Home » Just One of the Boys
Product Image

Just One of the Boys

Gillian M Rodger
€26.50
Quantity:
In stock with our UK publisher. 14-28 days
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
14 days return policy Shipping & Delivery
A01=Gillian M Rodger
actresses in the nineteenth century
Author_Gillian M Rodger
Category=ATD
Category=AVC
Category=JBSF
changes in male impersonation
changes in vaudeville
class construction
cross-dressing
crossdressing in variety shows
early twentieth century stage performance
English male impersonators
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
female Hamlets
female Romeos
females playing males on stage
fluid sexuality in the theater
gender
history of crossdressing
history of crossdressing in the theater
history of vaudeville
male impersonation on American stage
male impersonation specialty
male impersonators
nineteenth century crossdressing
nineteenth century stage performance
nineteenth century variety shows
popular song
sexuality
variety shows in America
variety theater
vaudeville
women and the stage
women crossdressing

Product details

  • ISBN 9780252083150
  • Weight: 367g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
  • Publication Date: 04 Jan 2018
  • Publisher: University of Illinois Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Paperback
Secure checkout Fast Shipping Easy returns
Description
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.
About Gillian M Rodger
Gillian M. Rodger is a professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is the author of Champagne Charlie and Pretty Jemima: Variety Theater in the Nineteenth Century.

More from this author