Two pamphlets were published in 1620 which debated the higly emotive issue of women wearing men's clothing. "Hic Mulier," published first, proposes that women wearing men's clothing are more likely to practice unconventional, loose sexual behaviour, thus posing a threat to the stability of society. "Haec-Vir," published soon after as a rebuttal, protests the conventional ideal of the passive woman, defending the right of women to behave more independently as in the best interest of society.

Hic Mulier and Haec-Vir echo the debate surrounding the fad of female cross-dressing, adopted not just by lower-class women such as Long Meg of Westminster and Moll Cutpurse, but also noblewomen and citizens' wives. King James himself denounced the fad, which resulted in comment in the pulpits.

"Yesterday the Bishop of London called together all his Clergy about this town, and told them he had express commandment from the King to will them to inveigh vehemently and bitterly in their sermons against the insolency of our women, and their wearing of broad-brimmed hats, pointed doublets, their hair cut short or shorn, and some of them stilletos or poinards. (Swords) The truth is the world is very far out of order." John Chamberlain, reported to his friend Dudley Carleton on January 25, 1620

The anxious reaction of James, the Bishop of London, and Chamberlain testifies that this cross-dressing was seen as a challenge to gender hierarchy, insinuating that clothes and custom (not intrinsic nature) make the man or woman, and that women might assume masculine roles and privileges as easily as doublet and sword.


Haec-Vir wittily answers the attack in part by emphasizing the distinctly feminized styles male courtiers were wearing at the time, and with some allusion to the sexual ambivalences introduced by the established practice throughout the Elizabethan period and earlier seventeenth century of male actors playing female roles on the English stage. Men played all the women’s parts in the plays of Shakespeare.

 

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