The story of girls dressed as boys and dressed as men is very common in many novels and film and television dramas with ancient backgrounds. In too many costume dramas, women dressed as men only seem to add a little romance to the encounter between talented and beautiful women (maybe " Except for Mulan), but they never portray the other side of the story: what happens to women when they travel alone when they are not dressed as men, that is, why do women dress as men?
The first time I felt its necessity was in a short scene in "Nancy in Love": in the streets of Victorian London, when Nancy was walking alone in women's clothes, any man could harass, whistle, or even stop her. On the way out, she could not go far before she was frustrated and had to go back. After changing into men's clothes, she could go out without hindrance;
In "The Breadwinner", in Afghanistan during the 2001-2014 war, where the Taliban controlled, women disguised as men were not only necessary to avoid sexual harassment, but also necessary for survival. Beaten up, there is no store that sells things to women, and you will be harassed even if you travel with male parents. At this time, you can't think of how Parvana can buy food to survive except "disguise as a man", but even so Only young girls can pretend to be boys, but her sister and mother can't. I have to worry all the time, if Parvana grows up and can't pretend to be a boy, will she also be with her mother and sister? They can't go out any more. Maybe for their family, the younger brother can go out to buy food when he grows up, but what about families without boys? What about each individual female individual? For example, can only rely on her own female classmate Xiao Xia?
I have seen the difficulties of women traveling in Afghanistan and the Victorian period, and then look back at the Song Dynasty in "The Legend of the New White Snake". Although Bai Suzhen, Xiaoqing and Hu Meiniang are all super heroines with unique skills, they can teach bad guys who harass women at any time. , but after putting aside their fictional superpowers, it can be seen that the environment they encounter is not friendly to women who travel and work alone: Xiaoqing often encounters harassment from strange men (drunks, passers-by, toads) during travel and work. Jing, etc.), and met Xu Xian's acquaintance who wanted to arrange a marriage for her; while Hu Meiniang opened a shop by herself and fell in love with a neighbor, she was told by the neighbors that she was good-looking and she was a flirtatious person. The Taoist practiced at her doorstep. Here Hu Meiniang is really a rabbit spirit to scare the Taoist away. If this is an ordinary woman who is working alone, she will encounter group bullying.
Perhaps in previous stories and film and television dramas, the halo of romance, myth, and filial piety was too strong, covering the harsh living environment of women, so that women dressed as men became like an ordinary clothing hobby or romantic embellishment, so much so that We forget that these women who travel and work used to be a minority among the minority. The right of ordinary women to travel and work freely was fought and won by many human rights ancestors, and it is still precious today.
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