James Barry (1795-1865), not apparently a Maids: Women Who Dressed as Men in lesbian, rose to become senior Inspector- the Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happi- ness, London: Pandora, 1988; Annie General of the British Army Medical Woodhouse, Pantastic Women: Sex, Department. As these examples and other Gender, and Transvestism, New instances suggest, care is needed in assess- Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, ing the sexual orientation of such indi- 1989. viduals, who should not be assumed to Wayne R. Dynes be homosexual or lesbian without further evidence. During the nineteenth and twen- TRANSVESTISM, tieth centuries cross-dressers have taken THEATRICAL their cue from popular entertainment, The androgynous shaman or ber- including vaudeville, pantomime, night- dache who, in primitive cultures, serves club entertainers, and television "impres- an important function as intermediary sionists." At certain points particular with the numinous, is considered by some types of transvestism may engage the scholars to be sublimated, in civilized public's attention-as the "mannish les- societies, into the actor. The shape-chang- bian" of the 1920s-and the publicity thus ing powers of the shaman include sexual engendered may be picked up by gay men alternation as "celestial spouse," and it and lesbians and incorporated into their has been suggested that fear of this magic sense of self-presentation. That is to say, resides in the lingering prejudice against some gay people take up cross-dressing the "drag queen." The intermediate be- because that is the way they assume "they tween shaman and drag queen was the are supposed to be." performer: the German term Schwuchtel At its best, transvestism is a form ("queen," "fairy") originally meant a player of comic dame roles, and the cul- of ludic behavior that causes society to take a fresh look at gender conventions. In tural historian Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenbwg the 1980s,when a whole branch of inquiry links it with the Latin vetula, a frivolous known as "gender studies," has emerged, music maker. Among the Taosug people the role of transvestism has been evalu- of the South Philippines of the Pacific, ated in new perspectives that point to a most musicians are bantut or homosexu- more complex understanding of the phe- als, expected to take the female role in nomenon. courtship repartee; this association of per- formance and gender reversal implies a BIBLIOGRAPHY. Peter Ackroyd, shamanistic origin, and confirms the close Dressing Up: Transvestism and Drag: link between effeminate behavior and a The History of an Obsession, New York: special caste of performers. Simon and Schuster, 1979; Vem L. Bullough, "Transvestism in the Middle Historical Origins. The origins of Ages: A Sociological Analysis," Ameri- theatre in religious cults meant that can Iournal of Sociology, 79 (19741, women were barred from performance, a 138 1-94; Rudolf M. Decker and Lotte C. prohibition sustained by social sanctions van de Pol, The Tradition of Pemale against their public exhibition in general. Transvestism in Early Modern Europe, Therefore, in Europe, before the seven- New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989; Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychol- teenth century, and in Asia, before the ogy of Sex, vol. 111, part 2, New York: twentieth, female impersonation was the Random House, 1936, pp. 1-1 10; standard way to portray women on stage, Deborah Heller Feinbloom, Transvestites and was considered far more normal than and Transsexuals, New York: Dell, 1976; females playing females. The Greek the- Magnus Hirschfeld, Die Transvestit en, Berlin: Alfred Pulvermacher, 1910; Julia atre, devoted to the cross-dressing god Di- Wheelwright, Amazons and Military onysus, was virtually transvestite by defi- TRANSVESTISM, THEATRICAL 4 nition.Modernfeministtheoryarguesthat form Anja. Similarly, boys dance their this usurpation of the female role by men own versions of the highly feminine se- was an act of suppression, which allowed duction dances, inciting male audiences a patriarchal society to transmit a false to caress them after the performance. In image of Woman. However, the Russian popular Javanese drarnaludruk, the trans- classicistVyacheslavIvanov,asfarbackas vestite, who off the stage may be a male 1912, considered that the exclusion of the prostitute, is an important figure, related ecstatic maenad from the stage, by dirnin- to the androgynous priesthood of the past. ishing energy, enabled the necessary shift He classifies himself as a woman, present- from rite to performance. (It has also been ing not a realistic but a stylized portrait. noted that, later, the entrance of women China. As early as A.D. 661, Chi- on the French stage under Henri IV and nese actors were segregated into exclu- the English stage under Charles II signaled sively male or female companies. Ch'en a descent in drama from the epic mode to Wei-sung's love poems to a boy actor in the the domestic or social mode.) seventeenth century are well known. The The Roman theatre accepted the tan or female impersonator of Chinese convention, and scandal arose only when opera, instituted ostensibly for moral rea- an emperor lost caste by becoming a sons in the reign of Chi'en Lung performer. Suetonius tells us that Nero (1735-1796)) received a seven- to ten-year enacted the incestuous sister in the mime- training and had to be an exceptionally drama Macaris and Canace, giving birth graceful dancer, adept at manipulating his on stage to a baby that was then flung long sleeves. The emploi is sub-divided to the hounds; according to Aelius into ching i or cheng tan (virtuous Lampridius, Heliogabalus played Venus in woman); hua tan (seductive woman); The Judgment of Paris with his naked lao tan (old woman), the most realistic; body depilated. and wu tan [military woman). The great In the Oriental theatre, the trans- Mei Lan-fang(HeMing, 1894-1961), voted vestite actor, as Roland Barthes has said, the most popular actor in China in 1924, "does not copy woman but signifies her combinedvirtuousandseductiveelements . . . .Femininity is presented to be read, not in his portrayals; although he married and to be seen." Most Southeast Asian dance fathered a family, in his youth Mei had and drama forms kept the sexes apart in been the lover of powerful warlords. The performance, allowing a certain amount of clapper operas featuring tan had been, from cross-sexual casting; what was to be im- their inception by Wei Ch'ang-cheng in personated had as much to do with aes- the 1780s, considered by some a danger to thetic distinctions between coarseness and public morals; but the first serious ban refinement as with physical or social gen- was imposed in 1963, instigated in part der definitions, so that women often played by Mao Tse-tung's wife Chiang Ching. elegant young princes and men played When the Cultural Revolution ended, the abusive old women. In Bali, the powerful tan returned, but no more were to be witch Rangda was always impersonated trained. A curious footnote is the liaison by a man, because only a man's strength between the French diplomat Bernard could present and contain her dangerous Boursicot and the opera dancer Shi Pei and religiously empowered magic. These Pu, in 1964, which produced a child; in categories have become somewhat blurred 1983, it was discovered that the dancer in our time, with the admission of women was a male spy and the diplomat had into hitherto closed spheres of activity. By been truly hoodwinked in their darkened the 19209, women had taken over the bedroom. As M. Butterfly (1988), this Indonesian dance opera Aria, but audi- incident was wrought into a successful ences still prefer all males in the operatic Broadway play. 9 TRANSVESTISM, THEATRICAL
lapan. In Japanese No drama, matic genre known as hengemaro or the although all the actors are male, sexual costume-change piece was created around differences are not stressed, the same voice 1697 to showcase their skills and perhaps being used whether the role is masculine nourish the clothing-fetishism that is a or feminine. In Kabuki, however, the on- feature of Japanese culture. Lewdness in nagata (female impersonator) or oyama love scenes intensified between 1800 and (literally, chief courtesan) is an extremely 1840. With the Westernization of Japan, important line of business, with its onnagata played in Ibsen and other mod- sharply defined conventions. Originally, em dramas, but after World War II actors Kabuki was played by female prostitutes stopped being exclusive and played both who often burlesqued men, particularly male and female roles in Kabuki, the great foreigners; in 1629 women were banned exception being Nakamura Utaemon VI from the stage for reasons of morality. (b. 1917). Bando Tamasaburo (b. 19501 is They were soon replaced by boys between one of the great cultural heroes of modern eleven and fifteen (wakashu)who dressed Japan; well-known as a homosexual who like courtesans and were particularly be- has had affairs with his leading men, loved for their bangs; they acted out he has extended his repertory to Lady homosexual love affairs or methods of Macbeth and Desdemona. purchasing prostitutes. The increase in In 1914, a railway magnate sexual relations between the boys and founded the Takarazuka Revue Company their admirers led to a new ban in 1652, outside Osaka to attract tourists; soon four and mature men with shaven foreheads troupes, made up entirely of unmarried had to take over the female roles. Al- girls, were performing in repertoire and though this brought about a more refined touring the Pacific. Fifty girls are accepted art, it did not alter the ambience: in the annually after examinations in diction, 168&90s, 80 to 90 percent of the onnagata singing, Japanese and western dancing, and sprang from the ranks of catamites at the then subjected to rigorous training; if they iroko or sex-boy teahouses. Despite the marry, they must leave the troupe. Their formalized grace and abstract femininity shows include both Western musicals and of the onnagata, an inherent characteris- traditional folk plays, and their audiences tic of Kabuki has remained, as Donald are over 70 percent female; the otokoyaku Shively points out, "the peculiar eroti- or male impersonator is the star and idol of cism with its homosexual overtones." schoolgirls, who avidly read the fan maga- The Ayamegusa of Yoshizawa zines. The Takarazuka's popularity gave Ayame (1673-1729)' the standard hand- rise to the all-female Shochiku Revue, book, insisted that female impersonators which resembles a lavish Las Vegas lounge behave as women in daily life, and blush if act. Although the Takarazuka prides itself their wives are mentioned. Even a mod- on its purity, in 1988 two of its graduates em, married actor, Tornoemon, has de- were involved in a failed love-suicide pact. clared, "Onemust be thewoman, or else it Transvestism in the West. Men is merely disguise." This helped maintain dressing as women, particularly obstreper- the homosexual tradition; boys in training ous women, was a tradition of saturnalia, often had relations with one another, Feasts of Fools, and medieval New Year's while the actors, although lowest on the celebrations, and came to be used in politi- social scale, were much in demand as cal protest, allowing them to abnegate lovers (Minanojo, in particular, was the masculine responsibility and invest them- pederasts' beau iddal). Women sought to selves with feminine instinct. Cross- imitate the ideal of femininity they incar- dressing is a common accompaniment of nated, and the beauties depicted in classi- carnival time, when norms are turned cal woodcuts are often onnagata. A dra- , upside down; men giving birth was en- TRANSVESTISM, THEATRICAL O acted at some Hindu festivals, and even 1844)) the Princeton Triangle Club, and Arlecchino in the late commedia dell' the Mask and Wig in Philadelphia still arts was shown birthing and breast feed- thrive, even though the gender assump- ing his infant. tions that inform them no longer obtain. But Christianity, from its incep- Cambridge had organized an all-male dra- tion, could not countenance such letting- matic society in 1855, Oxford in 1879; off steam (John Chrysostom condemned when Cambridge's Footlights company cross-dressing in his Easter sermon of A.D. tried to insert women into its comic re- 3991, and Western civilization has re- vues, a storm of protest forced them to mained distrustful. By the nineteenth revert to their original practice. century most large European and Arneri- Comedy. Women were members can cities had enacted laws making cross- of commedia dell'arte troupes from the dressing a misdemeanor. 16th century, but the comic characters Early English Theatre. Gender occasionally donned petticoats to the de- confusion drama was brought to England light of audiences, and this travesty aspect from Italy. One of the earliest and most (already present in Aristophanes) grew intriguing examples was John Lyly's Ga- more important as actresses gained popu- lathea (1585),inwhich two girls disguised larity. If beauty and sex appeal were to be as boys fall in love with one another, and projected from the stage by a real woman, Venus promises to transform one into a the post-menopausal woman could as male, to implement their romance. This easily be played by a comic actor; parts like was complicated by the fact that both girls Mme. Pernelle in Molikrels Tartuffeand were played by boys. Just as the Catholic the nanny Yeremeevna in Fonvizin's The church attacked unruly carnivals and Minor were conceived as male roles, and mardi gras celebrations, Protestant clerics Nestroy's mid-nineteenth-century farces and Puritans censured the "sodomitical" contain several of these "dame" parts. The custom of the boy-player on the Elizabe- theatre historians Mander and Mitchen- than and Jacobean stage. William Prynne son have even suggested that "to camp" in Histriomastix (1633) condemned the derives from Lord Campley, who disguises practice as "an inducement to sodomy." himself as a lady's maid in Richard Steele's Boy companies dominated the English The Funeral (1701).The comic dame had theatre until 1580; tradition has it that become a fixture of English pantomime by Portia was created by James Bryston, Lady the Regency period, and the great music- Macbeth by Robert Goffe, Rosalind by hall comedian Dan Leno was responsible Joseph Taylor, Juliet by Richard Robinson, for the dame elbowing out Clown as the Ophelia by Ned Alleyn, and Desdemona chief comic performer in panto, opening by Nathaniel Field, who was coached by the way for George Robey, George Graves Ben Jonson. EdwardKynaston(1 640?-1706) and others to flourish. Some performers was the last of the line, playing well into like George Lacy and Rex Jamieson ("Mrs. the Restoration when Pepys noted in his Shufflewick," 1928-1984) played nothing diary (1659):"Kynaston as Olympia made but dames. A similar tradition was upheld the loveliest lady that I ever saw in my in American popular plays by Neil Burgess life." At the same time in France, Louis (1846-1910) as Widow Bedotte, Gilbert XIV had no qualms about appearing in Sarony [d. 1910)as the Giddy Gusher, the court masques as a bacchante (1651.1and Russell Brothers as clumsy Irish maids in the goddess Ceres (1661). vaudeville, George K. Fortescue The tradition of the boy actor had (18461-19141 as a flirtatious fat girl in arisen in schools, and enjoyed a resur- several burlesques, and George W. Monroe gence in the nineteenth century. The (d. 1932) as an Irish biddy in a number of Hasty Pudding Club at Harvard (founded musical comedies. In France, Offenbach's + TRANSVESTISM, THEATRICAL operetta Mesdames de la Halle (1858) women dressing as men had little sanction created three roles of market-women to be from ancient religion or folk traditions; it sung by men. has usually been condemned as a wanton The Circus. In the circus cross- assumption of male prerogative. But when dressing was a means of enhancing the women first came on the Western stage, seeming danger of stunts: the Franconis in costuming them in men's garb was sim- an equestrian version of Madame Angot ply a means to show off their limbs and were allegedly the first to do so in the provide freedom of movement. This was Napoleonic period. The American eques- certainly the case during the Restoration, trian Ella Zoyara (Omar Kingsley, 1840- when Pepys remarked of an actress in 1879) and the English trapezist Lulu (El knee-breeches "she had the best legs that Nifio Farini, b. 1855)were celebrated Vic- ever I saw, and I was well pleased by it." torian examples. Kingsleylspersonal sexu- Between 1660 and 1700, eight or nine ality is questionable. There is no question plays presented opportunities for women about Emil Mario Vacano (1840-18921, in men's clothes. Nell Gwyn, Moll Davis, Austria's most important and prolific and others took advantage of these writer on the circus, who had appeared as "breechesroles," but few could, like Anne an equestrienne under the names Miss Bracegirdle, give a convincing portrayal of Corinna and Signora Sanguineta, and a male. Often the part travestied was that was the lover of Count Emmerich Sta- of a young rake-Sir Harry Wildair in The dion (1839-1 900). The Texan aerialist Constant Couple and Macheath in The Barbette (Vander Clyde, 1904-1 9731, who Beggar's Opera-the pseudo-lesbian over- performed a species of striptease on tra- tones of the plot's situation providing a peze, ending his act with a dewigging, minor thrill. became the toast of Paris, and was taken After theFrenchRevolution, there up by Jean Cocteau. was a passing fad for historic dramas about Such performers were said to be women who went to war as men, usually "in drag," a term from thieves' cant that to aid their husbands or lovers. These compared the train of agown to the drag or dramas included PixCrCcourtls Charles le brake on a coach, and entered the theatri- Tbmbaire, ou le Sike de Nancy (18141, cal parlance from homosexual slang Duperche's feanne Hachette, ou I'Hbrohe around 1870. "Dragging up" provides the de Beauvais (1822) and a few about Joan of central plot device in Brandon Thomas' Arc; Mlle. Bourgeois who specialized in Charley's Aunt (18921, William Douglas such roles was praised for her "masculine Home's sex-change play Aunt Edwina energy." The leading English "breeches" (19591, andSimonGrayls Wise Child (1968). actresses of the early nineteenth century, The German equivalents were Theodor Mme.Vestris and Mrs. Keeley were, on the Korner's Vetter aus Bremen and Die Gou- other hand, noted for their delicacy, and vemante (both 1834). A comedy which made an impression less mannish than created a scandal in New York in 1896was boyish. It was said of Vestris in her best A Florida Enchantment by Archibald part, in Giovanni in London, or The Lib- Clavering Gunter, in which a magic seed ertine Reclaimed (1817), "that the num- turns a youngwoman (playedby awoman) ber of male hearts she caused to ache, into a man and a man (played by a man) during her charming performance of the into a woman; what shocked was the character . . . would far exceed all the woman's masculine amorous propensi- female tender ones Byron boasts that ties displayed while under the influence Don Juan caused to break during the of the seed. whole of his career." Female Transvestism. For unlike The first "principal boys" in female impersonation in the theatre, English pantomime were slender women, TRANSVESTISM, THEATRICAL O but became more ample in flesh through- had originated in the minstrel show, out the Victorian period, no real effort where the "wench" role was usually in- made to pretend they were men. Jennie vested in a good-looking youth. The fore- Hill on the music halls and Jennie Lee as most "wenches" like Francis Leon (Pat- Jo in various adaptations of Bleak House, rick Francis Glassey, b. ca. 1840) and Vemet in Paris and Josephine Dora and Eugene (DIAmeli, 1836-1 870) maintained Hansi Niese in Vienna, represented the elaborate wardrobes and were regarded as proletarian waif, a pathetic or cocky ado- models. The first white glamour drag per- lescent, not a mature male. But the Vien- former appears to be Emest Byne, who, as nese folk-singer Josefine Schmeer always Emest Boulton (b. 18481, had featured in a wore men's clothes off-stageas well. Peter sensational trial for solicitingwhile dressed Pan (1904], incarnated from its premiere in women's clothing. by a series of outstanding actresses in- Male impersonation was first cludingpauline Chase, Maude Adams, and introduced on the American variety stage Mary Martin, benefitted in the National by the Englishwoman Annie Hindle (b. ca. Theatre revival of 1981 from being played 1847) and her imitator Ella Wesner by a young man. (1841-19 17), both lesbians, in the guise Another aspect of male imper- of "fast" young men, swaggering, cigar- sonation is the assumption of Shakespear- smoking, and coarse. They performed in ean men's roles by actresses. It was long a the English music-hall as well, but there practice to cast women as children and a toned-down portrayal aimed at a more fairies. More ambitious was the usurpa- genteel audience was affected by Bessie tion of leading parts, with Kitty Clive al- Bonehill (d. 1902). With her mezzo- leged to be the first female Hamlet. The soprano voice, she blended the coarse- powerful American actress Charlotte grained fast man with the principal boy Cushman (1816-1876) played Romeo to into a type that could be admired for her sister's Juliet and later aspired to Car- its lack of vulgarity. Her example was dinal Wolsey; her Romeo was viewed as "a matched by the celebrated Vesta Tilley living, breathing, animated, ardent human (Matilda Alice Powles, 1864-19521, whose being," distinct from most ranting Mon- soprano voice never really fooled any lis- tagus. Women have undertaken Falstaff tener; her epicene young-men-about-town and Shylock on occasion, but Hamlet has were ideal types for the 18909, sexually proven to be irresistible. The most distin- ambiguous without being threatening. guished female Dane was Sarah Bem- Even so, at the Royal Command Perform- hardt, who, according to Mounet-Sully, ance of 1912, Queen Mary turned her back lacked only the buttons to her fly; but, on Tilley's act. according to Max Beerbohm, came off trhs These minstrel and music-hall grande dame. (Sarah had a penchant for traditions lasted longest in black Ameri- male roles, also playing Lorenzaccio and can vaudeville, where the performers' pri- LIAiglon.)In our time, Dame Judith An- vate lives often matched their impersona- derson and Frances de la Tour have tried tions. Female impersonators included the experiment, but it has proven unac- Lawrence A. Chenault (b.18771, who played ceptable to contemporary audiences. "Golden Hair Nell," and Andrew Tribble Glamour Drag. A new develop- (d. 19351, who created "Ophelia Snow." ment arose in nineteenth-century variety The best-known male impersonator in with the glamorous female impersonator Harlem was Gladys Bentley, aka Gladys and the "butch" male impersonator. The Ferguson and Bobbie Mint on (1907-1 960)) former might be a comedian who was alleged to have had an affair with Bessie dressed and made up to resemble a woman Smith; later in life, she married and pub- of taste, beauty, and chic. Glamour drag licly repented her lesbian past. 9 TRANSVESTISM, THEATRICAL
Musical Comedy. Criticsobjected a waiter, both masculine and subservient, when glamour drag entered musical com- and of Manfred Karge's Man to Man ( 19871, edy, but succumbed to the success of Jul- in which a widow adopts her husband's ian Eltinge (William Dalton, 1882-1941). identity to keep his job as a crane operator. The large-boned baritone usually selected In a work like Caryl Churchill's vehicles that allowed him quick wardrobe Cloud Nine (19791, sexual cross-casting is as well as sex-changes;this "ambisextrous an important aspect of the play's inquiry comedian," as Percy Hammond called into gender roles. Lily Tomlin, in her one- him, wore costumes that rivaled those woman show, has created a male lounge of female fashion-plates. Better liked by singer, Tommy Velour, plausible even to female than by male audiences, Eltinge the hair on his chest. worked at a butch image, regularly picking Postwar Revues. During World fights with insulters and announcing his War II, all-male drag revues were popular coming marriage. But his sexual prefer- in the armed services and, in the postwar ences remain amystery, despiterumors of U.K., survived as Soldiers in Skirts and an affair with a sports writer. Forces Showboats. Despite the military Bert Savoy (Everett Mackenzie, titles, these were havens for homosexual 1888-1923) introduced an outrageous transvestites, and, perhaps in reaction to red-haired caricature, garish and brassy, wartime austerity, perhaps in nostalgia for gossipping about her absent girlfriend a wartime stag atmosphere, the postwar Margie and launching such catch-phrases period burgeoned with clubs and revues as "You mussst come over" and "You specializing in glamour drag. In fact it had don't know the half of it, dearie." His arch been the rise of the nightclub in the 1920s camping, performed with his effeminate which gave female impersonation itsrepu- partner Jay Brennan, influenced Mae West. tation as a primarily homosexual art-form. FrancisRenault (Anthony Oriema, d. 19561, In the United States, the Jewel billed as "The Slave of Fashion" and Box revue, founded in Miami in 1938 by "Camofleur," sang in a clear soprano and Danny Brown and Doc Brenner, enjoyed appeared in Broadway revue; Karyl Nor- an eight-yearrun in the postwar period and man (George Podezzi, 1897-1 9471, "The launched a number of major talents before Creole Fashion-plate," switched from folding in 1973; its "male" m.c. was the baritone to soprano voice, alternating black female cross-dresser Storme De- sexes in his act. Larverie. Similar enterprises include Modern Male Impersonators. Finocchio's in San Francisco, Club 82 in With the radical changes in dress and New York, My-Oh-My in New Orleans manners that followed World War I, the and theHaHa Club inHollywood, Florida; male impersonator became a relic, al- in Paris, Chez Madame Arthur and Le though the tradition persisted in Ella Carrousel; in West Berlin, Chez Nous and Shields ("Burlington Bertie from Bowl'J Chez Romy Haag; and in Havana, the and Hettie King. Ironically, contemporary MonMartre Club. In London, licensing feminist theatre groups have revived the laws forced professional drag into after- type for political reasons, as in Eve hours clubs and amateur drag into local Merriam's revue The Club (19763, Timber- pubs, just as local interference by the lake Wertenbaker's New Anatomies (ICA Catholic Church and witch-hunting town Theatre, 198 11, and German ensembles councils legislated many of the smaller like Briihwarm. The economic necessity 1 American clubs out of existence. Club of wearing male dress was the motive force transvestites were often eager to be taken of SimoneBenmussalsThe Singular Life of for women: a Parisian star, the Bardot Albert Nobbs, whose heroine must live as clone Coccinelle (Jacques-Charles TRANSVESTISM, THEATRICAL 4
Dufresnoy), pioneered with a sex-change queens" Bloolips (founded in London in operation and legal maneuvers to be ac- 1970)sent up this forced glamor and other cepted as a woman. cliches of variety entertainment to make Many gay bars or pubs provided at wide-sweeping political statements about least a token stage, and the female imper- social misconceptions of gender. sonator became almost exclusively what "Gender-fuck" and Glitter Rock. Esther Newton calls "performing homo- More anarchic uses of "gender-fuck" re- sexuals and homosexual performers," a sulted from the emergence of gay libera- relatively young, overt member of a dis- tion from the West Coast hippy scene. The tinct subculture. But the show-business Cockettes and the Angels of Light of San ambience could often neutralize the sexu- Francisco were among the first to use ality for a mixed or heterosexual audience. campy pastiches of popular culture for One of the most successful means of radical ends; the Cycle Sluts and, later, the "passing" with such a public is to give street-theatre group, the Sisters of Perpet- impressions of female super-stars, usu- ual Indulgence, parodied traditional drag ally including such gay icons as Mae West, by mixing the macho of beards, leather, Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, and Judy and hairy chests with their spangles, false Garland. T. C. Jones (1920-1971 ), a vet- eyelashes, and net-stockings. Despite the eran of the Jewel Box, was introduced to a flaunted faggotry of these groups, the out- general public in New Faces of 1956 and rageousness appealed to heterosexual toured his own revue. rock musicians as a new means of assault; Craig Russell (b. 1948) has been the extreme makeups and outfits were both the most widely known and the most adopted by Alice Cooper, the New York versatile in this crowded trade, although Dolls, and Kiss, among others, a school Charles Pierce's impersonations make up which came to be known as "glitter rock" in vitriol what they lack in accuracy. and "gender-bending." English society, Many of these performers disdain the ap- with its own more delicate tradition, gave pellation "impersonator": Pierce and Lynn rise to David Bowie, who presented an Carter (1925-19851 preferred to be known androgynous allure. This approach reached as "impressionists," Jim Bailey as a "singer- a logical terminus in Boy George, whose illusionist," Russell as a "character ac- early publicity touted him as asexual or tor," and Jimmy James (JamesJohnson, b. tamely bisexual. 1961) insists that his heavily researched Drama. Although Goethe pre- replication of Marilyn Monroe is a kind of ferred to see a young man as Goldoni's possession. (More original and unnerving Locandiera (The Mistress of the Inn), for is the Dead Marilyn, created by former fear lest a woman be as forward as the role Cockette Peter Stack, aka Stakula.) demanded, female impersonation did not The mid-60s to 70s saw a resur- return to serious drama for a long time. gence of female impersonation as an ar- The Russian actor Boris Glagolin ticle of theatrical faith. Danny La Rue's (1878-1948) did attempt to play Joan of (Daniel Carroll, b. 1928)club in Hanover Arc in St. Petersburg. But in modern times Square (1964-70) was a resort of fashion, cross-dressing became a serious aesthetic and he became a major star of popular principle in the interpretation of classic entertainment; despite a homosexual life- texts with both the Lindsay Kemp com- style well known within the show biz pany and the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. community, he still promotes an aggres- Kemp (b. 1940?), an original dancer and sively "normal" image. Drag mimes, lip- mime, won an international reputation syncing to tapes, became ubiquitous and with Flowers, an homage to Jean Genet reached an elegant apotheosis in Paris' La and his versions of Salome and A Mid- Grande Eugene. But the "radical drag summer Night's Dream, amalgams of O TRANSVESTISM, THEATRICAL
camp sensibility with oneiric imagery. and the Andy Warhol Factory which (One Kemp follower who went off on his housed Jackie Curtis and Holly Wood- own was Michael Matou [1947-19871, the lawn. The 300-lb. underground film star Australian dancer and designer, who Divine (Glen Milstead, d. 1988) was fea- founded the Sideshow Burlesco in Sydney turedin anumber of off-off-Broadwayplays, in 1979.)The Citizens Theatre, under the most memorably as the prison matron in leadership of Giles Havergal, Robert Tom Eyen's Women Behind Bars. A lead- David Macdonald and Philip Prowse, cast ingexponent is Ethyl (nkRoy]Eichelberger men as Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Margue- (b. 19451, whose one-man Tempest and rite Gautier (in Camino Real), and so forth, locasta, or Boy-Crazy are both in the to stress the irreality of gender identi- minstrel-vaudeville tradition and the fi-cation and the conventionality of the shamanistic current (he sports a tattoo to theatre form; they were the first to intro- assert his masculinity whatever his at- duce a male Lady Bracknell, an innovation tire). Gender confusion is also the main which has since become endemic. Less ad- theme of Los Angeles comedian John venturous was the Royal Shakespeare Fleck (b. 1953) (IGot the He-Be She-Be's, Company's all-male As You Like It, since 1986; Psycho Opera, 1987). it cautiously avoided casting adolescents Breeches in Opera. In early in the leading parts. baroque opera, a favorite plot was the leg- Dame Comedy. Before the war, end of Achilles disguising himself as a dame comedy had been sophisticated by maiden on the island of Scyros to avoid Douglas Byng (1893-1 988 1, who performed involvement in the Trojan war; in this in London supper clubs, cabarets and in equivocal disguise he was wooed by the revue. Comedy persisted in clowns like king and wooed the princess. The subject Pudgy Roberts who appeared in glamour was treated seriously by thirty-two operas drag revues, in the all-male Ballets Trock- between 1663 and 1837, and comically by adero de Monte Carlo (founded 1974)and John Gay (Achilles, 1732) and Thomas the Trockadero Gloxinia Ballet, and their Arne (Achilles in Petticoats, 1793), and operatic equivalent the Gran Scena Opera survived as dramatic material as late as Co., founded by Ira Siff in 1982, with men Robert Bridges' Achilles in Scyros (1890). singing the soprano roles. Formidable Both as a legacy from eighteenth-century dames carry on: Barry Humphries as castrato singing and for reasons of vocal Dame Edna Everage and piano-entertain- balance, breeches parts have persisted in ers Hinge & Brackett (George Logan and opera, and it takes little time for an audi- Patrick Fyffe]. In the 1980s, "alternative ence to adjust to sopranos impersonating drag performanceffcould be seen at clubs libidinous youths like Cherubino and and pubs in Britain: standard glamour Octaviin. Musical comedy has utilized drag was trashed by such as Ivan the the male-femaledisguisegimmick at least Terrible and The Joan Collins Fan Club from Franz von Suppe's Fatinitza (18781, (Julian Clary and his dog Fanny), who but without adding anything of distinc- combined self-abuse with attacks on tion to it, at least not since Eltinge. Danny audience expectation. LaRuefs appearance as Dolly Levi in a Drag has also become a compo- West End production of Hello, Dolly! nent of contemporary performance art, as coarsened an already coarse creation. Sugar in John Epperson's Ballet of the Dolls (La by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill(1972) was MaMa, New York, 19881, a confrontation simply an overblown remake of Some of pulp fiction with theclichks of romantic Like It Hot, just as La Cage aux Folles by ballet. This trend has its roots in the Fierstein andHerman tarted up the French "Ridiculous Theatre" movements of the farce for the Broadway marketplace. 1970s, which launched Charles Ludlam, TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION +
See also Castrati; Dance; Music, As the eighteenth century drew Popular; Theatre and Drama; Transves- to a close, a slow tidal wave of puritanism tism (Cross-Dressing);Variety, Revueland and prudery rolled over the West, and by Cabaret Entertainment. 1835 it had ceased to be safe to make open references to homosexuality in books in- BIBLIOGRAPHY. Roger Baker, Drag: A tended for general use. Here and there in History of Female Impersonation, London: Triton, 1968; Gisela Bleibtreu- France and Germany, scholars during the Ehrenberg, Der Weibmann, Frankfurt am nineteenth century were able to write Main: Fischer, 1984; A. Holtmont, Die articles or even books about homosexual- Hosenrolle, Munich: Meyer & Jessen, ity, or to mention it in passing, but in the 1925; Kris Kirk and Ed Heath, Men in Enghsh-speaking world there was an al- Flocks, London: Gay Men's Press, 1984; Laurence Senelick, "The Evolution of most absolute taboo against mentioning the Male Impersonator on the 19th such an "unspeakable" subject at all. Century Popular Stage," Essays in Travelers therefore either simply did not Theatre, 1:l (1982],31-44. mention what they saw in foreign lands Laurence Senelick with regard to homosexual behavior, or else they mentioned it in veiled phrases ("vice against nature," llabominablevice," TRAVELAND EXPLORATION "unnatural propensities," and similar expressions). This sort of nonsense went In this context, the literature of on until the veil was rudely lifted by travel and exploration refers to books Arminius Vambery and Sir RichardBuaon written by Europeans or Americans about in the late nineteenth century, Vambery what came to be known as the "Third being a Hungarian traveler who had vis- Worldu-Asia, Africa, the islands of the ited the court of the pederastic Amir of Pacific, and to a certain extent the Ameri- Bukhara in Central Asia, and Burton being cas (as relating to Amerindians) It would the notorious explorer of Asia and Africa not include work in the field of anthropol- who wrote a whole essay on pederasty, ogy. This literature of travel and explora- which provoked howls of "moral" out- tion (and conquest] begins around the rage. But the Oscar Wilde trials in 1895 time of Columbus and goes onward until put the lid back on until after World War I, the early twentieth century, when tour- and even to a certain extent until after ism began to make the whole world a World War 11. replica of the West and nothing was left Another problem was that the to be explored. Asians and Africans themselves-and this Travel Literature. During the is a problem faced also by anthropolo- sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth gists-realized that the Western travelers centuries, it was possible to write about were hostile to homosexuality, and there- "sodomie" with some frankness. Accord- fore kept it out of their sight as much as ingly, there are numerous candid refer- possible. The Japanese after the begin- ences to homosexuality in the various nings of modernization in the late nine- writings of travelers which were collected teenth century are a case in point. One in massive multivolume anthologies by need only look back to the clandestine Richard Haklyt, Samuel Purchas, and nature of homosexual society in theunited John Pinkerton. Purchas (the source of States up until the 1960s to realize how Coleridge's "Kubla Khan") even has a easy it is to hide a flourishing homosexual unique reference to the homosexuality of subculture from the general public, much the Emperor Jahangir of India. Many other more so from passing tourists. travel books during this period not col- The presentwriter can attest that lected by any later editor also contain data homosexuality, so widespread in Morocco, of this kind. 1