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Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 298 – Our F/Favorite Tropes Part 15: Gender Disguise

Saturday, October 19, 2024 - 07:00

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 298 – Our F/Favorite Tropes Part 15: Gender Disguise - transcript

(Originally aired 2024/10/19 - listen here)

Usually I like to intersperse the trope shows with other topics, but I realized that the show I’m working on about “lesbians and the law” is going to need more time for background reading, so I thought I’d toss in another quick-and-easy trope topic: gender disguise.

To recap about the trope shows: I’m examining popular historic romance tropes and how they work differently for female couples as opposed to mixed-gender couples, and in some cases in contrast with male couples. As used for romance novels, tropes are a motif, a character type, or a type of relationship that repeats across multiple books and which creates certain types of reader expectations and experiences. In general I’m focusing on tropes that do have a gendered element to them, either in terms of the types of activities engaged in by women versus men, or where the social dynamics of a situation rely on assumptions about gendered interactions and their implications.

Today, I’m going to talk about gender-disguise plots, where one (or sometimes both) of the romantic leads are moving through the world as a different gender than the one they identify with. I want to be clear that I’m focusing very narrowly on situations where the character considers what they’re doing to be a disguise—usually a temporary one—and not situations of trans identity or gender transgression. Those are both important topics when developing sapphic historicals, but they’re out of scope for today’s discussion.

Gender Disguise in Male-Female Romances

So let us consider the gender disguise plot in male-female romance novels. Most typically this involves the heroine disguising herself as a man, or often as a boy, to account for issues of physical appearance. This disguise can serve various functions in the plot. It can give her access to greater agency and the opportunity to pursue adventures (or escape perils). It can give her access to masculine social spaces that enable her to interact with the hero more closely than would be acceptable for a woman. And it can remove the assumption of romantic or sexual potential from her interactions with the hero.

From a narrative point of view, another consequence of a disguised heroine is the introduction of the concept of male-male romance, within a framework where the reality of that possibility will be defused by a heterosexual resolution. When the hero is aware of the disguise (or becomes aware of it in the course of the plot), then the homosexual implications may be displaced onto the perception of side characters who sense that there’s something more than friendship going on. During the portion of the story where the hero is not aware of the disguise, that tantalizing possibility may appear as his confusion or ambiguity about his response to the heroine.

Georgette Heyer makes creative use of gender disguise plots, as in The Corinthian where the hero abets the heroine to cross-dress in order to escape an arranged marriage, with the two then having adventures and falling in love, traveling as a man and his young male ward, with the public masquerade put off until after the final scene when the two kiss passionately in view of a coach full of travelers. More complexly, in These Old Shades the hero is well aware of the heroine’s identity when he first encounters her disguised as a boy, but he helps maintain the masquerade as part of a complex revenge plot until his strategy requires him to re-introduce her to society as a well-bred young lady. But the most complex disguise plot—and the one best illustrating the social implications—is The Masqueraders, in which a brother and sister both cross-dress (in order to hide from political enemies) giving each social access to the characters who will become their romantic interests. Having a male character believably disguised as a woman, without making it a subject of ridicule, is something of a bold move. After all is revealed, the story acknowledges that his interactions with his beloved during the period when she believed him to be a woman were potentially problematic, but his recognition of this helps regain her trust.

In summary, gender disguise within a male-female romance creates the illusion of a lack of sexual tension and a lack of social impropriety, while creating the reality of actual impropriety and the probability of suppressed sexual tension.

Gender Disguise in Female-Female Romances

This situation is reversed in most gender disguise plots involving two women. We once more have several variables. Is the non-disguised woman aware of the disguise? Are either or both of them awake to the possibilities of same-sex romance before they’re thrown together? After all, in a male-female romance, it can generally be assumed that both characters are aware of the romantic potential of different-sex pairings. But that can’t always be assumed for same-sex pairings.

So let’s look at some possibilities. First of all, when one of the women is disguised as a man, that constrains the approved social interactions they can engage in. The disguised character won’t have the automatic access to privacy and intimacy with the non-disguised character that another woman would be granted. So either any courtship will need to develop along the same lines as it would for a male-female couple, or the disguised character may reflexively assume that she can interact as she would as a woman, resulting in misunderstandings or social scandal. If the non-disguised woman is aware of the disguise, she too may forget to behave appropriately for interactions with a man.

If the disguised woman is aware of having a romantic interest in women, then the disguise may well be part of a strategy to further this interest. Or she may try to resist falling in love, knowing that the disguise means the other woman can’t fully consent to the courtship. Alternately, it may be that unintentionally attracting the romantic attention of a woman (due to the disguise) is what awakens the disguised woman to the possibility of loving someone of the same sex.

From the point of view of the non-disguised character, does she think she’s falling in love with a woman or with a man? If she thinks that she’s attracted to a man, then at some point when the disguise is revealed there will be a reckoning not only about the deceit but about her emotions. If she is aware of the disguise but had not previously been attracted to women, the illusion of interacting with a male character may create a space where she can imagine and act on same-sex desire. Or in a different twist, what if she has only previously been attracted to women and now is reconsidering that when she believes she’s attracted to a man? There’s a lot of potential for a complicated resolution if the disguised woman believes that revealing her identity will mean losing her love, when in fact it’s a source of relief and joy on the other side.

Any gender disguise plot will need to account for why the masquerade exists, which will have plot implications. Was it meant to be a brief lark, as for a fancy-dress ball or theatrical performance? Was it driven by some necessity that means there are more dangers in dropping the masquerade than its impact on the romance? Was it done for practical purposes and will create logistical complications if abandoned?

Will the masquerade be abandoned? Has our cross-dressing heroine painted herself into a corner where she needs to contemplate continuing it indefinitely? At this point we’re edging into transgender territory regardless of how the character views her identity. But what are the consequences of returning to presenting as a woman? Is she returning to a previous identity or creating a new one? And how will that identity now interact with her beloved?

Since we’re talking about romance novels, we assume that the two characters will end up together, regardless of how they met, but their circumstances should make sense as a natural consequence of what came before.

What About Gender Disguise in Male-Male Romances?

I don’t always include a consideration of how these tropes work for male couples, but there are some interesting considerations to that aspect. For one, there were definitely historic contexts where a man disguised as a woman might intersect romantic attraction. Theatrical contexts are one obvious situation where the fuzzy border of playacting could provide space for negotiating something more serious. During various eras, cross-dressing was an accepted aspect of gay male culture, so the ambiguity between cultural cross-dressing and sincere gender disguise could create interesting plot possibilities. The same issues of knowledge, consent, and betrayal are present as for female couples, but perhaps with awareness of the greater social taboo for men. But conversely, the practical advantages of male cross-dressing are much smaller, so the motivation for doing so needs careful attention.

Conclusions

Today, the use of gender-disguise plots carries a number of considerations that might have been absent even as recently as a decade or so ago. Many readers will want to know that the story is not erasing, appropriating, or mocking trans identities. There’s also a tricky line to walk between what your characters would reasonably think about gender identity and presentation within their own historic context, and how your readers think about those subjects today, with our broader views on gender identity and presentation. But the dynamics of gender disguise still offer some great fodder for romantic complications if done in a thoughtful manner.

Show Notes

In this episode we talk about:

  • My definition of gender-disguise plots
  • The dynamics of gender disguise in m/f romance
  • The dynamics and considerations of gender disguise in f/f romance
  • Some considerations of gender disguise in m/m romance

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

Links to Heather Online

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