Examples of Women cross-dressing as Arya Stark did for part of her story
Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 4:07 pm
Girls or Women dressing as males like Arya Stark
This first post will be a (longish) introduction in general terms. My next post will give 5 real life examples of women/girls who have dressed as men/boys for various reasons, it could be family honour, it could be for safety, perhaps they were doing a job which at the time was not deemed a suitable job for a female, there could be many reasons.
A book on my 'to read' list is The Underground Girls of Kabul by a Swedish journalist, Jenny Nordberg, about a custom in Afghanistan (a very masculine dominated society) where sometimes (usually in a family where there are only daughters though I think this may not be exclusive to such) a prepubescent girl will dress as a boy and pass herself off as one so that she can go out into the community to undertake tasks that are generally confined to the male gender. Sometimes the community may be aware of the person's real sex but the practice is tolerated. Such girls are expected to start dressing as girls again when or a little before they hit puberty. Some do not mind re-adapting to the traditional feminine role though some find it hard to give up the freedom they had when passing as a boy.
The person who mentioned the content of the book (which as I say I haven't read myself yet) said the book also refers to Burrnesha who were "sworn virgins" who dressed as men and had to promise not to marry or bear children who lived in the Balkans. In a very patriarchal society Wikipedia says it went on in Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro In and to a lesser degree in other parts of the Balkans. At one time women were not allowed to inherit property in these areas and if a woman became a Burrnesha it provided a method to keep property in a family. That was not an exclusive reason for the practice. As this is really a 'clif notes' version of the subject I suggest if anyone wants more information they consult Wikipedia on the subject. The Jenny Nordberg book says the practice of becoming a Burrnesha is very much on the decline these days.
Besides being prone to succumbing to a sword, sorcery and sandal epic I'm also a sucker for mystery stories with a historical setting. I've read some of Shirley McKay's "Hew Cullan" mysteries and in the background notes to her "Calendar of Crime" book in regard to Yule she mentions that circa the early Reformation people (at paragraph 7 if anyone cares to follow the link provided) that folk still sang and danced carols and people still dressed up, women guising in men’s clothes, and crying ‘Zwil, Zwil, Zwil!’ in loud and lewd company..." https://hewcullanmysteries.com/yule/ Cross-dressing occurs sometimes in the English pantomime tradition (which has moved a long way from the Latin meaning of the 'pantomimus') where there is often a Pantomime Dame who is a man in drag (don't think of Ru Paul type drag - the pantomime dame is supposed to be very obviously a man for humour) and often the 'principal boy' is a female. In the days when female everyday wear was long dresses (no mini-skirts or tunics with skin tight leggings for everyday wear) a young woman dressed as a male in a shortish top and tights provided an avenue for a pair of shapely legs to be shown.
In the French play The Marriage of Figaro the scamp of a page-boy Cherubin is traditionally played by an actress. Apparently when the play was first performed in the 18th century, the writer of the play, Pierre Beaumarchais, felt that none of the boy actors in the original company could convey the subtleties and nuances of Cherubin's character satisfactorily and therefore a young woman was cast in the role and since then over the years the characters has nearly always been played by a female.
But Dame, do I hear you cry, you have only dealt with the theme in general terms? If you say so you may be correct. This piece is already getting somewhat long so I will leave this as a rathe long introduction to the subject and give a list of 5 cases of females who cross-dressed in real life. I know there are of course far more than just 5 and if folk find the thread of interest I may come back and post more cases later but I wanted to keep things manageable.
This first post will be a (longish) introduction in general terms. My next post will give 5 real life examples of women/girls who have dressed as men/boys for various reasons, it could be family honour, it could be for safety, perhaps they were doing a job which at the time was not deemed a suitable job for a female, there could be many reasons.
A book on my 'to read' list is The Underground Girls of Kabul by a Swedish journalist, Jenny Nordberg, about a custom in Afghanistan (a very masculine dominated society) where sometimes (usually in a family where there are only daughters though I think this may not be exclusive to such) a prepubescent girl will dress as a boy and pass herself off as one so that she can go out into the community to undertake tasks that are generally confined to the male gender. Sometimes the community may be aware of the person's real sex but the practice is tolerated. Such girls are expected to start dressing as girls again when or a little before they hit puberty. Some do not mind re-adapting to the traditional feminine role though some find it hard to give up the freedom they had when passing as a boy.
The person who mentioned the content of the book (which as I say I haven't read myself yet) said the book also refers to Burrnesha who were "sworn virgins" who dressed as men and had to promise not to marry or bear children who lived in the Balkans. In a very patriarchal society Wikipedia says it went on in Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro In and to a lesser degree in other parts of the Balkans. At one time women were not allowed to inherit property in these areas and if a woman became a Burrnesha it provided a method to keep property in a family. That was not an exclusive reason for the practice. As this is really a 'clif notes' version of the subject I suggest if anyone wants more information they consult Wikipedia on the subject. The Jenny Nordberg book says the practice of becoming a Burrnesha is very much on the decline these days.
Besides being prone to succumbing to a sword, sorcery and sandal epic I'm also a sucker for mystery stories with a historical setting. I've read some of Shirley McKay's "Hew Cullan" mysteries and in the background notes to her "Calendar of Crime" book in regard to Yule she mentions that circa the early Reformation people (at paragraph 7 if anyone cares to follow the link provided) that folk still sang and danced carols and people still dressed up, women guising in men’s clothes, and crying ‘Zwil, Zwil, Zwil!’ in loud and lewd company..." https://hewcullanmysteries.com/yule/ Cross-dressing occurs sometimes in the English pantomime tradition (which has moved a long way from the Latin meaning of the 'pantomimus') where there is often a Pantomime Dame who is a man in drag (don't think of Ru Paul type drag - the pantomime dame is supposed to be very obviously a man for humour) and often the 'principal boy' is a female. In the days when female everyday wear was long dresses (no mini-skirts or tunics with skin tight leggings for everyday wear) a young woman dressed as a male in a shortish top and tights provided an avenue for a pair of shapely legs to be shown.
In the French play The Marriage of Figaro the scamp of a page-boy Cherubin is traditionally played by an actress. Apparently when the play was first performed in the 18th century, the writer of the play, Pierre Beaumarchais, felt that none of the boy actors in the original company could convey the subtleties and nuances of Cherubin's character satisfactorily and therefore a young woman was cast in the role and since then over the years the characters has nearly always been played by a female.
But Dame, do I hear you cry, you have only dealt with the theme in general terms? If you say so you may be correct. This piece is already getting somewhat long so I will leave this as a rathe long introduction to the subject and give a list of 5 cases of females who cross-dressed in real life. I know there are of course far more than just 5 and if folk find the thread of interest I may come back and post more cases later but I wanted to keep things manageable.