2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
2016 Richard Wall Memorial Award
2017 Best Photography Book Award
a florida enchantment
A01=Laura Horak
Age Group_Uncategorized
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American films
american studies
Author_Laura Horak
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best photography book award
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=APF
Category=ATF
cinematic cross-dressing
communications
COP=United States
cross-dressed women
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
early twentieth century
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
film archives
film industry
film.
Finalist
gender
gender roles
gender studies
gender-bending film roles
gender-bending films
gentlemanly refinement
Girls Will Be Boys
Greta Garbo
Katharine Hepburn
Kraszna-Krausz Foundation
Language_English
lesbian identity
LGBT community
LGBT history
lgbtq culture
LGBTQ Studies
Long-listed
Marlene Dietrich
masculinities
media studies
PA=Available
performance studies
performing arts
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
respectability
rugged virility
sentimental boyhood
sexuality
social science
softlaunch
theater
Theatre Library Association
transgressive
vintage images
wholesome
women's history
women's studies
Product details
- ISBN 9780813574820
- Weight: 540g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 26 Feb 2016
- Publisher: Rutgers University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Finalist for 2016 Richard Wall Memorial Award from the Theatre Library Association
Long-listed for the 2017 Best Photography Book Award from the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation
Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Katharine Hepburn all made lasting impressions with the cinematic cross-dressing they performed onscreen. What few modern viewers realize, however, is that these seemingly daring performances of the 1930s actually came at the tail end of a long wave of gender-bending films that included more than 400 movies featuring women dressed as men.
Laura Horak spent a decade scouring film archives worldwide, looking at American films made between 1908 and 1934, and what she discovered could revolutionize our understanding of gender roles in the early twentieth century. Questioning the assumption that cross-dressing women were automatically viewed as transgressive, she finds that these figures were popularly regarded as wholesome and regularly appeared onscreen in the 1910s, thus lending greater respectability to the fledgling film industry. Horak also explores how and why this perception of cross-dressed women began to change in the 1920s and early 1930s, examining how cinema played a pivotal part in the representation of lesbian identity.
Girls Will Be Boys excavates a rich history of gender-bending film roles, enabling readers to appreciate the wide array of masculinities that these actresses performed-from sentimental boyhood to rugged virility to gentlemanly refinement. Taking us on a guided tour through a treasure-trove of vintage images, Girls Will Be Boys helps us view the histories of gender, sexuality, and film through fresh eyes.
Finalist for 2016 Richard Wall Memorial Award from the Theatre Library Association
Long-listed for the 2017 Best Photography Book Award from the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation
Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Katharine Hepburn all made lasting impressions with the cinematic cross-dressing they performed onscreen. What few modern viewers realize, however, is that these seemingly daring performances of the 1930s actually came at the tail end of a long wave of gender-bending films that included more than 400 movies featuring women dressed as men.
Laura Horak spent a decade scouring film archives worldwide, looking at American films made between 1908 and 1934, and what she discovered could revolutionize our understanding of gender roles in the early twentieth century. Questioning the assumption that cross-dressing women were automatically viewed as transgressive, she finds that these figures were popularly regarded as wholesome and regularly appeared onscreen in the 1910s, thus lending greater respectability to the fledgling film industry. Horak also explores how and why this perception of cross-dressed women began to change in the 1920s and early 1930s, examining how cinema played a pivotal part in the representation of lesbian identity.
Girls Will Be Boys excavates a rich history of gender-bending film roles, enabling readers to appreciate the wide array of masculinities that these actresses performed-from sentimental boyhood to rugged virility to gentlemanly refinement. Taking us on a guided tour through a treasure-trove of vintage images, Girls Will Be Boys helps us view the histories of gender, sexuality, and film through fresh eyes.
LAURA HORAK is an assistant professor of film studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She is also the coeditor of an award-winning book, Silent Cinema and the Politics of Space.
