If modern audiences struggle to grasp the fluidity of Fanny and Stella's gender presentation, Bartlett argues that this is because Fanny and Stella intentionally straddle each other of gender boundaries to better adapt to a modern society that does not accept. In a city that could and would prosecute people like them, Fanny and Stella had to know the social contexts in which their feminine presentations were accepted. Therefore, one way to protect oneself in unsafe contexts “was to adopt sufficient masculine-looking signs so as to confuse any suspicious members of the public” (Bartlett 138). Primary sources provide evidence of their conscious choices about gender presentation. Letters to Stella from Louis Hurt urge her to "do your best to appear as manly as possible in every case in force... [and] then implore you to grow a mustache immediately" (CITE Hurt 3) so as not to make him offend Hurt's mother. It seems clear, examining the circumstances of the trial, that the local authorities had long been waiting for an excuse to prosecute these deviant individuals (CITE Simon ppt), which supports Bartlett's assertion that Fanny and Stella behaved tactfully in society to avoid being discovered. . While this may take away from understanding gender fluidity as part of their identity, Bartlett explains Fanny and Stella's ever-evolving gender