Females recognized by the Oscars for portraying character of the opposite sex or who a character who challenges sexuality norms.

There are a few females who have won or at least been nominated for an Oscar for playing a character of another gender or playing a character who has a sexuality that is different from the norm.There are a few actresses with their first Oscar nomination in particular who won one for role that fall under this category. Namely Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan, a male dwarf who is the lead (a reporter)'s photography contact, in the movie The Year of Living Dangerously,

 Hillary Swank as Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry in which she plays a female who is male identified and raped and murdered when she tries to enter a relationship with a female who discovers Teena is indeed female bodied,

and finally Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuronos in Monster, in which Theron plays a older prostitute who falls in love with a woman, murders men for money and then is later sentenced to death and executed.

Finally I will take a look at two women who recieved Oscar nominations this past year for the same film Albert Nobbs Glenn Close and Janet McTeer recieving nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively. In this film both women portray women who pretend to be men in order to find employment in the harsh workforce of the time, both women also express the want to find wives in the movie.

Soriano, Rianne H. "Oscars Recognize Women for Roles Reversing Sexuality, Gender."Yahoo! Movies. 16 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://movies.yahoo.com/news/oscars-recognize-women-roles-reversing-sexuality-gender-184500698.html>.

"Albert Nobbs." IMDb. IMDb.com, 15 Apr. 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602098/>.