Marjorie Garber's Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety The tendency to establish rigid social codes of gender-determined behaviors is apparent everywhere--though specifically present in literary texts. Women are expected to, in essence, be women and act, dress, and behave in a manner that distinguishes them from men. While these constructs are rigidly defined, they are easily and recurrently transcended. In her, Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety, Majorie Garber
The Necessity of Cross-dressing Twelfth Night The action of Twelfth Night begins shortly after a damaging tempest shipwrecks the heroine, casting her upon foreign shores. Upon arrival in this strange seaport, Viola--like the Princess Leonide--dons male disguise which facilitates both employment and time enough to orient herself in this unfamiliar territory. Viola's transvestism functions as emblematic of the antic nature of Illyrian society. As contemporary feminist and Shakespearean
Portia as "sweet" and "good" then refers t... ... middle of paper ... ... influence that Nerissa now has over him. Shakespeare subtly addresses gender disputes and overwhelmingly proves them erroneous. He allows Jessica, Portia, and Nerissa to cross gender lines and disguise themselves as men. While they are transformed, their actions exemplify masculine deceit. Portia makes Balthasar seem excellent, therefore proves that women can surpass men in intellect. The women ultimately challenge male
Cross-Dressing in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and As You Like It In Shakespeare's plays Twelfth Night and As You Like It both of the lead female characters dress as men. Both plays are comedies and the change in gender is used as a joke, but I think it goes much deeper. A woman can become a man, but only if it is not permanent. The affect of the change cannot be too great because she must change back to female once everything is settled. They are strong female characters, but must become men
Cross-dressing in Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and The Merchant of Venice Any theatrical performance requires a two-fold exchange. The performers must act in such a way as to engage the audience and draw them into the story of the stage. However, the audience itself must yield to the imagination, allowing at times the irrational to take precedent over rational expectations. This exchange between performers and audience creates the dramatic experience; one cannot exist without the other.
The purpose of this study was to explore the impact abiding by gender norms has on the amount of prosocial behavior that is shown towards an individual or group. This is important because in society, many people do not strictly adhere to dressing in gender norms. Specifically, girls do not always dress in a feminine manner (i.e. long hair, make up, form accentuating nkvariable in this study is helping behavior shown towards people who overtly exemplify gender norms in their clothing compared to when
that to dress or do things that the opposite gender did is bad and can cause you to those you identity. Those that create the sumptuary laws believe that gender is very much black and white. Judith Bulter would have been completely okay with the cross-dressing and the gender fluidity. She doesn’t think who have to be one gender or another and that your gender isn’t a fact about you but something performative about you. She believes that who you are as a person is not tied so much into what gender that
Although there weren’t always terms for the acts, cross-dressing and homosexuality have existed since man has. Although they have both taken place for thousands of years, there is very rare documentation of the participants—particularly after the rise of Christianity and the condemnation of any of these marginalized groups of people. The American western frontier was no different—men and women continued to participate in cross-dressing and had relations with those of the same sex. However what is
“From Lieutenant Nun,” a memoir written by doña Catalina de Erauso, tells an intriguing story of a young Spanish female and her advantageous journey through Spain and the New World. Her family intends for her to become a nun but, that is not the life she seeks for herself. Therefore, she breaks away from the convent in hopes of finding somewhere to make her fortune by passing as a male. Catalina’s story is noteworthy because it gives readers another perspective of exploration focusing on self-discovery
their sexual identity (Newton, 1968). Later in 1972, she wrote the book “Mother Camp: female impersonators in America”. In this book Newton had spent time with drag queens for two years, she went with them to the loud bars they appeared, the chaotic dressing rooms where the homosexual men transformed themselves as women and the cheap apartments that the
and energy. Although many of the performers are homosexual, there are many misconceptions in regards to their lifestyle, sexuality, and morals. The art of drag is very versatile and represents much more than just dressing up. For hundreds of years, men have been on stage dressing as women. This can be dated back as far back as the thirteenth century, when the church disapproved of women actors but allowed males to disguise as the opposite sex. Forms of transvestism are rooted in the dawn of
masculine or feminine and, although those who choose to cross genders may believe themselves to be individual and out of the mould of what is considered the norm, they are more often than not subconsciously following society’s ideal of femininity versus masculinity by using society’s definition of this as a basis for their individuality. However, society’s expectations may also portray a message much more than indicated by the individual. Cross-dressing in entertainment has shown what is entailed to dress
story about women and how they should be viewed in the society using cross dressing and mistaken identity to prove his point. The Renaissance era is full of contradictions and was a male dominated society. In this era, women were under the rule of men and were perceived to be less rational and not as intelligent as men. Cross-dressing in the Renaissance era highlighted the inferiority of women to men; Shakespeare’s use of cross-dressing then presented an important change of stereotypical views. Since
effect of this law and this could be seen very clearly especially when it came to the theater. Cross-dressing was very common on the English stage because the majority of the time they had men playing all the roles including the women. Therefore it began a conversation about what the true effects of this law
homoerotic relationships become central to the play, found between Viola and Olivia, Orsino and Cesario, and Antonia and Sebastian. The motif of disguise is used throughout the play, crossing not only gender but also systems of class and status. Cross-dressing or androgynous performances of Viola and the men playing her upset restrictions of attraction within one subject. Viola’s breeches role prohibits her from acting on her own passions. However, it is Viola’s disguise as a youth that allows the characters
protagonist's act of cross-dressing. This act, as claimed by some feminist critics, may constitute a subversive act against the hegemonic order since it challenges common conception regarding female's role in Elizabethan period. Another critical approach, however, does not consider such act to be subversive but rather another dramatic technique reaffirming social and sexual hierarchy prevalent within patriarchal order. Based on the findings of this research, the act of cross dressing to a certain degree
The Roaring Girl Though its primary function is usually plot driven--as a source of humor and a means to effect changes in characters through disguise and deception—cross dressing is also a sociological motif involving gendered play. My earlier essay on the use of the motif in Shakespeare's plays pointed out that cross dressing has been discussed as a symptom of "a radical discontinuity in the meaning of the family" (Belsey 178), as cul-tural anxiety over the destabilization of the social hierarchy
In theatre, a “breeches” role is one where an actress cross-dresses, appearing on stage in male clothing. Heroines in breeches roles are predominantly limited to playing youths, retaining their femininity within this in-between state (Mann, 228). Malvolio describes Cesario as “Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy” (I.v.149-50). Twelfth Night, through these breeches and androgynous characters, explores how gender is fashioned. In exploring this androgyny, Shakespeare looks back
is suffering from a transvestic fetish. What is a transvestic fetish? Transvestic Fetishism is a psychosexual disorder found mostly in men. To better understand this disorder, we must first look at the definition. Transvestism is defined as dressing in the clothing of the opposite sex to achieve sexual arousal, excitement, and gratification. Fetishism is the reliance on nonhuman objects as the preferred or exclusive method of achieving sexual excitement. The major symptom of fetishism is the
Tear Stretch Tape has superior elasticity, even as being effortlessly hand tear-able. It is normally utilized as a compression dressing to assist control swelling along with preventing bleeding, or else as a pressure bandage to facilitate