All LHMP event / person tags

Authors who frequently includes descriptions of sex between women in literary works (individual works may also be tagged)

Female Husband - As defined for "historic crossdressing" but where a person living as male enters into marriage or a marriage-like relationship with a woman. This category includes some individuals who could be interpreted as trans men.

As defined for cross-dressing in general, but specifically for the purpose of entering the military. (Sailors may fall in this or the general group depending on the nature of the service.)

Any instance (either historic or fictionalized--I've lumped them together) where the motivation for passing as male is to enter a religious profession restricted to men or to escape a heteronormative life in order to pursue a religious vocation. In the latter case, the cross-dressing may be temporary and the religious profession may be entered as a woman. I've kept the label "transvestite saint" that is used in the literature, although in general I've avoided the word "transvestite" as outdated and carrying implications of identity rather than behavior.

This group covers works where cross-dressing in a work of literature creates a context for either the appearance or the reality of same-sex desire. This can include a woman desiring another woman who is presenting as a man, but it can also include encounters between a woman and a man who is presenting as a woman.

This category covers literary characters who are portrayed as being in intense romantic friendships with other women where there is no overt erotic component and typically where they are not living as a committed couple.

This group covers literary examples of romantic love between women that is presented as the equivalent of a heterosexual bond, or that clearly has an erotic component. The dividing line between this group and "Romantic Friendship" is fuzzy, but characters are more likely to be classified as Same-Sex Love if they share living arrangements, present themselves as a bonded couple, actively avoid marriage or relationships with men, or had a clear or strongly implied physical relationship.

Authors (or their works) describing gender or sexuality issues as non-fiction

Poetic works or authors of works that feature depictions of romantic love or desire between women.

Historic cases of women who had documented sexual relationships with women, or whose contemporaries are recorded as believing they did. This group collects cases that don't fall in a more specific category.

17th century English play with orientalist themes in which a woman disguised as a boy attracts a woman’s erotic desire.

17th century English play in which a female character makes sexualized overtures to a woman as part of serving a man’s purpose.

17th century English play where the female protagonist in male disguise flirts with other women to divert their attention from the man she desires.

19th century German novel with subversive, cross-dressing working class characters.

Late 19th century English(?) novel including an obsessive emotional relationship in the context of a girls’ school.

12th century writer in Arabic who discusses why women might prefer lesbianism.

19th century African-American women whose correspondence records an erotic friendship that their community considered marriage-like. 

Note: there are two separate plays by this title but sources aren’t always clear which is being discussed. This tag identifies the later work with a stronger depiction of love between women. 18th century English play about two women competing for the love of the same man. The play ends tragically with the women bonded together.

9th century writer in Arabic who discusses a wide variety of topics related to lesbianism.

10th century Arabic collection of lyrics and poetry that includes several works referirng to sex between women. (Full title “Kitab Al-Aghani” or “Book of Songs”.)

19th century German novel in which foreign cross-dressing woman critiques gender concepts.

12th century French story in which a man disguising himself as a woman to get a woman in bed has to explain his penis as being “purchased in the market”.

19th century English adventure story (in the Allan Quatermain cycle) that includes a literally monstrous female character whose jealousy over the title character results in tragedy.

14th century Spanish romance that includes a cross-dressing female knight who attracts a woman’s desire and returns it.

An erotic poem (Italian, 1727) from one lady to another.

Anandrine Sect - A fictitious secret lesbian sex club of later 18th century France to which were attributed bizarre and scandalous sexual rituals.

An 18th century English marriage record lists this couple with no comment, although both appear to have female names.

12th century sister of King Ottokar I of Bohemia who fled an unwanted marriage in male disguise and became a nun. Her story is similar to some semi-fictional saints lives from the early Christian era.

18th century French woman who cross-dressed to serve in the army.

18th century English couple, complicated by the class differential between working-class poet Yearsley and her bluestocking mentor More.

18th century German woman who cross-dressed to serve in the military.

18th century English devoted romantic friends, though they never had the opportunity to share a home.

18th century English woman who had passionate friendships/partnerships with women that were widely rumored to be sexual.

An 18th century French woman who, when she confessed to a priest that she was in love with a woman, was told that it meant she must actually be a man. Anne lived as a man for a while and married a woman, but later the authorities changed their mind about her.

18th century English play that includes a close emotional bond between a maidservant and her mistress.

17th century English play in which a woman in male disguise is accused of being seduced by another woman and they--with her gender revealed--taunt the accusers by acknowledging they have shared a bed.

16th century English work in which a man disguises himself as an Amazon to gain access to the woman he desires. Includes her internal struggles to accept love for (who she believes to be) a woman.

16th century English play. One of Shakespeare’s several works that feature women falling in love with cross-dressed women.

Classical Greek author of an epigram implying a lesbian relationship.

19th century Swedish writer who satirized his ex-wife as a lesbian, with explicit sexual descriptions.

Persian intellectual (980-1037) whose medical writings include a discussion of female sexual response, with including sex between women.

18th century English person born Barbara Hill and living as a man (John Brown) recorded as having married a woman who continued the relationship after the matter became public.

9th century courtesan and Arabic-language poet openly known to enjoy sex with women.

17th century Italian woman who had sexual relations with a fellow nun in a complex context of religious mania.

17th century Dutch couple. Maeyken left a husband and children to court Bertelmina under the name Pieter Verburgh, and they became betrothed and engaged in a sexual relationship, although Maeyken was not living as a man at the time. Maeyken then began wearing male clothing and using the name Abraham Joosten and the two were married, but Maeyken/Abraham was later tried for “sodomy” and exiled.

The valkyrie Brynhildr has connections to the “maiden warrior” motif appearing in medieval Norse sources, which typically includes cross-dressing.

14th century English poem consisting of linked travelers tales. The Parson’s tale includes reference to “sodomy” by women, but this is not necessarily a reference to homosexual activity.

A 15-16th century Venetian charitable institution for “at risk girls” that considered the potential for homoerotic relationships.

A 17th century Basque person, assigned female, who fled a convent and lived as a man, including spending time in the military in the New World. Late in life, Catalina was given Papal permission to continue living as a man.

18th century German woman who cross-dressed to serve in the military.

18th century German women who married while Linck was passing as a man, though she did not do so consistently.

18th century English passionate friends who wrote about trying to arrange to spend their lives together.

16th century Roman courtesan described by Firenzuola as loving women “lasciviously.”

18th century English actress who specilized in “breeches roles” and cross-dressed regularly in ordinary life as well. She had at least one long-term relationship with a woman that is strongly implied to be sexual. Charke occasionally lived as a man for limited periods, raising the possibility of a transgender identity.

An English ballad (1683) involving marriage to a cross-dressed woman.

18th century English woman who cross-dressed to enlist in search of her husband.

12th century English woman who cross-dressed to flee an unwanted marriage and became a nun. Her story is similar to some semi-fictional saints biographies of the early Christian era.

18th century English novel in which two female friends are separated tragically by a jealous and controlling male suitor.

16th century English play in which a gender disguised woman acknowledges the suggestion that women may desire her.

18th century (?) Dutch couple. Cornelia and Elisabeth began a sexual relationship as women. Cornelia began living as a man in order for them to marry but then returned to living as a woman.

17th c English play involving predatory lesbian themes.

19th century German heroic poem in which a princess cross-dresses to avenge her family.

18th century American woman who cross-dressed to serve in the army.

19th century English novel that includes a predatory homoerotic episode between the protagonist and her employer.

2nd century Roman rhetorical dialogues (written in Greek) that include both lesbian and transgender subject matter.

16th century Portuguese play in which a woman in male disguise first flirts with a woman to distract her from their common love interest, but later offers love more sincerely when the other woman is dying of a broken heart.

15th century Arabic writer who makes passing reference to lesbianism.

17th century French woman who cross-dressed to take a military role.

A collection of early medieval Norse tales, including some involving a woman cross-dressing and taking a male role to avenge a father.

12th century Queen of England said to have cross-dressed to escape her husband in disguise.

16th century Spanish person, assigned female, who began living as a man at ca. 18 years of age and at one point received a court ruling of male status, allowing Eleno to marry a woman. This was later reversed with ensuing complications.

18th (?) century Dutch woman who began a sexual relationship in prison with a fellow female priosoner and unsuccessfully claimed transgender identity in order to marry her.

19th c American woman who passed as a man for economic purposes.

19th century American woman who escaped slavery with her husband by disguising herself as a white man.

19th century Irish immigrant to Australia, assigned female, who lived as a man in Australia, including marrying three women.

19th century American woman who cross-dressed to work as a sailor.

18th century American woman who cross-dressed to work as a sailor.

18th century Empress of Russian who held cross-dressed masques.

17th century English poem that visciously satirizes a female intellectual at court as  a “tribade”.

17th century English boarding school novel with innuendo about the erotic possibilities in single-sex environments.

16th century English epic poem that includes a cross-dressing female knight (Britomart) who attracts a woman’s desire that outlasts the revelation.

19th century American feminist novel that includes a cross-dressing woman and committed female friendships, though there is a heteronormative resolution.

19th century French political activist who cross-dressed as a Turkish man to access the English parliament.

13th century French romance in which a man cross-dresses as a woman to seduce a woman. The work depicts her coming to terms with same-sex desire.

16th century French women who were tried for [sexually] “corrupting each other.”

The 13th century French romance “Galeran de Bretagne” includes the story of “Frene”, also found in the lais of Marie de France, which features themes of female friendship and alliance.

18th century poem celebrating romantic friendship between women.

16th century English play in which two women disguised as men fall in love with each other, believing the other to be an actual man. Their desire for each other outlasts the revelation and the play concludes with a plan to marry if Venus will randomly transform one or the other into a man.

19th century English author (aka Mary Ann Evans) who was the object of a woman’s passionate friendship.

19th century English poem that depicts a close emotionally supportive relationship between two women (identified as sisters) that includes erotically suggestive language.

19th century German novel with cross-dressing and gender-bending themes.

19th century French writer who used themes of decadent lesbian sexuality.

This1624 English medical text recounts a story of a 2nd century Athenian woman who cross-dresses to become a surgeon.

19th century English woman who dressed across gender and class boundaries for political performance art.

18th century English women recorded as a couple in a marriage register.

17th century English medical writer who discussed the function of the clitoris and its relation to lesbianism.

16th century French writer who recorded the trial an execution of an (unnamed) assigned-female person who was discovered living as a man, married to a woman.

18th century Dutch woman, impatient with female social roles who cross-dresses, enlists in the army, and enjoys sexual relations with various women who are aware of the disguise.

Early medieval Norse saga concerning a woman who cross-dresses and takes on a male role to avenge her father.

18th century Dutch novel depicting two women in a marriage-like relationship.

11th century German abbess who had a passionate and possessive friendship with a female protegee. She was a prominent author and composer.

Early medieval germanic legendary histories that include several stories of women cross-dressing to temporarily take a male role.

Early 20th century English novel. A semi-autobiographical novel of the author’s relationship with a woman and involvement in the suffrage movement.

Il Pastor Fido (The faithful shepherd) appeared in many adaptations of the 1590 Italian original by Guarini, including a 1647 English translation by Fanshawe and another 17th century English adaptation by Dymock. In the context of a kissing game among (female) nymphs, the shepher Mirtillo disguises himself as a woman  to gain access to the woman he desires.

17th century German woman who passed as a man and twice married a woman.

17th century English play based on Ovid’s story of Iphis and Ianthe, q.v.

A 17th century(?) Spanish courtesan in Rome, mentioned by Brantôme as maintaining a female mistress.

19th century German novel with cross-dressing themes.

16th century English play in which a cross-dressing female knight is wounded and the woman who nurses her falls in love with her with flirtatious encouragement.

The author of The Midwives Book (England, 1671), which included discussions of the function of the clitoris and its supposed association with lesbian desire.

19th century American woman who cross-dressed (possibly overtly?) and living in a committed relationshp with a woman whom she’d persuaded to leave prostitution.

15th century French women who engaged in an extended sexual relationship that ended an a case of assault.

18th century English person living as a man, discovered after death to have female anatomy. John was married to a woman for 20 years.

18th century English married couple. After the marriage, John was discovered to be a woman.

Travel journal describing a 16th century incident in Switzerland where a group of women together started living as men. One married a woman.

15th century Spanish woman who cross-dressed to flee an unwanted marriage and became a nun. Her story is similar to some semi-fictional saints biographies of the early Christian era.

18th century French opera singer and swordswoman who had multiple female lovers. She was fictionalized by Théophile Gautier under her stage name Mademoiselle de Maupin.

18th century French pornographic novel involving sadistic lesbian activity.

16th century writer in Arabic who discusses the Islamic legal context of homosexuality.

Two 17th century English women who lived together for 40 years "in perfect friendship" and whose friendship was considered to be the reason for the widowed Bovey's decision not to remarry.

19th century American novel that includes a close female friendship that is broken off by the transfer of one woman’s affections to a man.

15th century Spanish  novel in dialogue in which an older woman sexually arouses a young one as an intermediary for a man’s seduction. This work also partakes of the “sexual education” motif.

18th century French woman accused or arranging for a woman to be released from prison in exchange for a sexual relationship.

18th century French novel involving predatory sexual relations in a convent.

18th century English woman who wrote about same-sex relations within Turkish harems while accompanying her husband, the ambassador to the Ottoman court. She also engaged in passionate romantic correspondence with women.

17th century English play in which men taunt women for sharing a bed with the implication of sexual activity.

19th century French novel that includes themes of love between women.

14-15th c Spanish favorite of Queen Catalina of Castile, with whom she had a stormy and jealous (but not overtly romantic) relationship.

20th century French novel depicting a lesbian society.

French novel (1759) about a passionate female friendship.

19th century French novel depicting classical Greek lesbianism.

16th century French work on memorable women that includes rumors and anecdotes about purported lesbians, both historic and contemporary.

18th century English poetic collection depicting romantic friendship between women.

19th century Cuban woman who cross-dressed to accompany her male lover in the miliary.

17th century English poem celebrating romantic friendship that equates it with heterosexual love.

17th century English play by Margaret Cavendish (q.v.) in which a woman disguised as a boy attracts the erotic attention of both women and men.

17th century English play in which a woman desires a cross-dressed woman she believes to be a boy.

18th century German novel with themes of androgyny.

19th century American woman who cross-dressed to escape prostitution via a career as a sailor.

13th century French romance whose heroine is supported by several close friendships with other female characters that include erotic components.

17th century France. Extensive court documents document the legal persecution of Madame de Murat with the excuse of her sexual relationship with Madame de Nantiat. De Murat was an author of literary fairy tales.

18th century French woman who cross-dressed to serve in the army.

19th century French novel very loosely inspired by the life of Julie d’Aubigny (q.v.), depicting the title character as bisexual and possibly non-binary.

14th century Icelandic saga that includes an episode where a woman cross-dresses to trick her husband.

16th century daughter of the Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, whose passionate friendship with the writer Laudomia Forteguerri was remarked on by contemporaries. Laudomia wrote her romantic poetry.

18th century German woman who cross-dressed to serve in the military in the Netherlands.

19th century English novelist who enjoyed a long-term romantic partnership with Bertha Vyver.

17th c Dutch woman who tried unsuccessfully to enlist in male disguise, but kept the disguise to earn higher wages.

19th century English woman who cross-dressed to work as a sailor for economic resons.

18th c English writer on topics that include feminism and marriage resistance.

17th century English woman who openly wore male garments and rejected normative expectations for female behavior.

18th century English poet who wrote on themes of romantic love between women.

18th century English woman who cross-dressed sometimes in the context of a career in piracy.

19th century American couple who taught at Mt. Holyoke college and whose lives saw romantic friendship shift from praiseworthy to suspect.

17th century English play in which a jilted woman passes as a man to try to seduce her female rival in revenge.

18th Century English medical text that covers sexual issues, including the supposed relationship of the clitoris to lesbianism.

18th century English novel in which one woman sexually initiates another to prepare her for work as a (heterosexual) prostitute.

17th century English fictionalized biography depicting a woman in charge of young maids of honor as sexually predatory towards her charges.

1st century BCE poem in which Zeus disguises himself as a woman to seduce one of Diana’s nymphs. This story was adapted in many different forms over the centuries.

19th century English couple who published together under the pen name Michael Field. Their relationship was considered equivalent to a marriage among their friends.

19th c American, assigned-female, arrested for passing as a man and being betrothed to a woman with an implied sexual relatoinship.

18th century English pornographic poem about women using dildoes with each other.

19th century German novel with cross-dressing themes.

19th century French novel depicting lesbian bar culture among prostitutes.

His “Navigations into Turkey” includes stories about lesbian activity in harems. (France, 1576)

13th century legend in Arabic about how lesbianism originated.

17th century English play in which a woman cross-dresses and woos a woman who had cheated her to take revenge. Both m/m and f/f desire is implied and there is a derisory reference to women marrying women.

Greek poet of the 3rd century BCE whose work is inspired by Sappho and expresses erotic feelings for the goddess Aphrodite.

17th century French poem that invokes the poetry of Sappho in the context of love between women, possibly the first post-classical poem to do so.

16th century Italian work that discusses love between women, both platonic and carnal.

17th century English poem that expresses a man’s frustration that two women scorn male suitors because the love each other.

17th century English poem that expresses the author’s sensual appreciation for another woman’s beauty.

English polemic (1766) against masturbation, categorizing lesbianism as “mutual masturbation” between women.

16th century Italian poem that includes the motif of a woman desiring an Amazon figure who is initially perceived as male but where the desire persists after her gender is revealed.

17th century English novel in which a man disguised as a woman convinces a woman to accept same-sex desire.

18th century English novel that contrast positive depictions of platonic female friendships with condemnation of same-sex desire.

18th century English poet whose work celebrated romantic friendship between women with an erotic undertone.

17th century English play with a passing incident which suggests the motif of a bawd using seduction to draw an innocent girl into prostitution.

17th century German author of a treatise discussing transvestism.

Classical Greek writer whose Symposium explained love as the result of separated two-bodied humans seeking to reunite with their “other half”. This story explicitly includes same-sex love.

1st century Greek author who describes Spartan women as participating in an equivalent of the erastes/eromenos relationship.

Legend of a 9th century woman who cross-dressed to take up a (male) religious profession and eventually became pope but was discovered when she gave birth. The legend has some similarities to the “transvestite saint” genre.

17th century French woman who openly cross-dressed to take a military leadership role.

18th century Queen of England who had several passionate friendships with favorite female courtiers that gave rise to rumors of lesbianism.

16th century Italian sexual “dialogues” that include sexual activity between women.

17th century English play in which a woman cross-dresses to be near her (male) object of affection but as part of the disguise makes a sexual assignation with another woman.

Early 20th century English novel involving a destructive romantic relationship between teachers at a girl’s school.

19th century French novel that includes a passing reference to the author’s frustrated desire for a woman implied to be lesbian.

16th century Spanish writer who discusses the function of the clitoris and its relation to lesbianism.

Medieval French romance that includes a description  and depiction of two women dancing and kissing.

13th century French romance featuring a cross-dressing female knight. The story directly addresses issues of gender identity as innate versus performative. In one episode, she is the object of a queen’s adulterous desire.

18th century German woman who cross-dressed to serve in the military.

16th century English play that features a committed female couple.

English novel (1724) involving a passionate friendship between women.

Biblical story in which a woman expresses love and devotion to her mother-in-law.Although not framed as romantic, the text has been viewed as Biblical support for intense emotional bonds between women.

9th century Syrian saint who cross-dressed to live as a holy hermit.

5th century Egyptian saint who cross-dressed to enter a monastic life under the name Smaragdus.

Mentioned as a cross-dressing saint, but I haven’t found further details. This is not the most famous Saint Margaret (of Antioch). Possibly the same as Saint Pelagius.

4/5th century Egyptian saint (probably apocryphal). Her story begins as Margaret, a courtesan who, after she converted and was renamed Pelagia, cross-dressed under the name Pelagius to become an ascetic monk.

Roman woman converted by Saint Paul to whom he gave the authority to preach after she baptizes herself and puts on male clothing.

18th century writer in Arabic who discusses the Islamic legal context of homosexuality.

6th century BCE Greek poet whose work implies erotic relations with women and whose name and home island of Lesbos have become standard references to love between women.

17th century American women who were prosecuted for “lewd behavior each with other upon a bed.”

19th century American woman who cross-dressed for military service.

18th century English women who unsuccessfully tried to marry, with Ketson passing as a man named John.

18th century English woman who passed as a man for economic reasons and married a woman who was aware of the disguise and who, after some legal quarrels, chose to continue living with her after public discovery.

18th century English polemic tract that includes descriptions of lesbian activity, both in England and in Turkish harems.

Fictitious original source for the French L’Academie des Dames (attr. Nicolas Chorier). The Satyra Sotadica was, in turn, alleged to be a translation of an original Spanish work by a woman (Luisa Sigea de Velasco). I’ve listed this title separately as some works cite it rather than Chorier’s work (q.v.).

19th century French poem cycle depicting sex between women.

19th century English novel that deals with themes of close female friendship in conflict with heterosexual relations.

17th century English play involving sex play between women.

17th century French pornographic novel presenting one woman’s sexual initiation by another and including sex between women as part of a wide variety of sexual encounters. Purported to be a translation of a Latin work Satyra Sotadica but this has been demonstrated to be fictitious. Chorier’s authorship is attributed but uncertain.

17th century English play in which men taunt women for shared a bed with the implication of sexual activity.

17th century English play that includes reference to women satisfying each other sexually if men are not available.

17th century English play based on Sidney’s poem of the same name in which a man cross-dresses as an Amazon to pursue the woman he desires, with the added complication that both her parents also desire the “Amazon”, each believing the other to unknowingly pursue a same-sex desire.

17th century English play that includes reference to women satisfying each other sexually if men are not available.

English novel (1722) on themes of passionate friendship between women.

17th century English play by Margaret Cavendish (q.v.) involving a man disguising himself as a woman to enter a woman-only community and convincing the object of his desire to accept apparent same-sex desire.

17th century English play with a complex romantic polygon that includes an emotional bond between two women that is equated with marriage.

A 10th c Spanish-Arabic text on love that has one passing reference to lesbianism.

17th century English play in which a male character acknowledges erotic possibilities between women.

18th century English broadside ballad about a woman who cross-dresses to become a sailor. Also the name of an entire genre of works with this theme.

18th century fictionalized biography of the real-life Mary Hamilton. In the fiction, Hamilton was  seduced by a woman but after being abandoned by her, began living as a man and had several sexual relationships with women, including marriage in some cases.

18th century English satirical song about sex between women. It may be the earliest clear documentation of the slang term “game of flats”.

19th century French novel in which a man and his half-sister are rivals for the same woman’s love.

An English novel (1749) about how class differences turn a passionate friendship into sadistic exploitation.

Mid-20th century American novel that mixes themes of the supernatural and lesbian obsession.

18th c English novel by an author who often focused on themes of female passionate friendship and erotic attraction.

18th century English novel with a “mannish” character implied to be a lesbian.

17th century English play based on Sidney’s poem of the same name in which a man cross-dresses as an Amazon to pursue the woman he desires, with the added complication that both her parents also desire the “Amazon”, each believing the other to unknowingly pursue a same-sex desire.

17th century English play where a woman disguised as a man is unwillingly wooed by two women, one of whom still desires her after the truth is revealed.

English novel (1787) involving a passionate friendship between women.

An English translation (1707) of Nicholas Venette’s sexual manual. It discusses “unnatural” sexual practices, including lesbianism, as well as discussing types of “hermaphrodites”.

17th century English play involving gender disguise but where a woman declares her love for the disguised woman after her true sex is revealed.

17th century English play involving the unrequired love of a maid for her mistress, which love is equated to that of marriage.

19th century English novel involving conflict between committed female friendship and heteronormativity.

19th century English story in which a woman’s devoted friendship is valorized but has tragic consequences.

17th century English play in which an older woman desires a woman cross-dressing as a boy.

18th century anonymous English satirical poem discussing Sappho and the origin of lesbianism.

17th century English play that includes reference to women satisfying each other sexually if men are not available.

17th century English play in which female homoerotic desire is Orientalized as well as framed as predatory.

17th century English play (based on a Spanish original) in which a woman recruits another for prostitution by flattery, flirtation, and sexual initiation.

16th century English play in which a bawd attempts to corrupt a woman sexually to recruit her for prostitution.

20th century English novel involving the committed friendship between two women with a “fallen woman”-protector theme.

17th century English story in which two heterosexual lovers are disguised as country maids but perceived as engaging in same-sex affection.

19th century German novel with cross-dressing themes.

Early 20th century English novel considered to be the first overtly lesbian novel.

17th century French play involving courtship between a woman and a cross-dressing woman.

English poem (1690) about a  woman who cross-dressed for the military.

18th century French woman who cross-dressed to serve in the army.

18th century French woman who cross-dressed openly as a symbol of women’s right to public participation in government.

19th century English poem evoking romantic and erotic imagery, particularly interesting for who it was directed to.

17th century English poem expressing the poet’s romantic attraction to another woman.

17th century French poem satirizing an unnamed woman as participating in sex with other women.

18th century (?) Dutch women. The two began a sexual relationship as women, then Hendrickje began living as a man to continue the relationship.

14th century French romance in which a cross-dressing woman becomes the object of a woman’s desire resulting in marriage followed by a magical sex change.

16th century English play. One of Shakespeare’s several works that feature women falling in love with cross-dressed women.

17th century English play in which devoted female friendship is positively contrasted with heterosexual marriage.

17th century anonymous English poem humorously suggesting that the prevalence of male homosexuality was due to women turning their sexual desires to each other. Notable for use of the slang term “game of flats” and the use of “odd” to imply homosexuality.

18th century French woman who cross-dressed to serve in the military.

19th century English novel in which cross-dressed theatricals create homoerotic potential.

18th century Arabic-language satire implying a woman is a lesbian.

Medieval Arabic poet (cited in a 13th century text) who praised love between women.

18th century German novel with multiple cross-dressing characters.

16th century English playwright whose works often touch on themes of gender disguise or friendship between women.

17th century English play involving the motif of a woman seducing another woman into prostitution.