Selina Todd, a professor of modern history at Oxford University, draws two broad points from the history of women who cross-dress, present as men or act in ‘mannish’ ways. The first is that their various motives – sexual and economic ones, as well as a desire for personal freedoms – often intermingle. The second is that even a woman who has all these motives for identifying as a man may choose not to do so – if the state of feminism in her time gives her good reason. If her era offers a convincing analysis of the sex-based oppression of women as a group, she is less likely to identify as a
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