History Main / TwelfthNightAdventure

* Disney's ''Disney/{{Mulan}}''. This trope actually gave the family film some unexpected and refreshing [[ParentalBonus parental bonuses]].

Our protagonist is a [[DifferentForGirls stranger trapped in a strange land]]. They need to infiltrate the social fabrics for [[MacGuffin one reason or another.]] Often, this reason is survival. Problem is, their true gender, if noticed, wouldn't allow them to blend in. Maybe they would be stuck in a ghetto or cage or breeding farm. Maybe they would be expelled. Maybe they would be killed...

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:FanFiction]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]

[[AC:WebComic]]

* TamoraPierce's ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'' series starts as a more dramatic example of this plot with Alanna becoming a SweetPollyOliver so she can become a knight, though her gender gets revealed at roughly the halfway mark.

* Robin WIlliams as ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'' is another example, where a failed actor must pass as a woman to be hired as a nanny to tend to his own estranged children.

* In ''MariaHolic'', the crossdresser in question is actually ''not'' the main character. He is also ''apparently'' a cruel person who cares not one whit about other people.

* The manga series ''GirlGotGame'' is about a high school girl named Kyo Aizawa who disguises herself as a boy in order to join Seisyu High's famous men's basektball team. However, it was her father's idea; she'd rather go to a normal school as a normal girl.

* In ''MarugotoAnjuGakuen'', our protagonist is pretty much ''forced'' to join an all-girl academy for yokais by his mother.

* ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'', in which our heroine Haruhi is talked into joining the club and masquerading as a wholesomely sweet boy to cater to their female clientele. It deviates from the usual formula in that her clubmates, at least, are fully aware of the ruse and it's not really Haruhi (who simply has boyish tastes in clothing and hairstyle, and is entirely indifferent to what sex people think she is) trying to maintain the masquerade, but ''everybody around her''.

* ''OtomeWaBokuNiKoishiteru'' is one of the funniest and most heartwarming examples in anime, wherein kind-hearted WholesomeCrossdresser Miyanokouji Mizuho becomes the most beloved "OneeSama" and a pillar of strength of his circle of friends in a Catholic Girl's School.

* ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' is a classic example that ups the ante and has TWO male protagonists forced into this trope.

* ''IMyMeStrawberryEggs'' started out as this, with the HotBlooded young teacher trying to prove the tyrannical StrawFeminist organisation's disdain of men wrong... only to fail bitterly. [[spoiler: It turns out he's not the only one doing it, though.]]

* The truly [[{{Squick}} squick-tacular]] Wayan Brothers film ''WhiteChicks'' has two black male police officers masquerade as [[UncannyValley weirdly plastic-looking]] white valley-girls.

* Dustin Hoffman in ''{{Tootsie}}''.
* ''{{Yentl}}'' had this, as it was set during a time when women were not to become educated.

* ''IMyMeStrawberryEggs'' started out as this, with the HotBlooded young teacher trying to prove the tyrannical StrawFeminist organisation's disdain of men wrong... only to fail bitterly.

* In ''HanaKimi'', a Japanese-American girl wanted so much to meet her idol she decided to enroll the same school he attends. The problem is that he attends an all-boys school. He soon found out and started to like her. The plot point is that he doesn't know she likes him and she thinks he still doesn't know she's a girl. [[spoiler:When rumours start to abound of a girl on campus and her facade starts to crack via various Bridget-droppings, she decides to transfer to a public school while the going's still good, though [[BittersweetEnding she and her idol meet up again in college and become an item in the epilogue]].]]

* ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'', in which our heroine Haruhi is talked into joining the club and masquerading as a wholesomely sweet boy to cater to their female clientele. It deviates from the usual formula in that her clubmates, at least, are fully aware of the ruse.
** Also in that it's not really Haruhi (who simply has boyish tastes in clothing and hairstyle, and is entirely indifferent to what sex people think she is) trying to maintain the masquerade, but ''everybody around her''.

* TamoraPierce's ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'' series starts as a more dramatic example of this plot with Alanna becoming a SweetPollyOliver so she can become a knigt, though her gender gets revealed at roughly the halfway mark.

* The manga series ''MintNaBokura'' is about a boy whose [[HalfIdenticalTwins twin sister]] transfers to a boarding school to be closer to the boy she has a crush on. He transfers to the same school because he doesn't want to be separated from her, but there's a catch: the boys' dorm is full, so he has to disguise himself as a girl and live in the girls' dorm.

* TamoraPierce's ''[[TortallUniverse Song of the Lioness]]'' series starts as a more dramatic example of this plot, though Alanna's gender gets revealed at roughly the halfway mark.

* In the first OVA of ''ElHazard'', after finding himself in another dimension, the main character Makoto is forced to crossdress in order to pose as the missing princess Fatora.

* In MarugotoAnjuGakuen, our protagonist is pretty much ''forced'' to join an all-girl academy for yokais by his mother.

But our protagonist does what they have to and becomes a WholesomeCrossdresser who will attempt to integrate themself into the setting. How well, and for how long, is what drives the plot.

** And two decades earlier, a girl infiltrates another high school's senior class as a boy to try to prove gender bias in her school's newspaper in ''JustOneOfTheGuys.'' The fact that her name was Terry didn't hurt. The funny part is, she failed miserably -- turns out her writing to start with wasn't very good -- but the Theatre/TwelfthNight plot helped her to improve.

* The truly [[{{Squick}} squick-tacular]] Wayan Brothers film ''WhiteChicks'' has two black male police officers masquerade as [[{{Gonk}} hideously ugly]] white valley-girls.

* The male protagonist of ''APlanetCalledTreason'' develops breasts due to a genetic disorder and parleys it into the opportunity to infiltrate an all-female society.

* ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' by Master WilliamShakespeare, obviously, created this OlderThanSteam genre and [[TropeNamer named this trope.]]