Chaesu-gut (체수굿)

During the sequential performance of the twelve segments that comprise a typical chaesugut, the mansin wears more than half male costumes. The most interactive and dynamic portions of the gut usually occur during the mansin’s possession by the pyolsang (spirits of the other world) and the greedy taegam (the overseer), which require male costumes. That cross-dressing serves several purposes. First, since both male and female spirits often possess the man sin and can thus become an icon of the opposite sex, she uses the attire of both sexes. In the Korean context of entrenched Confucian values, with women subjected to the rule of men, the female mansin’s cross-dressing becomes complex and multi-functional.