"A Woman Playing a Woman, What's the Trick in That?"

The title of this entry comes from an ironic question in the movie Stage Beauty when a famous Shakespearean actor (male) who exclusively plays female roles discovers that an underground performance of Othello is illegally allowing a woman to play Desdemona. A few days later he finds himself out of a livelihood b/c the king has cancelled the ban of women on stage and instead banned men from acting the female roles on stage.

After a disastrous interview with the matchmaker, Mulan mourns in her popular Disney song, "Reflection": "I'll never pass for a perfect bride, not meant to play this part. If I were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart." The Christina Aguilera lyrics are a bit different in the single release, but fit the theme of this entry quite well.

In the backstage interviews, actor Billy Crudup decribes this problem for the main characters Ned and Maria in Stage Beauty: "Neither are capable of relating to the world in a truthful way. They are struggling desperately to marry desire, instincts and passions with what they are allowed to do in the world."

The national political stage is hopping with debate about gender norms, sexual identity, reproductive choice, and the roles of women at home and "in the workplace." Closer to home, I am still adjusting to my new role as a mother and how that impacts my identity or value as a woman. When choosing how to respond to various conflicts or choices in life, the underlying question seems to be: What would a good mom do? A good wife? A good woman? A good daughter? A good "Christian lady"? There are many complementary and competing answers to those questions. Which answers are truly Christ-inspired? Which answers mask my true identity? Which answers harm men and women alike? Which answers help us all become more equipped to resemble the One who created male and female after His own image and likeness?

With the help of my new Netflix subscription and some on-line movie databases, my last few months of movie viewing have had a common theme: resolving plot conflicts by using hidden or assumed identity. One popular way to hide or assume identity, especially in stage/screen storytelling, is through the guise of cross-dressing in order to "pass" as a member of the opposite sex. These create the conditions for humorous double entendre and irony in dialogue, while also exposing how humans use cultural assumptions about gender roles to guide their responses to another human. Some of my favorite Shakespeare comedies feature the female character who passes as a young lad to help fix a messy situation, which reminds us that gender-bending is not a recent Hollywood phenomenon. For some reason the cross-dressing female creates less discomfiture than the cross-dressing male, probably because a tomboy is more acceptable in our culture than a "flowerpot," as the Chinese call an effeminate man. As fall and winter seasons approach, if you are looking for some interesting movies to watch, either for laughs or more serious reflection on gender and sexual identity, watch a pair or trio of these:

Mrs. Doubtfire (Robin Williams)
Some like it Hot (Marilyn Monroe)
She's the Man (teeny bop adaptation of Twelfth Night)
The Birdcage (Robin Williams)
As You Like It (2006 Kenneth Branagh adaptation)
The Merchant of Venice (Al Pacino as Shylock)
Stage Beauty (Billy Crudup and Claire Danes)
Mulan (Disney)
Shakespeare In Love (Gwyneth Paltrow)


If you want to be the serious viewer and help me in my exploration of this theme, here's a question to consider while you enter the story and plot: In what way does temporarily "cross-dressing" help the characters come closer to discarding more permanent "masks" and finding their authentic identity as man or woman, husband or wife, father or mother, son or daughter? Let me know what you come up with!

The dynamics between the sexes in Stage Beauty especially has me thinking about this topic: Many critics of feminism say that it weakens men when women assert their talent and influence in settings or tasks that historically have been reserved for men-only. Might it instead be that men, the Kings of creation, are at greater risk of emasculation when they exile women from their position as Queens who are entrusted as co-agents with the task of subduing the earth? When a society exiles its authentic Queens, why are we shocked when drag queens take the stage? Does a man with make-up offend us more than the "women-need-not-apply" sign?