Talk:Impostor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have found one mention of a Canadian Member of Parliament or minister who was a cross-dresser and fooled people for couple of years but I could not find any details, even the name. I have also lost a name of Swedish government minister who hid his illiteracy. Then there was an US male athlete who pretended to be female sometime in the 1930’s.

Skysmith Skysmith

Is it really fair to describe the "women living as men" as impostors? Did they self-identify as men,[sic] i.e. were they transgendered? - Montréalais

Very good point. However, we do not actually know the truth about their thoughts, only the fact that they misrepresented their sex (and I can understand their reasons in male-dominated professions). Skysmith

Contents

[edit] Fake chinese

Who was the man who impersonated a Chinese circus performer? lysdexia 01:01, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Chung Ling Soo was more of a stage name of William Robinson than outright imposture - although he did maintain his facade most of the time - Skysmith 08:37, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] John Howard Griffin, et al.

I dispute categorizing JHG and similar individuals (who went "under cover", as it were, for the purposes of research) as "impostors". Does anyone else share my POV on this matter? Of course, there's also the inherent subjectivity in the classification of anyone as an impostor, but that's a separate issue. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 22:32, May 12, 2005 (UTC)

  • Very good point, actually. Often long-time impostors, regardless of their motives, intend to remain in their assumed role at least until somebody reveals the ruse. Those who assume some other role temporarily for fraud (like Wilhelm Voigt) or for the hoax of exposure (like Joey Skaggs) or for investigative journalism are bit more problematic cases. In effect they are "temporary impostors" but the difference is hard to define. What do you think, could it be useful to include a section about using sort-of-an imposture for some specific purpose? - Skysmith 09:25, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] the Chameleon

I am unsure of where to place Frederic Bourdin the Chameleon -- can someone please add him to the correct section... check out the article at BBC here ~ RoboAction 18:48, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Danny C of Sha Na Na

For those of you who know his story [1], how should he be classified on this page?

[edit] Needs a little cleanup

This article needs a little clean-up. For example, look at the following sentence. "Impostors are usually aware of not being who they say they are; they are not the proverbial lunatics who think they are Napoleon." Wikipedia should not be written in a conversation tone. Captain Jackson 06:16, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

  • Agreed. I'm removing the following sentence. I can't figure out what the sentence is supposed to mean. Perhaps someone can rewrite it and put it back in. SnappingTurtle 16:07, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
“ Only if a significant part of their past is fabricated, like that of George Dupre who claimed to have been an SOE agent in World War II, they approach the admittedly hazy border. ”


[edit] Removed Ward Churchill

I removed Ward Churchill today. Since the claim in earlier versions was that he had based his career on claiming Indian ancestry which is not true. He has claimed Indian ethincity based on choice and based his career on academic work which has in turn been questioned. He may turn out to be considerded a bad scientist further along but for now and forever more he is not an imposter.Zumbiz 13:29, 6 April 2007 (UTC)