Impersonating of Women/Men on the Stage

Dressing is one of the attributed things for women and men and it can be thought as the costuming of them which they use it while performing their gender roles in social life. However, people perform their gender roles not only in social life but also on the stage. As it can be seen in the society, throughout the history we faced with some men who dressed in woman clothes and women who are in male clothes in the art, namely we see people who perform their cross gender roles. In cinema, in music, in theatre and so on… all kinds of arts include transvestites.

In this paper, I will try to mention about the subject transvestism in performing arts, especially in music. Because there are so many aspects/definitions of transvestism and there are various shapes of it on the scene, this article will be only an overlook. I will keep a historical order to explain the subject but firstly, some key terms must be defined.

Transvestism is a term basically means dressing the opposite sex’s clothes but it has some additional concepts/meanings. To make clear the term we can look at its origins: the word transvestism, firstly propounded by Magnus Hirshfeld. Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term ''transvestism'' (from Latin ''trans-'', "across, over" and ''vestere'', "to dress or to wear") in 1910 in his book "Die Transvestiten. He thinks there is a psychological background behind the transvestic behavior such as being the member of the opposite sex, but there are also people who see it as a kind of fetishism.

As I mentioned above there are transvestic elements in the arts but the name of dressing cross gender clothes changes from performance to performance (from performer to performer) and also from culture to culture. Drag queen, drag king, zenne, onnagata/oyama are some example of the terms which is attributed to the performers who are transvestites. In the following of the writing, I will explain these terms conceptually in the cultures they belong. On the one hand, some of these transvestites see transvestism as a way of criticizing gender roles, on the other; others perform as transvestite because of absence of women/men performer or as a part of a performance’s theme.

First transvestites on the scene were seen, because of the forbidden scene for the women. Because of the rules of the churches, the women cannot take to the stage for a while. To solve the problem of women absence in the performances many men performed as women. One striking example of this prohibition based transvestism is seen Japanese Kabuki Theatre. Although, Kabuki has religious background, as time goes, it got a sexual manner. Dances and lyrics became all inflammatory and as a result, women performers were prohibited. For a while, men performed female roles but men’s impersonating of women was seen inconvenient for the reason that two men’s close/homoerotic relationship on scene was thought immoral. The male performers who acted as women called as onnagatas.

Some Shakespeare comedies have also transvestic elements. Twelfth night, As You Like It, the Merchant of Venice are examples of these comedies. Differently from many performances in history, we see females who disguise themselves in men clothes in the plays. There are various criticizes which is focusing on the transvestism in Shakespearean plays. Lawrence Danson says that there is something which is unknown and be waited to be known in Shakespeare’s plays and he asks that is which thing been aware of at the last scene of the Shakespearean plays? We say shortly the answer is “identity”. The person who is Cesario in fact is Viola and the person who we think Cesario is in fact Sebastian. Namely, Shakespearean comedy plays based on changing identities and so often men becomes women or vice versa in the plays.

Transvestites in music may be revealed first by the operas. Although distinction between male and female voices, there are some parts in compositions which is written for women but the role of this women in opera is a men or vice verse. Namely, there are transformations in some operas between gender roles. In Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro this kind of acting can be seen.

The examples of transvestism which I gave above are compulsory for theatre or opera but transvestism is used all by itself as a performance style in 1970s. Performers who are called drag queens and drag kings became prominent in Western Culture. While drag queens are (mostly gay) male cross-dressers, drag kings are female ones. There are two important aspects of drag queens/kings, one of them is entertaining, and the other is protest manner of them against gender roles. Although former is criticized by many (especially feminist) authorities, the latter make a striking point of LGBTT movement in history.

In 1969, Police make a raid to the Stonewall Inn Bar which is in New York and a resistance movement began against police. In this rebellious movement, drag queens played a great role because they are especially became mistreated ones by the police. However, before Stonewall Riots, drag queens had been an important part of Western LGBTT culture and the parties and bars did not use to be thought without drag queens, after the riots, they also got a traditional aspect in LGBTT movement, especially in the Gay Prides, which is celebrated for recalling the Stonewall Riots and expressing the pride of being homosexual/transsexual all over the world.

What kind of shows do drag queens make? There is a controversy in this question’s answer, because we cannot say a defining drag queen performance, they vary from country to country or from performer to performer, but their common features are singing (particularly lip synching) and dancing. The songs they sing are especially are famous female singers’ songs; they perform as if they are that singer. These female singers imitated by drag queens are mostly the ones who are commonly icons/idols of LGBTT individuals. However drag queens, sometimes also prefer making theatretical performances.

Although drag queens have an importance in the history of LGBTT movement, they are criticized by the reason that they repeatedly justify the gender roles which are given to the women. This is an argumentative point and there are various opinions about this assertion, in my opinion, because of the various kinds of drag queen performances and because of the various people who define themselves as drag queens, there can be cases like that, but we cannot say all drag queens are performing by justified gender roles, for example, there are the ones who are in so blur dressing or in a vague makeup that we cannot attribute any kind of sex/gender role for them.

In 1970s when feminist movement got its power and Stonewall Riots emerged and drag queens became prevalent, a new kind of music created and rebellious attitude of especially LGBTT people are reflected. This music genre was Glam rock. The time which I mentioned, there is a strict change in the popular music performances especially in English rock bands and singers. Glam rock is mostly defined with glamorous effeminate clothes and makeup of its singers. Especially shoes with high heels are very prevalent. Exaggerated glitter makeup and bright clothes are also significant elements of this music’s performers. They use this kind of transvestite dressing to blur the gender roles. There is also a science fiction theme in songs and on the clothes.

The glam rock singers and bands are includes David Bowie, T-rex, Queen, Gary Glitter and so on. Especially David Bowie can be attributed as the lead singer of the Glam era. He explained that he was a gay (although he is bisexual) and got a political attitude to the gender roles and reflected this attitude to his music and made a protest scene shows in 1970s.

Moreover with the lyrics, not only science fiction themes or characters but also transvestism is mentioned by some glam rockers. For instance, David Bowie, in his song Rebel Rebel, narrates a boy who rebels against his mother wants makeup. However, the lyrics are also based on the vagueness of the boy’s gender. He mentions a dilemma that whether the boy is a boy or he is a girl:

…Got your mother in a whirl
She is not sure if you’re a boy or a girl….

The glam rock genre musically is not so separately from hard rock, its distinctive aspect is its theatrical or performance based manner. Namely, it can add a different protest attitude for the rock music. Singers become effeminate as an opposition and the songs have been written on the subjects like gender. However glam rock is only a music genre, it created a social and












artistic mobility, too. Many films are produced concerned with it. Velvet Goldmine is one of these films and reflects the glam rock era or the glam singer’s lives. It begins a boys’ desire to have a pop idol, and then he grows up and we see him while making up and dressing the glamorous clothes and high heeled shoes. Then he takes on the stage… The film includes some references to the glam rock singers in 1970s.

In the last part of the essay I want to mention some cases in Turkey about transvestism. Firstly we faced with dancers who are men and wears women clothes for dancing in history of Turkey, they are called Köçeks. They are very popular in the Ottoman palaces for entertainment and however now there are some researches on various aspects of this subject because as far as I know there was a kind of dance education for Köçeks and also many of them were bisexual.

In some LGBTT bars there is also drag queen tradition, in addition to it there are drag queens whose only aim is entertainment. I only watch Nesrin who is a drag queen in Istanbul. I also watch her preparation for the performance. S/he firstly determines a concept for the performance and chooses her clothes and music according to this concept. In the performance which I saw, she sang a song from Hande Yener . The song was very well-known between LGBTT individuals, but in the performance Nesrin preferred to change the lyrics and she made some recalls about the problems of LGBTT people in a humorous way. After the singing, she made improvisatory by adding some audiences to her performance. She explained an event which she had experienced and she asked some audiences whether they experienced something like that and she commented the cases which audiences mentioned, in a humorous way. After that, she made a competition based on who is frumpish and who is smart, and by this competition, she make some attributions to gender roles with dresses of audiences.

Besides Nesrin’s performance, there are some performances which are for only entertaining. Hala’s performance is one of them. I do not see her show but as far as I know, she imitates some popular singers such as Gloria Gaynor and Marilyn Monroe and use dance and theatrical elements in these shows. Hala defines herself as a drag queen, but she does not accept the term transvestite for her. She says: there are people who say transvestite for us. Sometimes we faced with some difficulties. We must explain there is no sex in our job, we make the art. These sentences in fact, show us the people’s understandings of the word transvestite in Turkey. Because of some prejudices against transvestites, all of them are thought as sex laborers. Hala also performed in two music videos: one of them is İzel’s Aşk Hakları and the other is Demet Akalın’s Tamamdır.

In fact, nowadays, transvestism is in country’s agenda; because of the case of Huysuz Virjin. Huysuz Virjin is a women character who is performed by Seyfi Dursunoğlu. Dursunoğlu became performing as Huysuz Virjin firstly in small clubs, then he attended a program in TRT 1 and then he became famous and he prepared a show and got an effective manner in public. Huysuz Virjin can say every thing; everybody was entertaining her humorous answers to people, and with her cheerful songs and dances. Sexuality was mentioned in public in a humorous way by Huysuz’s shows, but in recent days, she was prohibited for the reason that she damages the moral structure of Turkish families by RTÜK. Now Seyfi Dursunoğlu is acting with ‘’his own identity’’. By changing dresses she was become he and become ‘’moral’’.

I firstly want to say in concerned with the performances of Huysuz Virjin. She is a middle aged, unmarried woman who is dominant over all people. She is a repartee, this repartee adds her protest attitude, but Huysuz Virjin criticizes what? The middle aged women? The patriarchy? Or is she only an entertaining performer? I have a controversy to answer this question. These various kinds of answers come to my mind not only by the performance, but also some expressions of Seyfi Dursunoğlu about homosexuals and after the prohibition of Huysuz Virjin his obedience of this prohibition rule and now his presentation of a competition as “himself”.

Secondly, I mention the performance of Seyfi Dursunoğlu. Now, he is not wearing “men dresses” but have a crazy hair style and a glitter jackets on him similar to singers from glam rock era. With different clothes, he is acting as the same as Huysuz Virjin. I think he did not lose her protest manner. He is still refusing and protesting something between the determining walls of the RTÜK. By not protesting directly the prohibition, he tries to do something by his art in a given space indirectly by not be marginalized. Maybe his aim is the same with my thoughts, maybe not but his/her impact on society is undeniable.

As a result, I tried to mention various kinds of transvestism in the arts; this paper can only be an abstract for this subject, because different definitions of transvestism in the cultures/in different art forms and different purposes for being transvestite on the stage makes a great literature to search.