There's actually a subplot like that in the lesbian historical romance "Patience and Sarah," where the cross-dressing half of the eventual couple, who frequently passes as a boy (I forget whether it's Patience or Sarah), gets hired as a helper by one of those guys who travels around in a caravan selling allegedly miraculous elixirs to gullible eighteenth- or nineteenth-century townsfolk. Anyway, after a few days of traveling together the guy makes a pass at the cross-dressing girl, whom he thinks is a boy, and she turns him down. He starts sulking and going, "How do you know you don't like it if you've never tried it?," or something to that effect. Finally Patience or Sarah just comes right out and tells him she's female, then asks if he thinks maybe he was picking up on that. The guy is quite definite about that not being it, and is now as thoroughly over his infatuation with the faux-boy assistant as if he'd been doused with a bucket of water.
A year or so later the cross-dressing girl runs into the guy again with his wife and children (yes, he's married--he'd mentioned that to her when they were originally travelling together). It turns out he's told his family all about her--well, not quite all, since according to the sanitized version one of the kids repeats, the apparently bisexual (at least) medicine-peddler discovered that his "boy assistant" was actually a girl when he went to ask if he could borrow the "boy's" razor and caught "him" not quite dressed enough that it was apparent that the "boy" had breasts, or something to that effect. The cross-dressing girl is a bit disconcerted that he told them anything at all, but plays along with his version of the story.
The guy does seem to love his wife and children, so it's not clear whether he's basically gay but managing to get some kind of emotional fulfillment out of the heterosexual relationship despite its not suiting his sexual tastes (and therefore making passes at attractive young men when he's a safe distance from home), or just likes both genders, but only wants to play around with the one he isn't already married to (or something along those lines).
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Fri, Sep. 21st, 2007 07:57 am (UTC)A year or so later the cross-dressing girl runs into the guy again with his wife and children (yes, he's married--he'd mentioned that to her when they were originally travelling together). It turns out he's told his family all about her--well, not quite all, since according to the sanitized version one of the kids repeats, the apparently bisexual (at least) medicine-peddler discovered that his "boy assistant" was actually a girl when he went to ask if he could borrow the "boy's" razor and caught "him" not quite dressed enough that it was apparent that the "boy" had breasts, or something to that effect. The cross-dressing girl is a bit disconcerted that he told them anything at all, but plays along with his version of the story.
The guy does seem to love his wife and children, so it's not clear whether he's basically gay but managing to get some kind of emotional fulfillment out of the heterosexual relationship despite its not suiting his sexual tastes (and therefore making passes at attractive young men when he's a safe distance from home), or just likes both genders, but only wants to play around with the one he isn't already married to (or something along those lines).