Literary Innuendo and Flirtation
The examples in this group focus less on genuine desire between women (even in cases where gender disguise is involved) but on those where the possibility of genuine desire is acknowledged by a pretense of it or sly references. These examples include scenarios where that possibility is recognized only by the audience of the work, not by the characters within it.
It can be difficult to tell what the motivation of a specific historic person was, although some records give more evidence than others. Even when a reason is recorded, it must be understood in the context of what options were available at the time, both in terms of the available concepts and the practical options for solving specific challenges. For that reason, my classification into subgroupings and the language I use to talk about these people should be understood as a way of organizing a rather diverse set of data, and not a final judgement on how to interpret specific lives. When there seems to be substantial evidence for a transgender interpretation, I have tried to reflect that in my descriptions in an inclusive way.