Bathing Beauties: Gender, Nationalism, and Space in Theatrical Synchronized Swimmin

This dissertation explores the creation of national identity through spatial manifestations of gender in synchronized swimming from 1907--present. While many competitive synchronized swimmers disinherit the sport's performance past, my dissertation illustrates that synchronized swimming's theatrical background is precisely the reason it has become an important genre for exploring self-conscious performances of gender, nation, and socio-spatial relations. These sporting entertainment moments emerge as particularly influential in eras when national, political strife leave the defining features of femininity in flux. I claim that the hybridity of the form---as sport and as entertainment---invites the viewer to read the female body as an active subject while simultaneously opening up questions about public space and objectification. By focusing on key moments of synchronized swimming's popularity, such as Annette Kellerman's iconic Hippodrome and Vaudeville performances, Billy Rose's Aquacade at the New York World's Fair, Esther Williams' MGM aquamusicals, and the Hollywood rooftop performances of the present-day Aqualillies, I show how synchronized swimming provides a distilled vantage into the feminine citizen's and the feminine collective's relationships to varying political climates, social productions of space, and of course, theatrical performance.