the strategy i'd recommend would be to think of what was said on all the occasions this has happened and think up some witty/cutting responses that you could use in similar circumstances in future. don't let these  people's inconsiderate/ignorant/stupid comments make you feel bad - come back at them with with a great response so they know it!

i managed to embarrass a couple of men who mistook me for a man in this way and a girl i know always says 'thank you madam' to guys who mistake her for a man.

hope this helps a wee bit. good luck!

I'd say, to be smart and witty in comment would be the best.

i dress quite masculin and still have an all-woman figure, and still sometimes they cast strange glances. it's annoying, but i always try to face it with a laugh.

they don't have any right to make you feel so bad. just show them that they are wrong. don't let that get you down.

I'm sorry to hear your story! :--(

No, it's never happened to me, but last year I was in a department store with a woman with a short 'comme les garcons' haircut who was wearing guy's clothes; and when she went to use the public toilet, a really awful woman incoherently cursed at her and even tried to physically block her from entering. At first we didn't even understand what was transpiring. Then - like you, we were hit with the shock of being assaulted out of the blue, just minding our own business... and then out of thin air - BaaaM! Like that, like with you. The person I was with is a runway model and to think she's a guy, you'd have to be brain dead. But then the woman started saying "if you want to go in you have to change your clothes" so apparently it wasn't gender confusion. It was flat out hostility against somebody she perceived as possibly being gay (or some other demon in her twisted mind). She said she was going to have us arrested. She said we belonged in jail. It was incredible. And no, she didn't work for the store.

So the moral of the story is: when something like this happens it probably has nothing to do "with you". It's totally the other person. I think psychologists call it "projection" or something like that, when another person "projects" their problems onto somebody else. Maybe she was attracted to you and "just couldn't take it". Maybe she wants to dress the way you do, but doesn't dare to. Or maybe she thinks you are gorgeous on both sides of the gender divide and have no right to be so and it un-nerves her. Who knows? But its not you who has the problem cauz I'z witnessesed it wiz my own three eyes.