Yep. I find this "female clothes => they're trans" pretty questionable. Because… clothes have no gender. Men can wear dresses and heels as well.
And that goes for cis and trans men, I also know some trans guys that just like wearing a skirt.
I am 100% cis straight man; I have been dressed up in drag more than once in my life and even went out in public with it. Its fun! Getting to wear pretty and cute outfits and whatnot.10/10 would do again.
So I totally know where Bugs is coming from in this and it is NO indication of his self-identity.
I agree, but I think this usually comes from a place of Bugs Bunny being many trans women's first introduction to something outside the gender norm, and so they project that back onto the character.
That, or they're t4t and Bugs dressing up made them feel funny as kids in the same way that Robinhood from that one Disney movie did with furries.
There's a pretty large combination of factors that went on from what I remember. Partly it just plain didn't get that hot that often in the UK or France back then. Partly they wore entirely different undergarments that layered to keep sweat off their actual clothes and keep them cool. Partly the summer clothes were often flowy or puffy which helped move air near the skin. And partly the fabrics they wore were different. Things like linen and cotton were the go tos. Even the linen itself was different, modern linen has shorter fibers and is much lighter.
After the great renunciation (when men started wearing the modern(ish) suit) you start to see a lot more references to taking off layers either to cool off or to keep them clean or whatever. You also start to see variations in really hot places like the American deep south and Bermuda to deal with climates that get way way hotter than Europe with its nearby seas and cooling prevailing winds.
Please note that all of this may be wrong and I am entirely going off what I can remember off the top of my head.
There was a period of about a century where temps were lower across Europe called the little ice age. Don’t know if any of these portraits fall in that time frame tho
Those were simpler times, where some adults weren't so insecure they could get offended by cross-dressing.
And then they killed all the Satyr plays because forced insecurities is a great way to make malleable societies upon which to build an empire to benefit the few.