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Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934

Book by Laura Horak · 1 quotes · American Cinema, Cross Dressing, Film

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Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934 Quotes

“Though the actresses who played female boys were of all ages and performed in a vari- ety of acting styles, they were generally small, thin, white, and photogenic, and their performances combined boldness and vulnerability. Their femaleness al- lowed them to convey fragility and androgynous beauty. These performances demonstrate that cross-gender casting, which may seem like an inherently transgressive practice to twenty-first-century scholars, can also uphold conser- vative gender, class, and racial regimes. At the same time, the performances cannot be dismissed as reactionary or antifeminist, because they embodied middle-class women’s sentimental politics and created a space in which wom- en’s bodies had an important role in producing an idealized masculinity.”

FilmLgbtqFilm HistoryCross DressingAmerican CinemaFilm StudiesSilent Film
Book:Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934
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