Gender Misfits
We have listed below our individual papers studying various aspects of gender roles on the Restoration stage:

Alli Foley:  "Fops, Rakes and Everything In Between: The Men of William Wycherley’s The Country Wife"
   
    A discussion of the three most important male characters in Wycherley's play: Sparkish the fop, Pinchwife the obsessive husband, and Horner the emasculated rake. Horner is the most successful character because he is able to transcend the homosocial boundaries of society by way of his purported emasculation. For the purposes of this archive the section on Horner is the most relevant.

Mina Azodi: "Who wears the pants: An exploration of female crossdressing in Restoration theater"

     This paper explores breeches scenes as subversive episodic events that ultimately reinforce traditional gender roles on the Restoration Stage.  First, a theoretical basis for crossdressing is established.  Crossdressing is discussed as a sequence in motion, as a representation of contemporary society, and as a key element of comedic humor. Then the paper explores breeches scenes in both The Country Wife and The Rover, revealing the importance of a gendered perspective in creating characters and plots.  Wycherly and Behn’s female crossdressers may end up fulfilling the same social roles, but the paths they take are markedly, and crucially, different

Jean Rose Clawater: "The Paradoxical Nature of the Fop"

     The fop is a character prevalent in Restoration Drama that provides comedy through his foolish comments and extravagant appearance.  Though he sees himself as a member of the “fashionable” men of society, he has no realization that the other men of this social set actually scorn him.  The fop’s sexual ambiguity and seemingly unnatural effeminate qualities unknowingly comment on several aspects of society through his complete lack of self-realization.  Through the fop’s unwitting causes for annoyance in the society of the play and his interactions with the other characters, the superficial fop and his unnatural place in society provide necessary information about the nature of comedy and society and provide him with an alternative position within this social order.  Furthermore, his sexual and social otherness reinforces the traditional masculine roles within society.  

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