Drag: A History of Female Impersonation in the Performing Arts
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.61 (766 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0814712541 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 312 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-09-03 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Know your HERstory! Dancerbwoi This is a great book that chronicles drag history. An absolute must for anyone pursuing or looking into drag culture. Know your herstory!
Doubtfire; The Crying Game or television's Bosom Buddies. Likewise, the focus is Western, despite a chapter on Japanese and Chinese female impersonators. Anyone who believes these often flamboyant and controversial characters are a recent manifestation would be well-advised to read late British writer Baker's fun, informative and revealing historical tour. Having emerged from church pageants, the theater was (like the church itself) dominated by men. Men got the female parts for centuries, including original portrayals of Shakespeare's Juliet, Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra, Desdemona. Baker spices his text with a gentle, appealing cynicism. Although almost entirely about female impersonation, there is a some mention of opera's trouser roles (Cherubino, Octavian, etc.). When actresses came into their own during the Restoration era, the man in drag moved to burlesque?where they tended to remain. Think of Boy George,
Even former drag queens have experience newfound fame; witness the recent popularity of the late Divine, renowned for her oddly compelling appearances in underground John Waters films. Men have been dressing as women on stage for hundreds of years, dating back to the thirteenth century when the Church forbade the appearance of female actors but condoned that of men and boys disguised as the opposite sex. Music, too, has been profoundly influenced by drag sensibility, from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Rocky Horror Picture Show to Boy George and RuPaul (the self- proclaimed Supermodel of the World).Tracing drag tradition from the Golden Age of stage transvestism during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I in England to the current quasi-drag inclinations of American grunge bands, Drag is an entertaining overview of this popular and complex medium.. Newsday recently observed, People are talking about all those fabulous heterosexual film idols who now can't seem to wait to get tarted up in drag and do their screen bits as fishnet queens. Forms of travestism can be traced back to the dawn of theatre and are found in all corners of the world, notably in China and Japan.In recent years, of course, drag has witnessed a dramatic and widespread revival. Doubtfire) have each delighted mainstream audiences with their portra