ABSTRACT
The answers to these questions - and much, much more - are to be found in The Changing Room , which traces the origins and variations of theatrical cross-dressing through the ages and across cultures. It examines:
* tribal rituals and shamanic practices in the Balkans and Chinese-Tibet
* the gender-bending elements of Greek and early Christian religion
* the homosexual appeal of the boy actor on the traditional stage of China, Japan and England
* the origins of the dame comedian, the principal boy, the glamour drag artiste and the male impersonator
* artists such as David Bowie, Boy George, Charles Ludlam, Dame Edna Everage, Lily Savage, Candy Darling, Julian Clary and the New York Dolls.
Lavishly illustrated with unusual and rare pictures, this is the first ever cross-cultural study of theatrical transvestism. It is a must for anyone interested in cross-dressing, theatre, and gender.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |13 pages
Introduction
part |1 pages
Part I Acting out
chapter |20 pages
The sham in shaman
chapter |16 pages
The Greek for it is ‘gynaikíseōs’
chapter |18 pages
Skirting Christ
part |1 pages
Part II Stages of sodomy
chapter |25 pages
Orientations
chapter |20 pages
China trade
chapter |28 pages
Playboys and boy players
part |1 pages
Part III The mannish and the unmanned
chapter |19 pages
Arms and the woman
chapter |25 pages
Monstrous pleasures of the baroque
chapter |21 pages
Breeches birth
chapter |29 pages
Beldames sans merci
chapter |33 pages
The prince, the pauper and the pan
part |1 pages
Part IV Subcultures surface
chapter |29 pages
Putting on the drag
chapter |23 pages
The imp(ersonator) of the perverse
chapter |22 pages
teen: Amateur hour
part |1 pages
Part V Children of the ghetto