by Kris@WLP » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:40 pm
During the American Civil War, as many as tens of thousands of women disguised themselves as men to fight on both sides. This was despite the facts that (a) enlistment required a thorough medical examination, and (b) it was the fashion of the time to wear mustaches and beards- the longer the better.
Many of these women were never discovered. One was only found out in 1908, after being struck by an early automobile... years after going on a veteran's pension!
Moral: people tend not to look too closely for things they believe are entirely impossible.
(Oh, another Civil War crossdressing anecdote: Captain (later Brig. General) Nathaniel Lyon, fearing an attack on the St. Louis, MO arsenal in the wake of Ft. Sumter, dressed in women's clothes, complete with a gauze veil, and rode in a carriage through the camp of the state militia on the outskirts of town... despite the fact that Missouri had not yet seceded, the militia was still flying the Union flag, and the camp was not guarded- Lyon could have walked in disguise or not with no trouble! Moral: maybe it's not that they don't notice, it's that they just don't CARE.)