Professor Baker
ENG 515
15 December 2015
Cross-Dressing and Performance in Takarazuka: Challenging the Patriarchy?
Cross-dressing is not new to the theatre scene; males have been doing it since the inception of stage performance. However, women cross-dressing as men is an entirely different concept. It carries with it a very loaded history filled with inequality and oppression that males have perpetuated for years. Women have been denied male dress for a relatively long time (due to social restrictions and gender distinction). Dress has been used as a division of gender and a means to socially limit women’s freedom. Therefore, when a woman dresses as a man, the subject of gender identity is evoked. By studying cross-dressing on stage, constructs of gender can be broken down and observed with a critical eye.
The Japanese stage group: Takarazuka is an acting troupe founded in 1914 which is composed entirely of women who participate in staged productions of mostly musicals. Scholars such as Jennifer Robertson (among many others who study cross-dressing women on stage) excitedly point out that simply having an all-female acting troupe is a major step in the Japanese feminist movement as it places constructions of gender on stage for all to observe. But further study of these drama-driven plays and musicals reveal the same gender norms are perpetuated and reinforced regardless of the gender of the actor. The Japanese Takarazuka adaptation of the German musical Elisabeth provides a wonderful study in gender. In the Takarazuka version, the titular character Elisabeth (despite being the main character in the German version) is demoted to a secondary character, and some of her solos and lines are omitted, shortened, and given to the male character: Death. Death, being a male character exerts far more influence over Elisabeth in this version simply because of his perceived gender. He is also favored by the audience (receiving much more applause and curtain time than any other character). Even Death’s costuming, while highly embellished with sequins and flowing capes, is over-militarized compared to his simplistic costuming in the German production. The embellishments almost act as an attempt to blind the audience to the actor, where the focus is entirely on what is worn, and not who is wearing it.
Works Cited
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Case, Sue-Ellen, and Erica S. Abbitt. "Disidentifications, Diaspora, and Desire: Questions on the Future of the Feminist Critique of Performance." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 29.3 (2004): 925-38. JSTOR. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Potter, Edward T. "The Clothes Make the Man: Cross-Dressing, Gender Performance, and Female Desire in Johann Elias Schlegel's 'Der Triumph der guten Frauen'." The German Quarterly 81.3 (2008): 261-82. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
Robertson, Jennifer E. Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan. Berkely: U of California P, 1998. Print.
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