Just One of the Boys: Female-To-Male Cross-Dressing on the American Variety Stage (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780252041518)

Female-to-male crossdressing became all the rage in the variety shows of nineteenth-century America and began as the domain of mature actresses who desired to extend their careers. These women engaged in the kinds of raucous comedy acts usually reserved for men. Over time, as younger women entered the specialty, the comedy became less pointed and more centered on the celebration of male leisure and fashion.

Gillian M. Rodger uses the development of male impersonation from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century to illuminate the history of the variety show. Exploding notions of high- and lowbrow entertainment, Rodger looks at how both performers and forms consistently expanded upward toward respectable--and richer--audiences. At the same time, she illuminates a lost theatrical world where women made fun of middle-class restrictions even as they bumped up against rules imposed in part by audiences. Onstage, the actresses' changing performance styles reflected gender construction in the working class and shifts in class affiliation by parts of the audiences. Rodger observes how restrictive standards of femininity increasingly bound male impersonators as new gender constructions allowed women greater access to public space while tolerating less independent behavior from them.

Author: Gillian M. Rodger
ISBN-10: 0252041518
ISBN-13: 9780252041518
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Language: English
Published: 01/04/2018
Pages: 275
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2018