Drag: A British History“A must-read for anyone interested in the history of drag performance.”—Publishers Weekly Despite its transgressive associations, drag has persisted as an intrinsic, and common, part of British popular culture—drag artists have consistently asserted themselves as some of the most renowned and significant entertainers of their day. As Bloomfield demonstrates, drag was also at the center of public discussions around gender and sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Victorian sex scandals to the "permissive society" of the 1960s. This compelling new history demythologizes drag, stressing its ordinariness while affirming its important place in British cultural heritage. |
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Adam Adamant Lives art form Arthur Lucan audience BFI RL BL MC Britain British Drama censor Censorship of British Chamberlain's Blue Pencil Changing Room comedy comic concert party contemporary Cosmopolitan Merry-Go-Round critics cross-dressing dame Dan Leno dance Danny La Rue Douglas Byng drag artists drag performance Drags to Riches dressing entertainment ex-servicemen ex-servicemen’s drag revues example female impersonation feminine film Forces Showboat gender variance glamour drag History homosexual Houlbrook Internal Lord interwar James’s Journal Kenny Kitty McShane Ladies LCP Corr LR Leno Licensed London Lord Chamber Lord Chamberlain's Blue Lord Chamberlain's Office male cross-dressing Molly House music hall Nicholson Office memo Office's Old Mother Riley Oxford Palgrave Macmillan pantomime Patriot play police popular culture Queer quoted Riley's Routledge Rue's same-sex desire scene script Senelick sexual Soldiers in Skirts Splinters St James's Palace stage Star Television theater censorship theatrical transvestism United Kingdom University Press Victorian working-class