The Music-Hall Actress and Transcending Femininity in the Victorian Public Sphere. A Re-Orientation of Her Moral Status

Abstract

En el siglo xix, tanto la actriz como la prostituta eran mujeres socialmente estigmatizadas por su profesión poco doméstica, vulgar e inmoral. Mientras críticos como Davis (1991) y Kift (1996) han debatido sobre la generalización excesiva de asociar a la actriz con la prostituta, críticos feministas han interrogado una separación estricta y radical en distintas esferas según género, razonando que

las barreras ideológicas y espaciales eran inestables y fluidas. Desde este punto de partida, el pre- sente ensayo aborda un estudio sobre la actriz popular victoriana desde una perspectiva feminista

para explorar cómo excede roles femeninos dentro de la cultura del music hall. Nuestro objetivo principal consiste en arrojar luz sobre cómo la actriz del music hall era una mujer trabajadora apreciada por su profesionalidad y talento. Pretendemos demostrar que, lejos de su asociación con la prostituta, la actriz convirtió el music hall en un espacio de realización personal donde podía socavar y transcender los roles femeninos.

The actress, like the prostitute, was one of the female figures who in the nineteenth century bore a certain social stigma for being professionally active in public and non-domestic roles that were considered vulgar and immoral. This prejudiced view is indebted to the ideology of separate spheres, which has proven to be both class-bound and unstable. While critics as Davis (1991) and Kift (1996) have questioned the overgeneralised association between actresses and prostitutes, feminist scholars have challenged the strict separation of gendered spheres, and argued for the instability and fluidity of this spatial divide. Taking this as a starting point, this essay addresses the Victorian popular actress from a feminist perspective to explore the transcendental role she had in music-hall culture. I will explore how this popular entertainment developed from a working-class culture and question the applicability of bourgeoise values and the ideology of separate spheres to the music hall. In doing so, I hope to shed new light over the music-hall actress as a working woman demonstrating that she was better esteemed than previously admitted, and argue that she turned the music hall into a space of self-fulfillment though subversion and transcendence of female roles.