Gender, sexuality, and masquerade: Representations of masculinity and femininity in restoration breeches dramas

My dissertation concentrates on the changing dynamics of gender and sexuality in Restoration dramas where female characters masquerade as men. I analyze the social, sexual, and legal ramifications that occur when these female characters destabilize gender norms by masquerading as men and interacting with other characters. I examine how these masquerades reinforce already established gender and sexual ideologies, thus constructing the female body as a commodity. Within the confined space of the theatre, gender maintains a certain fluidity that allows audiences to witness the donning and performing of masculinity and femininity, as well as considerations of what characteristics support these constructs of male and female. However, regardless of the power a female character has during the play while she is masquerading as a male, her fate is always decided by men. In conjunction with my definition of masquerade, I also employ Luce Irigaray's idea that "[T]he commodity obviously cannot exist alone, but there is no such thing as a commodity, either, so long as there are not at least two men to make an exchange. In order for a product---a woman?---to have value, two men, at least, have to invest (in) her" (181). My interest is how the masquerading character is one of these "men." Though my primary focus is on gender and sexuality regarding female characters masquerading as men, I also look at gender and sexuality in a larger context, analyzing how the female characters masquerading as men affect the gender and sexuality of other male and female characters in the play. These other characters participate in what I term "gender transgressions." Gender transgressions are different from gender masquerades in that these characters who are transgressing gender boundaries are not doing so voluntarily; rather, they are behaving in ways contrary to their expected gender norms in response to circumstances out of their control.