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trouser roles

This is a technical term for a female actor portraying a male character on stage. It includes both roles that are more typically played by male actors, and ones that are specifically designed to be filled by female actors. The overt nature of this type of cross-dressing provided an acceptable context for women spectators to experience erotic attraction to other women.

LHMP entry

This article concerns an individual who may more properly be interpreted as transgender, however as noted a number of times before, in a historic context where heteronormativity is so strong as to impede the ability to self-define as a woman-oriented woman, interpretation can be ambiguous.

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historical