An astounding masquerade

SUMMARY This paper considers the contribution of historical accounts and case studies to the development of lesbian historical knowledge and the amplification of lesbian experience. The author suggests that historical endeavours need to position such accounts and assert lesbian experience so that,Increasingly, public space is occupied by lesbian knowledge and lesbian concerns. The paper discusses a 1945 case of a New Zealand woman, known only as Mr. X, who dressed and acted as a man for over ten years, even having her breasts removed. She was criminally charged when legal authorities discovered she had fraudulently married another woman. The pattern of regulatory responses by the dominant hetero-culture is discussed in relation to this case and other similar cases and categorised into three strategies-einforcement, containment, and leverage.