<i>Hic Mulier</i>: The Female Transvestite in Early Modern England

u Long Meg of Westminster," "Frederick of Jennen," "Mary Frith the Roaring Girl" the woman in male attire is a recurrent figure in the popular culture and literature of sixteenthand seventeenth-century England. Why did this period produce so many texts which focussed upon the female transvestite? What social significance does female transvestism hold in a patriarchal culture? In popular festivals, transvestism and the reversal of sex-roles functioned as a kind of licensed misrule, and as such was deemed unthreatening to patriarchal order because it remained safely contained within the realm of the 'festive.' In early Christian legends as well as English Renaissance poetry, drama, and pamphlet literature, writers attempt to overcome the threat which the unruly female poses to men: here, the female transvestite uses her unorthodox position to defend women's chastity, promote traditional marriage, and thus furthers the reinforcement of patriarchy.