History Main / HarmlessLadyDisguise

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Barak Ehud Barak]] dressed in drag and pretended to be another soldier’s girlfriend during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Israeli_raid_on_Lebanon Operation Springtime of Youth]]. The popular Israeli satire show ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eretz_Nehederet Eretz Nehederet]]'' portrayed him once as going AxCrazy and demanding his dress to go fight at the slightest hint of an imminent armed conflict.

* Played straight in ''Film/{{Lou}}'' when the title character, a middle-aged female ex-CIA agent, uses this trope to approach a couple of ex-Green Beret associates of the villain and kill them.

* Quark in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Profit and Lace".
** An extreme example since Quark underwent surgical transformation rather than just donning a disguise, as female Ferengi have much smaller ears.

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[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** The Third Doctor infiltrates Global Chemicals disguised as a cleaning lady in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath Thhe Green Death]]". Captain Yates of UNIT compliments his handbag, and the Doctor threatens to slosh him with it (it's a bucket).
* Quark in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Profit and Lace".
** An extreme example since Quark underwent surgical transformation rather than just donning a disguise, as female Ferengi have much smaller ears.

* Used ''ad nauseam'' in ''Series/AlloAllo''.
* The title character on ''Series/{{Baretta}}'' frequently did this. A couple of them can be seen in the opening credits.

* Radio/TheLoneRanger disguised himself from time to time in order to reconnoiter; very occasionally he dressed up as an old woman.
* ''Series/TheATeam'':
** In one episode, Hannibal [[BadHabits dressed as a nun]].
** In another episode, he's dressed as a bag lady as part of a movie he's working on.
** In yet another episode, he pretended to be Murdock's mother.
* Neville Savage of ''Series/MissionTopSecret'' once disguised as an old lady with his accomplice pushing "her" wheelchair. It allowed him to pass under the protagonists' nose, but they later find the discarded costume.
* In an episode of ''Series/GroundedForLife'', Sean is unable to change a flat tire, so he wears a shawl and pretends to be an old woman while Claudia shows some leg to flag down another motorist to help.

* The first season of ''Bosom Buddies'' has two male characters dress as women so they can live at an inexpensive hotel for women.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* During Rei's introduction in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', he's disguising himself as a helpless woman with a cloak in order to attract bandits and kill them for their food.

* Madam Fatal, a 1940s superhero, had this as his shtick, earning him a spot on {{Website/Cracked}}'s 7 Crappiest Superheroes.

* A mob boss "disguised" himself as a woman for years to avoid being killed by ComicBook/ThePunisher. His nephew later joined him out of fear of the same fate.

* Obscure villain He-She has the left side of a pretty woman, and the right of a tough man. His/her entire strategy for dealing with heroes is to turn so that only the female side is visible, thus making people think that he/she is weak like a woman and either harmless or needs protecting. Yeah.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Madmartigan's lady disguise ends up serving as this in ''Film/{{Willow}}'' when the villains are searching the town he's in. It doesn't fool them for long, though...

* The existence of this trope in the popular imagination winds up getting the protagonist of ''Film/BreakfastOnPluto'' (a possibly transgender WholesomeCrossdresser) in a lot of trouble. Kitten is not a violent person at all, but when a nightclub she visits is bombed, the authorities suspect that the biologically-male Irish person in women's clothing is an IRA operative, and she's arrested and treated very badly.
* Played straight in ''Lou'' when the title character, a middle-aged female ex-CIA agent, uses this trope to approach a couple of ex-Green Beret associates of the villain and kill them.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Suffragette}}''; one of the suffragists, who is actually a woman, disguises herself as ''harmless'' lady by using a baby carriage to hide the brickstones she's going to smash windows with.

* ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'' is famous for this, and probably the trope maker.
* In Creator/GKChesterton's ''The Club of [[HaveAGayOldTime Queer]] Trades'', a curate describes a gang of criminals dressed up as a group of respectable old ladies. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]], in that the "curate" himself is lying and in disguise.]]
* In Creator/DorothyLSayers' Literature/LordPeterWimsey story, "The Article in Question,” a lady's maid turns out to be a disguised male criminal. The noble lady employing the 'maid' is less than horrified to discover she's been dressed and undressed for the better part of a month by a young man. In fact she seems rather pleased.
* ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Starfighters of Adumar]]'' has the infamous "Escape Done In Drag". Wedge ordered his three pilots to get him four sets of women's clothing, in which they snuck into a base while a diversion went on. On Adumar, women can take all the combat positions men take, but Wedge and his pilots were male and being hunted by pretty much the entire city, so a group of four women would be less suspect. Hobbie cemented the disguise by doing a [[ScreamingWoman convincing]] [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl scream]].
* Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat once took several dozen army deserters through a military checkpoint dressed as women. On bicycles.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', [[spoiler: Barty Crouch Jr.]] escapes Azkaban disguised as his elderly mother.
* ''Literature/Discworld'':

*** On one occasion, Nobby dressed up as an old lady crossing the street so slowly that traffic stopped... and the other Watchmen tart giving the drivers tickets for illegal parking.

** In ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'', the soldiers attempt to gain access to a heavily guarded fortress by disguising themselves as washerwomen. Subverted in that [[spoiler: all of the soldiers save the lieutenant are actually women... who just happen to be disguised as men.]] ItMakesSenseInContext. So when a guard starts laughing at the old "washerwoman disguise" trick, Shufti [[spoiler:shows that she's pregnant by pulling up her skirts]] and [[TheLadette Tonker]] bursts into tears over this cruel treatment of harmless young women who've been forced to walk for days without food while fearing for their virtues every moment, and Polly finishes the poor man off by icily asking [[MadeToLookLikeAJerkass if he's seen everything he wanted to see and if he enjoyed himself]].
* In ''A Study in Scarlet'' Literature/SherlockHolmes is fooled (for a while) by a man disguised as an old woman; he himself pulls off this disguise in order to trail a villain in ''The Mazarin Stone''.
--> "He actually picked up my parasol for me once. ‘By your leave, madame,’ said he –- half-Italian, you know, and with the Southern graces of manner when in the mood, but a devil incarnate in the other mood. Life is full of whimsical happenings, Watson.”
* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's ''[[Literature/SpiralArm The January Dancer]]'', near the end, Hugh at one point is disguised as a woman.
* In Fred Vargas' ''The Chalk-Circle Man'',[[spoiler: Augustin-Louis Le Nermord]] spends half his time dressing as an especially ugly old woman, [[spoiler: which is part of his creepily elaborate plan to kill his wife.]]
* In the world of ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' women are the dominant sex and men are so rare it's unthinkably dangerous for one to go out alone. Men are also long-haired, makeup-wearing, and don less practical prettier clothing. However, whores in this world do themselves up to look like men and take on male mannerisms - so when Jerin has to go out, he [[RecursiveCrossdressing masquerades as a whore]].

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the Second and Third Doctor have used these types of disguises. In Three's case, Captain Yates of UNIT compliments his handbag, and the Doctor threatens to slosh him with it (it's a bucket).

* Joseph Joestar of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' disguises himself as a lady in order to get inside a Nazi compound. [[IncrediblyConspicuousDrag It doesn't work]] - he's over six feet tall and has the build of a professional wrestler. The Nazis take one look at him and ready their guns.

* ''Literature/{{Violeta}}'': After the 1973 military coup in Chile, Violeta's son is wanted and has to go into hiding. Violeta managed to get false documents, including under the name of "Lorena Benítez". She eventually locates where her Juan Martín is hiding, clean-shaven, wearing a dress and prepared to pass for "Lorena".