#this paper isn't on sci hub so i provided a download link you're welcome

[clove-pinks]

Miss Charlotte and Miss Susan Cushman in the characters of Romeo and Juliet, print by Thomas Fairland after Margaret Gillies, c. 1840-1852 (British Museum).

There is arguably no other epoch in American history so tenaciously haunted, vexed, and titillated by the practice of cross-dressing than the 1840s and 1850s. Bloomers, named after Amelia Bloomer, then promenaded the streets in trousers (pantaloons) and actresses like Charlotte Cushman were seen to play "breeches" (male) parts on stage to mixed responses. Cushman in the role of Romeo, for instance, "had an extensive female following", and a lady in the audience was reportedly heard to whisper, "Miss Cushman is a very dangerous young man."

— Etsuko Taketani, “Spectacular Child Bodies: The Sexual Politics of Cross-Dressing and Calisthenics in the Writings of Eliza Leslie and Catharine Beecher,” The Lion and the Unicorn, September 1, 1999, doi.org/ 10.1353/uni.1999.0037. (Google Drive link)