Out of high school I had a period of shopping in thrift stores, ending up with bags of clothes and little sense of who I was.

Perhaps the Civil War soldier impersonator is trying to access what he feels is a superior masculinity of a previous age, and so it's an erotic experience of sorts.

I've often thought the goal of all imaginative undertakings, including sexuality, is to find a golden middle between the sexes. People layer effects until finding whatever feels workable. I love the 1970s drag performer Jackie Curtis who hacked up an expensive Halston gown and said, "It's a look, isn't it?"