characters from Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura are popular with crossplayers, although in Japan, Maria-sama ga Miteru has recently become a popular series to crossplayers.
In Japan female cosplayers dressing as male characters is much more common and is now so widespread and accepted that it does not receive much special attention as a "sub-genre" of cosplay. Handsome bishonen characters from games like Final Fantasy or hollywood movies like Harry Potter are most popular with female cosplayers. Possibly this is because the number of female cosplayers greatly exceeds the number of male cosplayers, leading to a dearth of male cosplayers to fill all the available character roles; and possibly because of the popularity of yaoi-friendly characters with female otaku.
In Japan, male photographers will often ask male crossplayers to pose sexily. Curiously, the female photographers don't. You may find this BBC interview of interest (Realvideo link).