Does it make sense for a woman to be disguised as a man in movies?!


Question: I just saw Shakespeare in Love. I think any man, except those in the movie, can tell that the boy is a disguised woman. It seems that in ancient costume movies it is acceptable for a woman to be disguised as a man, thought it evidently flies in the face of facts. Interestingly, in modern costume movies, the audience would take it that a man is disguised as a woman (I have seen many such movies). And the disguise, I think, is really make-real to a human eye. I just wonder why?


Answers: I just saw Shakespeare in Love. I think any man, except those in the movie, can tell that the boy is a disguised woman. It seems that in ancient costume movies it is acceptable for a woman to be disguised as a man, thought it evidently flies in the face of facts. Interestingly, in modern costume movies, the audience would take it that a man is disguised as a woman (I have seen many such movies). And the disguise, I think, is really make-real to a human eye. I just wonder why?

I'm not sure that I understand your question. But, I will say that history is filled with women who managed to fool people into thinking they were men. Some went into battle, and two were pirates. So many films could be made. So, a woman disguised as a man doesn't "fly in the face of facts" really.

Watch "Stage Beauty", and you will see how Gwyneth Paltrow's character playing a boy playing a girl actually could be believable although "Shakespeare in Love" is very much a comedy, with a great deal of it tongue-in-cheek. In Shakespeare's time, boys were said to have "three years to play", mearning that by the time they were trained to act, they had only a few years to play a girl or woman at all convincingly.

The opposite has happened throughout history, too: males masquerading as females for various reasons.

Are we answering your questions? If not, please let us know. Do you want films about these masquerades?

Shakespeare in Love was not really attempting realism, at least in my opinion. It seemed to me that, just as often happened in Shakespeare's plays themselves, they weren't trying to disguise the appearance to the audience so that they would get the full effect of the irony of the cross-dressing character. Cross-dressing was actually a popular theme throughout the comedies, and I think they were paralleling this.

If you want a movie with a whole lot of cross-dressing, watch Victor Victoria.

My problem is this: I have seen people in real life and I honestly could not tell if it was a man or a woman.

As to being disguised, it serves a purpose (like in "Victor/Victoria")

welllll shes wierd.

Well movies are movies and Shakespear In Love was dramatized. But if you look back at history there are plenty of examples of women pretending to be boys look at Joan of Arc, or the story of Mulan. Those were real. It happens even today just look at the people passing you in the street. Can you be 100% sure on all of them?



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