Female impersonation

The concept of drag can be seen in the earliest forms of entertainment, including Ancient Greek theatre. In ancient western cultures, women often were not allowed to perform onstage or become actors, therefore male actors played the roles of women also.{{Cite web |last=thedifferentlevel |date=2021-09-01 |title=History of Drag: From Antic Greece to RuPaul's Drag Race |url=https://different-level.com/history-of-drag-from-antic-greece-to-rupauls-drag-race/ |access-date=2022-12-02 |website=LEVEL |language=en-US |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405033506/https://different-level.com/history-of-drag-from-antic-greece-to-rupauls-drag-race/ |url-status=live }} This demonstrates how female impersonation can be traced back to the earliest forms of entertainment and spectacle. Not only this, but men and boys were expected to dress as women, or in drag, for many religious ceremonies and rituals in Ancient Greece.{{Cite web |last=McDaniel |first=Spencer |date=2022-07-11 |title=In Ancient Greece, Children Wearing Drag Was a Religious Obligation! |url=https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2022/07/10/in-ancient-greece-children-wearing-drag-was-a-religious-obligation/ |access-date=2022-12-02 |website=Tales of Times Forgotten |language=en-US |archive-date=2 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202212642/https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2022/07/10/in-ancient-greece-children-wearing-drag-was-a-religious-obligation/ |url-status=live }}

There is some controversy as to whether this is actually where drag emerged, or if it occurred later in history, in the 19th century with forms of entertainment such as minstrel shows and Shakespeare's plays, as he often incorporated male actors as female impersonators.

File:Harvard Theatre Collection - Samuel S Sanford TCS 1.935.jpg.]]

The evolution of female impersonation and drag in the United States was influenced by minstrel shows.{{citation |last=Boyd |first=Nan Alamilla |title=Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/25351 |year=2003 |access-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730041610/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/25351 |url-status=live |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520938748 |archive-date=30 July 2020 }} The term female impersonator was in wide use during the 19th century in theater in the United States to refer to a specific type of performer in minstrel shows and later vaudeville known as "wench" and "dame" roles. These roles were performed by both cisgender heterosexual men,{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater|page=331|first=James|last= Fisher|year= 2021|isbn=9781538123027|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers}} and by queer men who were closeted and in some rare cases openly non-heterosexual.{{cite book|title=Re-Dressing America's Frontier Past|first= Peter|last= Boag|year= 2012|isbn=9780520274426|chapter=Chapter 2: "I Have Done My Part In Winning the West": Unveiling the Female to Male Crossdresser|publisher=University of California Press}} The actor Thomas L. Moxley was a celebrated blackface female impersonator who performed under the name Master Floyd in George Kunkel's Nightingales;{{cite news|url=https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=NYC18900712.2.50&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN----------|title=Deaths In the Profession; Thomas L. Moxley|work=The New York Clipper|date=12 July 1890|page=279}} a leading minstrel show of the 1850s and 1860s.{{cite book|title=Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252066962|first=William John|last= Mahar|year=1999|page=365}}

These shows were an example of how Blackface was used in a racist form of entertainment where the performers would mock African American men, but as time went on they found it amusing to mock African American women as well. They performed in comedic skits, dances, and "wench" songs.{{citation |last=Bean |first=Annemarie |title=Female Impersonation in Nineteenth-Century American Blackface Minstrelsy |date=2001 |publisher=New York University |id={{ProQuest|304709304}}}} Black people themselves were largely excluded from being performers as at this point in history.{{Cite web |title=Blackface: the Sad History of Minstrel Shows |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/blackface-sad-history-minstrel-shows |access-date=2022-12-02 |website=AMERICAN HERITAGE |language=en |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324135449/https://www.americanheritage.com/blackface-sad-history-minstrel-shows |url-status=live }} Blackface in minstrel shows emerged in {{Circa|1820}}, but became more established with the creation of the character of Jim Crow, which was first performed in 1828. After the Civil War, performance troupes began to be composed of Black performers. The shows maintained popularity in American entertainment into the 1920s.{{Cite web |title=Minstrel Songs {{!}} Popular Songs of the Day {{!}} Musical Styles {{!}} Articles and Essays {{!}} The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America {{!}} Digital Collections {{!}} Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/popular-songs-of-the-day/minstrel-songs/ |access-date=2022-12-02 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409214831/https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/popular-songs-of-the-day/minstrel-songs |url-status=live }}

In the 19th century and early 20th century minstrel show female impersonators did not attempt to present the illusion of femininity, but rather lampooned cisgender women through a comic representation of women that did not attempt to completely remove the actor's masculine physical traits. Minstrel show female impersonators often employed sexist and racist stereotypes within bawdy humor to make fun of women, often in black women, in blackface. This type of humor continued on the vaudeville and burlesque stage.{{cite book|chapter=Gender Crossings; Female Impersonations In American Entertainment|title=Queering the Popular Pitch|year=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781136093708}}

In the twentieth century some cross-gender impersonators, both female and male, in the United States became highly successful performing artists in nightclubs and theaters. There was a concerted effort by these working female impersonators in America, to separate the art of female impersonation from queer identity with an overt representation of working female impersonators as heterosexual. Some of the performers were in fact cisgender men, but others were closeted due to the politics and social environment of the period. It was criminal in many American cities to be homosexual, or for LGBTQ people to congregate, and it was therefore necessary for female impersonators to distance themselves from identifying as queer in order to avoid criminal charges. The need to hide queer identity was prevalent among female impersonators working in non-LGBTQ nightclubs before heteronormative audiences from the early 1900s to as late as the 1970s.{{cite book|chapter=Chapter 4|title=Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City|first=Elyssa Maxx|last= Goodman|year=2023|publisher=Hanover Square Press|isbn=9780369733016}}

File:Julian Eltinge (the fascinating widow).jpg as a female impersonator in the Fascinating Widow, early 1910s]]

The broad comedic stylings of the minstrel shows helped develop the vaudeville shows of the late 1800s to the early 1900s. In addition to the "wench players", minstrel shows developed the role of "prima donnas", who appeared more elegant and refined while still retaining their comedic elements.{{Cite book |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330026007 |title=Inside the minstrel mask: readings in nineteenth century blackface minstrelsy |date=1996 |publisher=Wesleyan Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6300-2 |editor-last=Bean |editor-first=Annemarie |location=Hanover, NH London}} While the "wenches" were purely American creations, the "prima donnas" were inspired by both American and European cross-dressing shows, like Shakespearean actors and castrati.{{Failed verification|date=July 2023|reason=both the fact they are inspired by and the fact that wenches werely purely american seem to be missing.}} With the United States shifting demographics, including the shift from farms to cities, Great Migration of African Americans, and an influx of immigrants, vaudeville's broad comedy and music expanded the audience from minstrelsy. Near the end of the 19th century a new type of female impersonation, the female illusionist, began to appear in vaudeville. This type of performer did not use humor to denigrate women, but rather attempted to celebrate women by presenting a realistic looking woman in tasteful fashions of the period.

With vaudeville becoming more popular, it allowed female impersonators to become popular as well. Many female impersonators started with low comedy in vaudeville and worked their way up to perform as the prima donna.Moore, F. Michael. Drag!: Male and Female Impersonators on Stage, Screen, and Television: An Illustrated World History. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Company, 1994. {{ISBN|978-0899509969}} {{page needed|date=June 2020}}

They were known to perform song and dance routines with multiple outfit changes. George W. Munroe, who was known for portraying gossipy old Irish women,{{cite book|page=149|title=The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre|first1=Don B.|last1= Wilmeth|first2= Tice L.|last2= Miller|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521564441|chapter=Male/Female Impersonation}} started in vaudeville in the late 19th century, and became a Broadway star; portraying the title role in the musical The Doings of Mrs. Dooley at the Grand Opera House in 1902.{{cite book|first=Gerald|last=Bordman|year=2001|chapter= The Doings of Mrs. Dooley|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=9780195130744|page=213|title=American Musical Theater: A Chronicle}} Other vaudeville female impersonators included Gilbert Sarony as his female character Giddy Gusher, Neil Burgess as the Widow Bedotte, and the Russell Brothers who portrayed Irish maids.

In New York City, famous female impersonator Julian Eltinge found success, and he eventually made his way to the Broadway stage performing as a woman. He published a magazine, Magazine and Beauty Hints (1913), which provided beauty and fashion tips, and he posed for corset and cosmetics advertisements. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Bothwell Browne was the top female impersonator of the West Coast. He performed at the Grand Opera House and Central Theater, among other venues, went on tour with United Vaudeville, and later appeared in the film Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919), produced by Mack Sennett.{{Cite book|last=Boyd|first=Nan Alamilla|url=https://archive.org/details/wideopentownhist00boyd|title=Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965|publisher=University of California Press|year=2003|isbn=0-520-24474-5|url-access=registration}}

At this time being a female impersonator was seen as something for the straight white male, and any deviation was punished. However, African-American comedian Andrew Tribble found success as a female impersonator on Broadway and in Black Vaudeville. Connection with sex work and homosexuality eventually led to the decline of female impersonation during the Progressive Era. Both the minstrelsy and vaudeville eras of female impersonation led to an association with music, dance, and comedy that still lasts today.

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• Onnagata
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• [https://books.google.fi/books/about/The_Female_Impersonators.html?id=pnAO0AEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y The Female-Impersonators by Ralph Werther / Jennie June]

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