GENERATIONS OF GENDER NORMS


Roundabout’s production of Kiss Me, Kate is shaped by creative decisions that were made during three distinctly different eras, each with its own understanding of gender. Knowledge of these contexts can help make sense of moments in the show that can feel limited in their understanding of gender politics.


The Taming of the Shrew


1590


The family and social structures of Elizabethan England confined women to domestic servitude and restricted them from engaging in public life, including the theatre. As such, in the first productions of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the female characters of Katharina and Bianca were played by young boys.


The dominant ideology of the day viewed women as belonging to their fathers until the time of their marriage, when they became their husband’s property. They were rarely allowed an opinion about whom they married and were instead given to the suitor their father selected. As marriage was seen as a contract, fathers were also expected to pay a dowry of land or money to the husband to seal the union.


While there is debate as to whether Shakespeare intended to critique or to reinforce these gender dynamics, the original play concludes with a monologue from Katharina that accurately summarizes the dominant ideology of the day:


I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace; Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway, When they are bound to serve, love and obey.


KISS


ME,


KATE 1948


Despite a powerful surge of women in the workforce during World War II, the conventional family model sprung back to that of “male breadwinner/female homemaker” shortly after the end of the war. In an eerie parallel to the Elizabethan Era, women were once again expected to be subservient, and their opportunities were limited to the domestic sphere. Popular culture of the time portrayed women as simple-minded and easily pleased by material comforts. It was not uncommon for corporal punishment to be used to maintain the social order of the day.


2019


Today, these past norms are shocking, and it’s recognized that they were oppressive, objectifying, and abusive. Additionally, the formerly popular concept of the “war of the sexes” featured in Kiss Me, Kate has grown outdated with the modern understanding of gender equality and


acknowledgement of gender as a spectrum rather than a binary.


Advertisements like this one for Chase & Sanborn Coffee reveal how common and unquestioned spousal abuse was in the 1950s.


While it is gratifying to look back and recount the distance we’ve come, it is equally pressing to consider how far there is to go. Current reports approximate that one in three women in the U.S. has experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner, and women who choose to work outside the home still make between $0.54 to $0.80 on the dollar compared to their male counterparts, depending on their race. While revivals can be used as a lens to inspect our social history, they also provide an opportunity to reflect upon the period in which they are performed and the challenges of the current moment.


12 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY


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