Historical, literary, and mythological examples There is considerable historical, literary, and mythological evidence suggesting that women have successfully impersonated men, cross-dressed as men, and wished to change their sex. Vague (1956) has described the phenomenon of female gender role and identity disturbances as not of recent origin but "un mal ancien."

Bullough (1976) describes the Amazon women who at the age of eight had their right breasts burned off so that they could fire a bow with greater accuracy. Boswell (1980) also cites several examples from Roman civilization; for example, Martial, who "describes a lesbian who can out drink and out eat any man, plays at male sports, wrestles, can lift heavier weights than a man, and who 'puts it to' eleven girls a day; [and] Lucian [who] portrays Megilla as shaving her head and boasting that she is 'a man in every way'." He also cites a practice in the Muslim world "of dressing pretty girls to look like pretty boys by cutting their hair short and clothing them in male attire."

Some of the more exotic historical examples of women who impersonated male roles (with varying degrees of success) have been described by Bullough (1976). His examples include, "an English army surgeon who at his death was found to be a woman; Charles Parkhurst, a stage coach driver in the West who on his death was found to be a female"; Lucy Ann Slater, alias the Rev. Joseph Lobdell, "who regarded herself as a man, and married a woman"; John Coulter, who was successfully married for twenty nine years "without her wife realizing her husband was a female"; Murray Hall, a Tammany Hall politician who "lived as a man for 30 years so successfully that her daughter did not know her father was a woman"; Sophia Hedwig, who in the 1880s actually had surgery performed in order to enhance her transition to maleness, and finally David Cook, "who was picked up for draft evasion only to be exposed as a woman." Ellis (1936) described the case of Nicholai de Raylan (a male impersonator) who, as secretary to a Russian Consul, married two women who believed him to be a man. (see HISTORICAL INSTANCES OF WOMEN WHO IMPERSONATED MEN PART II)