gender roles in society

Definition of gender roles- the overt expression of attitudes that indicate to others the degree of your maleness or femaleness; "your gender role is the public expression of your gender identity"

The visibility of feminine-to-masculine, transgenderism increased in the 1990s. The late modern/postmodern concept of the body as malleable in service of (gendered) identity presentation facilitated this upsurge in two ways: first, transgenderism became intelligible in society through this discourse. Second, representations of masculinity became increasingly, per formative, and thereby more adoptable for a female-bodied person. As mentioned by Wickman (2003)


 Since Greek Theater began over 2,500 years ago in festivals, the earliest plays where stories told by a chorus of men and boys, the actors portrayed a variety of roles and to do so the actors work different masks. The masks of comedy become symbols of the theatre.  Aristophanes and Menader wrote comedies with humorous dramas that ending with a happy ending. As mentioned by Twain (no date). For over 2,500 years ago men have been dressing up as women to portray a more femimne character for comedy to make the audience laugh. The play writers such as Aristophanes, Mender and Shakespeare are smart and knew that a comedy was not a documentary but served as entertainment for the audience to escape into reality and forget it was a temporal escape from everyday reality for both the audience (to laugh in the comedy plays) for the actors (to perform as character in costume in front of live audiences of thousands of people). As mentioned by Twain (2004). 

Cross-dressing in Shakespeare comedies the audience sees men dressed in women’s clothes. Renaissance audience came to watch a story; a boy-actor playing a woman was a stage convention, something to forget.

In Shakespeare’s most famous comedies, two women characters all possess a masculine disguise. In A Twelfth Night (1600), Viola becomes a eunuch to win the Dukes Orsino’s love over. In As you like it (1600) Rosalind acts as a shepherd to escape from Duke Frederick and to test Orlando’s love. The cross-dressed Rosalind’s identity is more ambiguous. Rosalind disguises herself as Ganymede, then acts as Orlando’s Rosalind in the wooing scenes. Rosalind portrays three roles: Rosalind, Ganymede, and Orlando’s. By performing the last role, Rosalind plays on the masculine constructions of femininity. Cross- dressing enables her to demonstrate femininity in a man’s disguise. As mentioned by Johnova (1997). 


In Shakespeare comedies and Greek Theatre, women would have been to delicate to portray an woman and a man, the men had the voices, and the physical features and structures to pull both a female character with femininity physical features and men’s physical features as well to perform in plays for entertainment as comedy was seen as entertainment with live theatre. As mentioned by Norton (1997)

Androgeny Dreher (1986) explores how cross-dressing is connected with the concept of androgyny, popular in the Renaissance. One of the key terms of alchemy was balance, and androgyny is an expression of a balance between the masculine and the feminine principles. On the physical level it can be seen in the figures who carry both masculine and feminine features; beautiful boys with feminine grace and boyishly slender women.

Cross-dressing stresses the idea of androgyny by giving it a physical dimension, but most of Shakespeare’s comedy heroines are active, dynamic and resourceful, which

Are the qualities associated rather with masculinity than femininity, adds the funny moments in the plays. As mentioned by Norton (1997) 

A definition of cross dressing- transverses: the practice of adopting the clothes or the manner or sexual role of the opposite sex.  An example Shakespeare’s plays as men dressed up as women characters to portray the opposite sex to perform the qualities of female characters. Where as drag is a man who dress’s up in women’s clothes, for the purposes of entertainment. Comedy is a form of entertainment.

In the Adventures of Priscilla Queen Of the Dessert (1994). It’s an Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot is based on the journey of three drag queens (Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp) who travel across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named "Priscilla", along the way encountering various groups and individuals. Containing elements of comedy, the film's title is a pun on the fact that in English speaking cultures; "queen" is a slang term for a male homosexual.

According to Stephan Elliot, director of Priscilla: ‘I chose to write a film where in the first half you laugh at the [white drag-queens] characters, and in the second half you are laughing with them’ (1994). As mentioned by Laforteza (2006). 

Thomas states that Priscilla’s drag queens offer a model for this ‘impure’ identity which “articulates itself through that which is not self, that is through performance” (1996: 105). Thomas further specifies: “Traditionally... drag has offered the spectacle of gay men and/or transsexuals playing out an exaggerated version of a culturally coded version of femininity...” (105). This interpretation of drag declares that specific people can be named as performing drag. These people are ‘gay men and/or transsexuals’, and the gender to be performed is a ‘version of femininity’. As mentioned by Laforteza (2006).

Before Cynthia arrived, Anthony/Mitzi, Adam/Felicia and Ralph/Bernadette were performing the ‘real’ drag show, in that they dressed in cabaret outfits normatively designed for women.9 As their performance is considered as drag within the film, their performance is the self-conscious representation of an identity that is ‘Other’ to them.

Priscilla’s white drag queens embody roles that cannot be fully embodied. Their overt ‘masculine’ bodies and voices show that despite dressing as women and acting in a ‘feminine’ manner, their bodies cannot be contained within their performances. It is this slippage within the performance that constitutes their actions as drag. As mentioned by Laforteza (2006).

http://youtu.be/MV-Zzasrky8 

Two drag queens, Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and Felicia (Guy Pearce), and a transsexual, Bernadette (Terrence Stamp) contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a resort town in the remote Australian desert. They head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla. When they arrive they discover that it is more than just a cabaret job waiting for them.

http://youtu.be/suzwaW_SqtU

Opening scene of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Female masculinity (Halberstam 1998a, 231– 266; Maltz 1998). Still, the drag king as a concept and the drag king performance as a form of expression could also play a part in identity construction (Halberstam 1998a, 242–248; Murray 2001). As mentioned by Kohlmayer (1998).

IN Oscar Wilde’s play the heroic male and female characters display self−discipline and strength of will. The characters speak "strongly", "genuinely", "resolutely", "with fanatical resolve", "with the chill of unrelenting resolve", "with a steely tension of will" and so on. 

This year Geoffrey Rush played Lady Bracknell in Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest (year). Rush does something far more interesting and exhilarating in the role. He plays Lady Bracknell perfectly straight. There's not the slightest hint of travesty in his performance, He exudes authority via voice and face and glittering eyes. The Australian (2011) Geoffrey Rush exhilarating as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest

In the photograph (Geoffrey Rush exhilarating as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of being Earnest, 2011)

Rush is engrossing to watch and, of course, to listen to. His "I think it is high time that Mister Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die" speech is master class material. Time and time again, Rush strikes certain syllables in certain words (morbid, shocked, posture) with the tiniest of poetic downbeats. It has a weirdly telekinetic effect. Rush possess the felinity features with comedy, the physical mannerisms the way Rush sits proper, and wears the dress, and his voice high pitched and they way Rush played with certain syllables and used his facial expression. In many ways it seemed more powerful as a man playing Lady Bracknell than a woman. The Australian (2011) Geoffrey Rush exhilarating as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest.

In the photograph (Herald Sun stories start here 2011) on can observe that the lady has classic comedy in the bag. 

As a child Barry Humphries used to spend hours playing dress-ups in the back garden.

"Disguising myself as different characters and I had a whole box of dressing up clothes...Red Indian, sailor suit, chinese costume. I also found that entertaining people gave me a great feeling of release, making people laugh was a very good way of befriending them."

In London, Barry wrote a comic strip about an Australian bloke called 'Barry Mackenzie". His adventures were a success. Mrs. Everage had a starring role. its the characters he's invented that's made him famous.It was the start of something big. Edna became a mega star. Dame Edna was asked to host shows. "They love me...they love me listeners." (Edna Everage)
"Edna is well...she's rather timeless. She began as a Melbourne housewife and now she's a megastar and the reason she's a megastar is that she tells people she is."

Barry Humphries has continued producing his own shows. He enjoys every minute of it.
"I'm very lucky to do a job that gives a lot of people pleasure because when you laugh you know you use muscles that you don't use in any other way and so it's very good for you when you laugh."  ABCnet,(2012) Barry Humphries. 

In Conclusion there have been arguments with the way men dress up as drag or cross dress and gender stereotypes. Since Greek theatre and Shakespeare’s time there has been a use of cross- dressing, more traditional Drag Queen Dressing. Its only works while cross dressing, and Drag dressing for the right reasons otherwise it will become controversial and more debates. If it’s used for performances and comedy and entertainment and to dress up as another character to escape reality, again to make the audience laugh that is appropriate.