Women Who Changed Society Through Theater Essay - 589 Words

Women Who Changed Society Through Theater *No Works Cited Sarah Bernhardt strides across the pages of Susan Glenn’s book like a colossus. In her nine tours of the United States between 1880 and 1918 the French-born actress and master of self-promotion made an indelible impression on the American landscape that transcended the stage. Bernhardt and other turn-of-the-20th-century female performers became leaders of and metaphors for changing gender relations, says UW historian Susan Glenn in her new book Female Spectacle: The Theatrical Roots of Modern Feminism published by Harvard University Press. Bernhardt and her sisters in theater, vaudeville, musical reviews and musical comedy exercised a strong influence on public consciousness†¦show more content†¦These well-paid and independent women helped shape wider social and cultural developments because they exercised a degree of freedom that was rarely available to women in public, according to Glenn. â€Å"By the 1890s you had the first of the star system. The player became more important than the play,† she says. â€Å"Celebrities had to develop strong personalities to remain in the spotlight. Theater and newspapers had a symbiotic relationship. They encouraged women to have individual personas to attract attention. To grab attention, women had to be outrageous - a spectacle - because it paid off. This was the P.T. Barnum syndrome of promotion.† Only one figure challenges Bernhardt for the spotlight in Glenn’s book, and it’s a composite fashioned from hundreds, if not thousands, of young women - the Broadway chorus girl. Glenn calls the chorus girl â€Å"a generic emblem of the new woman.† The chorus girl made a spectacle of herself both on and off the stage. While performing, she was a visual spectacle as part of a line of precision dancers that was stage-managed by men in a very controlled way, according to Glenn. Off stage, she had a mind of her own and made a spectacle of her independence. The chorus girl was widely pictured to be an urban adventurer who was young, attractive and dangerous. â€Å"She was depicted in a veryShow MoreRelatedThe Feminist Movement Involving The Arts And Theater1295 Words   |  6 Pageshave the same struggles that the other feminists had had, thus leading them to feminism. Rather, Mangai came from a place of education that led her to feminism. Mangai would use a very unique approach to the feminist movement involving the arts and theater. With all of that being said, I feel that I can dive a little into her past. Mangai is the pseudonym of V. Padma. She was born in 1959. 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