Brown, Meg Lota, and Kari Boyd McBride. "Women and Work." Women's
Roles in the Renaissance. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2005. 89-124. Print.
In this chapter, Brown and McBride address how women were placed in economic standards during the Renaissance period. The women of the period appear to remain confined to their domestic status as mother, housewife, and below their husbands or male counterparts. By looking at women in terms of the domesticity, sexuality, and economic status, it is crucial to know where women of the period stood and what influenced their status as woman away from man and how that translates into Renaissance culture and entertainment.
Brown, Meg Lota, and Kari Boyd McBride. "Women and Pleasure." Women's
Roles in the Renaissance. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2005. 277-302. Print.
In the final chapter of their book, Brown and McBride examine the relationships and activities women in the Renaissance kept to occupy their time. While the common misconception was that all women and desirous and sinful, this chapter examines how women kept themselves occupied. Many women of the time were responsible for the early education that their children received and were often confined to domestic activities such as housework, child rearing and needlework. While some women of the time were commonly used for procreation and continuality of lineage, I believe it is important to see how women conducted themselves in everyday life by examining middle class and aristocratic lifestyles.
Capp, Bernard. "Playgoers, Players, and Cross-Dressing in Early Modern
London: The Bridewell Evidence." Seventeenth Century 18.2 (2003): 159-
171. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
In his article, Bernard Capp discusses how playgoers and actors were looked at from the standpoint of preachers and pamphleteers. By looking at the two strong contrasting views, Capp sets up two strong social constructs which gender is defined different ways within those strict social limits. By focusing on the moralist’s view of playhouses, reasons can be inferred as to why crimes of gender and cross dressing were so frowned upon and harshly punished accordingly. Due to the moral corruption associated with theatre, it may be reasonable to suggest that cross dressing was seen as a sin stemmed from the theatre and supported there in.
Cressy, David. "Gender Trouble and Cross-Dressing in Early Modern England."
Journal of British Studies 35.4 (1996): 438-465. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
Cressy examines the phenomenon of cross-dressing through a historical perspective as opposed to a literary focus. While he addresses the importance of literary texts and their contexts, he outlines historical context in terms of social change and structure. Cressy examines and dissects the historical and cultural fascination around cross-dressing during the Renaissance period. While I am focusing my research primarily on female cross-dressers, it is interesting to note the moralist’s objections to men dressing as women as well as women dressing as men. While both issues of gender cross-dressing stir up their own implications that disrupt the strict gender hierarchy, Cressy argues that women donned men’s attire to equalize the gender construct at the time as opposed to conjuring up homo-erotic fantasies in same sex situations.
Gorman, Sara. "The Theatricality of Transformation: Cross-Dressing, Sexual
Misdemeanous and Gender/Sexuality Spectra on the Elizabethan Stage,
Bridewell Hospital Court Records, and the Repertories of the Court of the
Alderman, 1574-1607." Early Modern Literary Studies: A Journal of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century English Literature 13.3 (2008): 1- 37. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
In her research, Gorman focuses more on cross-dressing in terms of the theatre and the implications that followed of the boy actor on stage portraying a female and the implications that followed men cross-dressing. Gorman uses historical accounts and a historical review to understand the implications behind sexual misdemeanors including cross-dressing and how that impacted the role of gender both on and off stage during the Renaissance. Gorman suggests a type of attraction and fascination with the cross-dresser in terms of the theatrical aspect and how that drew audiences to create a fantasy of the virginal figure and how that portrayal created a middle ground trap for gender roles.
Hendricks, Margo. "A Painter's Eye: Gender and Middleton and Dekker's The
Roaring Girl." Women's Studies 18.2/3 (1990): 191-204. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
In her approach, Hendricks explores the different ways in which Feminist and New Historicist readings analyze gender constructs in relation to The Roaring Girl. Hendricks looks at Moll's own subversion of gender occurs without actually removing herself from her social or true gender identity. Her focus focuses not on cross-dressing alone, but what led to the disregard of crucial female obligations that were important to sustaining social order, such as marriage.
Howard, Jean E. "Crossdressing, the Theatre, and Gender Struggle in Early
Modern England." Shakespeare Quarterly 39.4 (1988): 418-440. JSTOR.
Web. 1 May 2015.
In Howard's analysis of cross-dressing, she looks at in as a dichotomy of social change. She discusses the limitations of gender and how that led to the attack on cross-dressing. In her argument, she presents the idea that cross-dressing in theory and in practice threatened the norm built upon the principles of hierarchy and female subordination, which in itself stemmed from religious, lawful and social participation. She also underlies the multiple reasoning behind the practice of cross-dressing and focuses on the differences in the manifestations of cross-dressing both in terms of gender struggles and the contradictions posed in the theatre. By arguing in terms of gender, she suggests that cross-dressing exposed the reality of the vulnerable gap in terms of women's social station and social kind. In her presentation, she asserts that dress infractions create and justify the social disruption as conceived by Stubbes' fight against it. Misconceptions lead to social mayhem because social roles are not providing stability.
Orvis, David L. "Crossdressing, Queerness, and the Early Modern Stage." The
Cambridge History of Lesbian and Gay Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge
UP, 2014. 197-217. Print.
In his article, David Orvis reviews the power of cross-dressing in the theatre and how it plays into predetermined gender roles. In his analysis, Orvis suggests that transvestism works within this culture due to the malleable nature of gender constructs during the Renaissance period. In looking at The Roaring Girl, he suggests that the softer version of Moll may not in fact be the historical account of the real Moll Cutpurse, but her character works to undermine the patriarchal institutions that other women of the time fall subject to. In looking at how Moll’s cross-dressing works with other productions at the time, the article suggests that the transvestism occurring seeks to disrupt heterosexual relationships to establish women as efficient instead of inefficient by design. However, Orvis continues by examining Moll’s intent in the play as one that doesn’t challenge the institution of marriage, but to suggest Moll’s transvestite state presents the idea of sexuality outside the social aspect of marriage. While Moll denounces marriage in terms of the subordination of women, she also suggests that sexuality then becomes constrained within the bounds of marriage. Orvis continues by noting that while Moll removed herself from the limitations of marriage, she herself wasn’t removed from society itself. As the article comes to a close, Orvis compares Moll’s act of transvestism with Viola’s in Twelfth Night as well as Galatea and Phillida in Galatea. In his conclusion, he analyzes the common theme of all three works in how each act of transvestism on stage poses a question of queer interpretation and intent.
Paul, Ryan Singh. "The Power of Ignorance and The Roaring Girl." English
Literary Renaissance 43.3 (2013): 514-540. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
In his article, Paul suggests that The Roaring Girl provides contradictions to the common perception of women during the time period. Moll occupies both male and female positions in terms of marriage and removes the need for confining gender in terms of sexual desires and fulfillment. Much like Orvis’ argument, Paul suggests that Moll recreates sexuality in her own terms without the confinements of marriage, thus challenging the social structure and obligations of women during the period. In doing so, she opens the idea of multiple meanings of liberation and refuses to confine herself in terms of removal from patriarchy as well as empowering the female gender. Moll’s fluidity in terms of her sexuality challenges the rigid aspects of sexuality between men and women. This contrast to the rigidness of social hegemony allows Moll’s sense of other to remain undefined and thus creates a sense of self-ignorance in place of self-knowledge for the dominating social structure. Paul argues that by doing so she recreates the dynamics of the past, present and future with the multiplicity of meaning of one’s actions.
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