Cross-dressing in popular literature

[avrelia]

In another place people were asking about fantasy or sf novel in which a heroine pretends to be a man or a hero pretends to be a woman.

I thought I would remember more such stories, but I didn’t.

So I decided to pick your brain and check whether you know more.

Here is what I remembered:

Tamora Pierce, Song of the Lioness

Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

Then, of course, Eowyn pretends to be a man to combat the forces of Mordor.

Those are neither fantasy nor sf, but are good with cross-dressing:

Gillian Bradshaw, Beacon at Alexandria

Georgette Heyer, The Corinthian
The Masqueraders
These Old Shades

And yet I am sure there are more. Have you read any? Can you recommend anything? Any genre works, if you read it or heard that it is good.

Are there any stories where a man pretends to be a woman (I can immediately name several movies, but no books.)?

There are, of course, classical cases – myths, Shakespeare, folklore, biographies, but I am curious about contemporary books. Can you recommend any?

Comments

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Both hero and heroine are good. In fact, there seems to be a dearth of men pretending to be women in sf and fantasy...

[bibliofilen.livejournal.com]

I was actually thinking more along the way of secondary characters.

It's no surprise that there is a dearth of men choosing a female disguise since there are very few advantages to that as long as we're in a patriarchy. Now if someone wrote of crossdressing men in a matriarchy I'd love to read it!

While that unfortunately wasn't found I did, however, find this while googling: http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Darbys-Duenna-Sheri-South/dp/0966800516/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

It seems that when a man impersonates a woman in fiction or history accounts, he does it for safety or erotic reasons - hiding or gaining entrance to otherwise forbidden place. The example you found does indeed look interesting, and, again movies like Some like it hot immediately come to mind, but strangely this trope isn't that popular in sf, even for comedy purposes.

You are right about patriarchy and possible advantages, but as it seems one of the possibilities of sf and fantasy to create societies with different rules and mores, one can invent the one with other advantages to pretend to be a woman, other that get into a harem. Let's hope we'll read it eventually!