Parting with my sex

"In this original and unusual work, Lucy Chesser explores the persistent recurrence of cross-dressing and gender inversion within Australian cultural life. Examples of cross-dressing are to be found in almost every area of classic Australian historical enquiry, including Aboriginal-European relations and conflict, convict societies, the gold rushes, bushranging, the 1890s and its nationalist fiction, and World War One. This book compares and contrasts sustained life-long impersonations where women lived, worked and sometimes married as men, with other forms of cross-dressing such as public masquerades, cross-dressing on the stage, and the prosecution of men who sought sexual encounters while disguised as women"--Provided by publisher.