Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix
Description
Established as a popular convention during the English Restoration, the practice of women playing male roles reached its peak in America during the fi
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rst half of the nineteenth century as actresses regularly donned tunics, tights, and trousers in theaters throughout the country. This feminist history takes a gendered look at a phenomenon that has, until now, been widely regarded by theater scholars as a form of entertainment exclusively designed to titillate a male audience, and demonstrates that breeches performance revealed much more than a shapely leg.
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