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“Wet, Dirty Women” and “Men Without Pants”: The Performance of Gender at the American Renaissance Festival

Markijohn, Andie Carole
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1248822087

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Theatre and Film.
Mention the words “Renaissance festival” to your average American adult, and you'll likely conjure up images of knights jousting on horseback, casually-dressed visitors gnawing on turkey legs, barely-restrained cleavage in tight bodices, comic variety performers on earthy wooden stages, and richly-dressed royals presiding over it all. More than diversionary entertainment, however, the American Renaissance festival provides visitors with a complex space in which elements of carnival create opportunities for identity and, most important for this thesis, gender play. Using a multidisciplinary approach that features Judith Butler's notion of performed gender as its foundation, I examine the performances of three specific groups'”the Queen and knight, the bagpipe and drum group Tartanic, and the Washing Well Wenches”in order to explore the complex gender messages each communicates both to and with their audiences. The Queen's royal privilege and “proper” performance of femininity affect each of the subsequent performances examined, either directly or tacitly sanctioning both the masculine performances of the knights and Tartanic as well as the (un)feminine performance of the Wenches. While each of the groups tend to favor a particular gender performance (either “proper” or “improper”), each also includes moments that allow for just the opposite, from the presence of a female knight at the Joust to a male-on-male lap dance by Tartanic to the bolstering of male egos through sexual objectification at the Wash Pit. In the end, this thesis claims that it is perhaps true that Renaissance festivals don't really change the world, but it seems that they may, in fact, release visitors from it in a way that allows them to examine "and play with" the ways in which “sedimented” notions of gender are constructed through performance.
Scott Magelssen, PhD (Advisor)
Ronald Shields, PhD (Committee Member)
Lesa Lockford, PhD (Committee Member)
126 p.
American Studies; Gender; Theater; Womens Studies
Renaissance faire; festival; theater; gender; performance

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Markijohn, A. C. (2009). “Wet, Dirty Women” and “Men Without Pants”: The Performance of Gender at the American Renaissance Festival [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1248822087

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Markijohn, Andie Carole. “Wet, Dirty Women” and “Men Without Pants”: The Performance of Gender at the American Renaissance Festival. 2009. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1248822087.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Markijohn, Andie Carole. "“Wet, Dirty Women” and “Men Without Pants”: The Performance of Gender at the American Renaissance Festival." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1248822087

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1248822087
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© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.