CROSS-DRESSING IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH FEMINIST THEATRE

Abstract

Sex and gender are two concepts that are often unconsciously used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings. They are crucial in understanding the gender hierarchy or the distinction between man and woman created by the patriarchal order. While sex refers to a biological difference or an innate existence based on signs such as chromosomes and genitals, gender is a socio-cultural identity subsequently acquired through a social interaction. While the biology-oriented approach reduces femininity and masculinity to the body based on an essentialist approach, the socio-culture oriented approach underlines that femininity and masculinity are culturally constructed, fluid, and changeable. The gender roles assigned to man and woman in the patriarchal society bring along certain expectations based their sexes and their society’s values and beliefs about gender. The fact that both woman and man are expected to wear appropriate dresses for their gender roles is the reflection of this expectation. When a man wears clothing traditionally associated with women or when a woman wears clothing traditionally associated with men, they might face ridicule or criticism because these clothing choices challenge established gender norms, and because the clothes are reminders of roles, symbols that favour social roles. Contrary to this, cross-dressing is described as an act of wearing clothing and accessories that belong to the opposite sex, and it is possible to see its examples as a deconstructive strategy in contemporary British feminist theatre. This article aims at discussing the functions of cross-dressing as a body memory in contemporary British feminist theatre over selected plays such as Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine (1979) and Top Girls (1982), Timberlake Wertenbaker’s New Anatomies (1984), and Moira Buffini’s Silence (1999).

Keywords

• cross-dressing
• Cloud Nine
• Top Girls
• New Anatomies
• Silence

CROSS-DRESSING IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH FEMINIST THEATRE

Abstract

Cinsiyet ve toplumsal cinsiyet, genellikle bilinçsizce birbirinin yerine kullanılan ancak farklı anlamlara sahip iki kavramdır. Bunlar, cinsiyet hiyerarşisini veya patriarkal düzen tarafından oluşturulan erkek ve kadın arasındaki ayrımı anlamak açısından son derece önemlidir. Cinsiyet, kromozomlar ve üreme organları gibi işaretlere dayanan biyolojik bir farklılık veya içsel bir varoluşa atıfta bulunurken, toplumsal cinsiyet ise sosyal etkileşim yoluyla sonradan edinilen sosyo-kültürel bir kimliktir. Biyoloji odaklı yaklaşım, kadınlığı ve erkekliği özünde bir vücuda indirgeyerek esasçı bir yaklaşıma dayanırken, sosyo-kültürel odaklı yaklaşım, kadınlık ve erkekliğin kültürel olarak inşa edildiğini, esnek ve değişken olduğunu vurgular. Patriarkal toplumda erkeğe ve kadına atanan cinsiyet rolleri, cinsiyetlerine ve toplumlarının cinsiyet hakkındaki değer ve inançlarına dayalı birtakım beklentileri beraberinde getirir. Kadın ve erkekten cinsiyet rollerine uygun kıyafetler giymelerinin beklenmesi, bu beklentinin bir yansımasıdır. Bir erkeğin geleneksel olarak kadınlarla ilişkilendirilen giysiler giymesinden veya bir kadının geleneksel olarak erkeklerle ilişkilendirilen giysiler giymesinden dolayı alay veya eleştiriyle karşılaşması muhtemeldir; çünkü bu giyim tercihleri, yerleşik cinsiyet normlarını sorgular ve giysiler, sosyal rolleri destekleyen sembollerdir. Buna karşın, karşı cinsin kıyafetlerini giyinme, karşı cinsiyete ait giysilerini ve aksesuarlarını giyme eylemi olarak tanımlanır ve örneklerini günümüz Britanya feminist tiyatrosunda yapısökümcü bir strateji olarak görmek mümkündür. Bu makale, Caryl Churchill’in Cloud Nine (1979) ve Top Girls (1982), Timberlake Wertenbaker’ın New Anatomies (1984) ve Moira Buffini'nin Silence (1999) oyunlar üzerinden günümüz Britanya feminist tiyatrosunda karşı cinsin kıyafetlerini giyinmenin bir beden hafızası/belleği olarak işlevlerini tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

• Karşı Cinsin kıyafetini Giyinme
• Cloud Nine
• Top Girls
• New Anatomies
• Silence

References

1. Abdel-Jaouad, H. (1993). Isabelle Eberhardt: Portrait of the artist as a young nomad. Yale French Studies, 83, Yale UP, 93-117. https://doi.org/10.2307/2930089, accessed: 24.01.2024.
2. Albayrak, G. (2009). Gender and sexuality in three british plays: Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill, My Beautiful Laundrette by Hanif Kureishi & The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard. [Yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi], Middle East Technical University.
3. Aston, E. (1999). Feminist theatre practice: A handbook. (1st Edition). London: Routledge.
4. Aston, E. (2001). Caryl Churchill. (2nd Edition). Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers.
5. Badreddine, S. (2016). Brecht’s gestus within a Churchillian context: Top Girls’s ‘gestic’ characters. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.
6. Beauvoir, S. d. (1949). The Second Sex. https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/ch01.htm.
7. Berek, P. (2004). Cross-dressing, gender, and absolutism in the Beaumont and Fletcher plays. Studies in English Literature, 44(2), 359-377.
8. Bolich, G. G. (2006). Crossdressing in context: Dress, gender, transgender and crossdressing. Psyche’s Press, 1.

9. Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter. London: Routledge.
10. Butler, J. (2002). Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Routledge.
11. Carlson, S. (1989). Self and sexuality: Contemporary British women playwrights and the problem of sexual identity. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 157-179.
12. Churchill, C. (1984). Cloud 9. London: Routledge
13. Cressy, D. (1996). Gender trouble and cross-dressing in early modern England. Journal of British Studies, 35(4). 438-465.
14. Dahmani, A. (2019). Cross-dressing in Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine (1979) and Top Girls (1982). [Master Thesis]. Universite Abdelhamid Ibn Badis.
15. Diamond, E. (1988). Brechtian theory/feminist theory: Towards as gestic feminist criticism. The Drama Review, 32, 82-94.
16. Dolan, J. (1992). Gender impersonation onstage: Destroying or maintainùig the mirror of gender roles?. L.
17. Senelick (Ed.). in Gender in performance: the presentation of difference in the performing arts. (p.3-13). University Press of New England
18. Drouin, J. (2010). Cross-dressing, drag, and passing: Slippages in Shakespearean comedy. J. C. Bulman (Ed.). in Shakespeare re-dressed: Cross-gender casting in contemporary performance. Associated University Presses.
19. Dusinberre, J. (1996). Shakespeare and the nature of women. Dusinberre: Palgrave Macmillan.
20. Elder, A. K. (2015). Cross-dressing in Greek drama: Ancient perspectives on gender performance. Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee. edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1868.
21. Eldridge, D. (2005, June 27). Massive attack. The Guardian, https://www. theguardian.com/stage/2005/jun/27/theatre
22. Entwistle, J. (2000). The fashioned body: Fashion, dress and modern social theory. Blackwell, Cambridge & Malden: Polity Press.
23. Evren, S. (2019). A quest for feminine ıdentity in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s plays: New Anatomies and The Grace of Mary Traverse. [Yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi], Celal Bayar Üniversitesi.
24. Fitzsimmons, L. (1989). Comp. File on Churchill. London: Methuen Drama.
25. Forte, J. K. (2002). Women’s Performance Art: Feminism And Postmodernism. L. Goodman & J. D. Gay (Eds.). in The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance. Routledge, pp. 236-241.
26. Foster, V. A. (2007/08). Reinventing Isabelle Eberhardt: Rereading Timberlake Wertenbaker’s New Anatomies. Connotations, 17(1), 109-128.
27. Garber, M. B. (1992). Vested interests: Cross-dressing & cultural anxiety. London: Routledge.
28. Gill, R. (1998). Mastering Shakespeare. Macmillan Press.
29. Guber, S. (1981). Blessing in disguise: Cross-Dressing as re-dressing for female modernists. The Massachusetts review, 22(3).
30. Howard, J. E. (1988). Crossdressing,the theatre, and gender struggle in early modern England. Shakespeare Quarterly, 39(4), 418-440.
31. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ definition/english/cross-dressing#:~:text=cross%2Ddressing-,noun,Topics% 20 People%20in%20societyc2.
32. Johnová, L. (2013). Patterns of crossdressing in Shakespeare’s comedies. Charles University, 65-69.
33. Korad Birikiye, S. (2018). Kadınların tarih boyunca suskunluğuna iki örnek: Sessizlik ve Öphelia. Yaratıcı Drama Dergisi, 13(1), 37-52, www.yader.org.
34. Korukçu, M. Sessizlik Oyun Broşürü, İstanbul DT.
35. Lorber, J. (1994). Paradoxes of gender. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
36. Louise, K. A. (2016). Reframing drag performance: beyond theorisations of drag as subverting or upholding the status quo (‘kayte’). [Doctor of Philosophy], University of Warwick.
37. MacLean, C. (2019, May 17). Silence screams #MeToo from a thousand years ago.
38. McMillan, J. (1999). France and Women, 1789-1914: Gender, Society and Politics. Routledge.
39. Moira Buffini, https://www.theinfolist.com/html/ALL/s/Moira_Buffini.html, TheInfoList, (erişim tarihi: 10.01.2024.
40. Normington, Katie. Gender and Medieval Drama., D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 2004.
41. Peacock, K. (1991). Radical stages: Alternative history in modern British drama. London: Greenwood Press.
42. Ravari, Z. K. & Naidu, S. (2011). Impressive Female Figures in Three Selected Plays of Caryl Churchill. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 143-165.
43. Reinelt, J. (1996). After Brecht: British Epic Theater. University of Michigan Press.
44. Schulze, L. (1990). On the Muscle. J. Gaines & C. Herzog (Ed.). in Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body, London: Routledge, 59-78.
45. Shiller, R. S. (1999). A critical exp’oration of cross-dressing and drag in gender performance and camp in contemporary north american drama and film. University of Toronto.
46. Silverstein, Marc. (1994). “Make us the women we can’t be’: Cloud Nine and the Female Imaginary. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 8(2), 7-22.
47. Solomon, A. (1993). It’s never too late to switch: Crossing towards power. L. Ferris (Ed.). in Crossing the Stage: Controversies on Cross-dressing, London: Routledge.
48. Şentürk, G. (2020). Çağdaş İngiliz Tiyatrosu’nda Başvurulan Feminist Stratejiler, Atatürk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 64, 311-325.
49. Ülker Erkan, A. (2017). Marginalised identity in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play: New Anatomies. Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 6(3), 179-194.
50. Wandor, M. (2004). Carry on Understudies: Theatre and Sexual Politics. Routledge.
51. Wertenbaker, T. (1996). New Anatomies. Plays One. London: Faber and Faber.
52. Whittemore, K. (1999, May 26). The pope who gave birth. Salon, https://www.salon.com/1999/05/26/pope_joan/
53. Yang, C. L. (2014). The white women abroad: Complicity or Resistance., L. Michael and S. Schulz (eds.), in Unsettling whiteness, Inter-Disciplinary Press, 33-43.