This article is about ten women through the years who have, for various reasons, disguised and presented themselves as men. Some of the individuals on this list were transgender, but the majority of them had very different reasons for hiding their sex -- several wished to enter traditionally male professions, such as war, journalism, or medicine, and more than one decided to follow her husband into war.
I found this list interesting not just because of the obvious connection between woman-as-man and Viola-as-Cesario, but particularly because of the details it provides on the end results of their various endeavors -- one was sent to a mental institution until her death, another was raped and murdered, while two more were granted military pensions and lived comfortably until their deaths. Ironically, the further back in history that each of these women existed, the more positive the ultimate outcome of their deceit; the only individual on this list who existed before Shakespeare did was sainted after her death. This makes me wonder how high-risk, ultimately, Viola's enterprise was at the time her undertaking was written, and how much of the risk we perceive in it is the product of a (somehow) more extreme modern world.
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