Talk:Hot Pants/@comment-146.199.41.7-20150125222951/@comment-50.131.189.113-20150314012504

Honestly, the way I see it personally, I believe it could have easily been just a way to keep face. Back in the late 1800s early 1900s women were still just the "weaker sex" you know. A lot of men (and probably women alike) often stated that women weren't as smart, or as strong, and that they were crazy because of moodswings and such, thus meaning they were unreliable.

I could easily believe that besides hiding her identity, the reason that she could have kept her gender a secret was so people didn't look down upon her and took her seriously as a contestant and someone to be feared. Even if they DID know her as a woman, think about how annoying it would be back then to have to prove yourself to a sexist american society as a strong, SERIOUS person.

It's almost better to just be someone else (in this case a man) then to deal with that.

But that's just my personal opinion. I don't know if it's ever stated why, honestly, I don't remember if it did.