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What a Dashing Fellow!
Hail romance blogging community. It has been two weeks since my last post.
And I'm dedicating this one to the controversial topic of sexual ambiguity. Seeing as how that's apparently caused such a furore in romance circles recently. [2011Tumperkin: can't precisely remember what that controversy was but have a suspicion it was about the gender of M/M writers so not much changes...]
What do you think of this dashing chap? 'He' is Hetty King, one of the most successful male impersonators on the music hall circuit in Britain at the turn of the century.
Hetty performed during both the First and Second World Wars, often in the uniform of a sailor or soldier. Whilst underneath the uniform.... Provocative, don't you think? I'd always thought the music hall male impersonators were probably pretty girls in trousers - not so it would appear.
Here's Katherine Hepburn looking really very convincing as a sort of Varsity chap of the 1920s. I love this picture.
It's difficult to find good modern impersonators. Imogen Stubbs doesn't do too badly as Viola in Twelfth Night. She could just about pass as a very very pretty boy. If she was quarter of a mile away and you screwed your eyes up. I do like her tash though. She's how I picture the heroine of The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer.
Cross-dressing romances charm and provoke. The Corinthian is something of a favourite of mine, the closest La Heyer ever got to M/M romance. Love the kiss at the end on the roadside as a coachload of shocked passengers barrels past.
Oh, there's no shortage of historical romance heroines striding around in breeches being 'original'. Think Lily from Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas or Alys from The Rake by Mary Jo Putney. Then there's the ones who only dress as chaps when they're out burgling or some such thing: Anne from All Through the Night by Connie Brockway or Jess from My Lord and Spymaster or Sidonie from The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle.
It's not so difficult to don a pair of breeches (assuming your average romance heroine's arse is somewhat smaller than mine) and cavort on rooftops at two in the morning. More challenging is passing yourself off as a Real Chap.
Viola in Twelfth Night is the original and best of the heroines who try to pass themselves successfully as a man. Orsino - her love interest - is in love with Olivia but Olivia will have nothing to do with him. When Orsino sends his handsome new friend (Viola) off to court Olivia on his behalf, Olivia falls for 'him'. Luckily the arrival of Viola's brother (previously thought by her to be dead) enables a double HEA to be achieved.
Here's one of my favourite scenes from the fabulous Trevor Nunn film.
It' s the fact that this is a peculiarly male intimacy that Olivia could never have been party to.
Hail romance blogging community. It has been two weeks since my last post.And I'm dedicating this one to the controversial topic of sexual ambiguity. Seeing as how that's apparently caused such a furore in romance circles recently. [2011Tumperkin: can't precisely remember what that controversy was but have a suspicion it was about the gender of M/M writers so not much changes...]
What do you think of this dashing chap? 'He' is Hetty King, one of the most successful male impersonators on the music hall circuit in Britain at the turn of the century.
Hetty performed during both the First and Second World Wars, often in the uniform of a sailor or soldier. Whilst underneath the uniform.... Provocative, don't you think? I'd always thought the music hall male impersonators were probably pretty girls in trousers - not so it would appear.
Here's Katherine Hepburn looking really very convincing as a sort of Varsity chap of the 1920s. I love this picture.
It's difficult to find good modern impersonators. Imogen Stubbs doesn't do too badly as Viola in Twelfth Night. She could just about pass as a very very pretty boy. If she was quarter of a mile away and you screwed your eyes up. I do like her tash though. She's how I picture the heroine of The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer.
Cross-dressing romances charm and provoke. The Corinthian is something of a favourite of mine, the closest La Heyer ever got to M/M romance. Love the kiss at the end on the roadside as a coachload of shocked passengers barrels past.
Oh, there's no shortage of historical romance heroines striding around in breeches being 'original'. Think Lily from Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas or Alys from The Rake by Mary Jo Putney. Then there's the ones who only dress as chaps when they're out burgling or some such thing: Anne from All Through the Night by Connie Brockway or Jess from My Lord and Spymaster or Sidonie from The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle.
It's not so difficult to don a pair of breeches (assuming your average romance heroine's arse is somewhat smaller than mine) and cavort on rooftops at two in the morning. More challenging is passing yourself off as a Real Chap.
Viola in Twelfth Night is the original and best of the heroines who try to pass themselves successfully as a man. Orsino - her love interest - is in love with Olivia but Olivia will have nothing to do with him. When Orsino sends his handsome new friend (Viola) off to court Olivia on his behalf, Olivia falls for 'him'. Luckily the arrival of Viola's brother (previously thought by her to be dead) enables a double HEA to be achieved.
Here's one of my favourite scenes from the fabulous Trevor Nunn film.
It' s the fact that this is a peculiarly male intimacy that Olivia could never have been party to.
Heyer loved a bit of cross-dressing in her books. As well as my personal favourite, mentioned above, it's also a feature of These Old Shades (you'll either love or hate Leonie) and The Masqueraders (which I really must read). [2011Tumperkin - arggh! Still haven't!]
A more recent version of this trope can be found in Pam Rosenthal's Almost A Gentleman. Although I was ambivalent about AAG overall, I loved the detail Rosenthal went into about the heroine's motivation for living the life of a man and the specifics about what exactly went into her dressing and living as a man. And I loved that Rosenthal addressed the sexual issues. The hero is heterosexual but he is attracted to the rather effete Beau Brummel sort of man the heroine purports to be.
This next picture is from the disappointing and rushed BBC TV version of Sarah Waters' lovely Tipping the Velvet. It's a very great favourite of mine. Nan, an oyster girl, falls in love with Kitty who is a male impersonator in the music halls. Kitty was played by Keeley Hawes in the TV version - a most unconvincing man it must be said. Nan becomes part of the act and Kitty's lover. But Kitty betrays Nan with the man she eventually marries and Nan, distraught, leaves her to embark on life as a rent boy (lesbian dressed as guardsman giving BJs to men for a living) then as the sex toy of an older woman before finally finding love with the down to earth, kindly, radical Flo.
Unfortunately, the extremely pretty and feminine Rachael Stirling was cast as Nan (when I'd pictured her more as K D Lang). Judging by the pictures of Hetty King above, and other real male impersonators of the time, Keeley Hawes was probably not the best choice for Kitty either. I do love the book though. And often revisit it for the final, wrenching scene between Nan and Kitty, when Kitty asks Nan to (discreetly) come back to her and Nan says no. There's a wonderful line about how a part of Nan will be standing staring after Kitty forever. I'm a sucker for those unrequited (or not fully requited) love stories.
Finally on male impersonation, I think I have to give an honourable mention to Judith Ivory for Angel in a Red Dress. There's a fab scene in which the heroine dons male garb and rides out after the hero only to realise it was terrible idea and that everyone can see through her disguise. A rare example of a reality check in an historical romance there.
Nevertheless, Hetty could've convinced them.
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7 comments:
Although history tells us that some women have successfully passed as men, I've never been able to completely swallow the trope in romance fiction, and, of course, in most romances in which the trope is employed revelation always occurs. But if the deception is complete, I don't think sexual attraction, the usual problem in romance, would occur unless the deceiver slips sufficiently to make the deceived begin to question appearances. There's some truth, I think, in the idea from courtly love that love starts with a blow to the eye. Of course, the trope has produced some interesting romances.
dick
Twelfth Night! I have that DVD love love love it I hope it comes out on blu-ray. Ben Kingsley rocks!
In The Masqueraders, it's the other way round, Dick - it's because the hero (of that couple) is sexually attracted to the disguised heroine he starts to suspect that she must be a woman.
From what I remember, the heroine of the other couple didn't have a clue.
That was my first ever Heyer. I suspect it's perhaps an early Heyer - because I don't think it's one of her best - but it's still worth a read.
@Marianne McA:
I wasn't referring specifically to the Heyer book, but to any romance fiction which uses the trope. My point is that, if attraction comes from the blow to the eye, a completely successful impersonation of a male by a female would not give that blow which brings the attraction about.
hello dick!. It's always good to get your comments. I would say "I hate to disagree", except that disagreeing with you is always enjoyably thoughtful and rather civilised. From my perspective, one of the things I like so much about the cross-dressing trope is the blurring of lines - of gender and position. I like the ambiguities it presents and the uncomfortable questions it asks of the protagonists. It's tricky of course because it also has to convince at the level of basic believability and since the spectrum of readers have a spectrum of views on how much of this sort of 'blurring' is believable, that's not an easy task. In fact, about halfway through writing The Lady's Secret, I was convinced I'd made a very poor choice.
Teddy Pig! I love it too and I've said as much at your blog. I went straight from your blog to You Tube where I watched a number of clips thereby wasting half of one hour, for which I hold you entirely accountable. Your comment about the subtexts etc. is spot on.
Marianne - hello! I've now typed the words "I really must read The Masqueraders" about 10 times this week alone! And I really must.
@Tumperkin:
Yes, the ambiguities of the cross-dressing trope are often intriguing. But I often think it's unfair to the deceived, for it's only that person that feels the ambiguities, and, even then,only if the deception is incomplete--incomplete in my thinking, at least. None of what I've written keeps me from reading and enjoying romances in which the trope is used, of course, for I'm as willing as most to suspend dislief if the story is a good one, for as a reader, even though I'm aware of the ambiguities of it, I'm not amongst the deceived.
dick
Really interesting post! I get a bit sick of heroines doing the breeches thing just to show they aren't a simpering miss. Heyer doesn't do that. Hers all have a good reason and it's usually deeply rooted in the character's psyche - by which I mean that their experience of being a man (or woman) shapes their character and outlook. If it doesn't do that, it's a bit boring.
Leonie in These Old Shades is particularly interesting, because she has spent so long as a boy she has forgotten she is a woman. Moreover, she hates the thought of becoming a woman again. Arguably, had she never had the experience of being a male and all that goes with it, Avon would never have been attracted to her - his opinion of women never appears particularly high and he seems to prefer the company of men. Although he forces her to become a woman again, it is the "boy" Leonie he falls in love with - her unguarded tongue, aggressiveness and directness.
Thank you for making me think!
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