Jacob Bloomfield
I am a Zukunftskolleg Associated Fellow and Lecturer in History at the University of Konstanz and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent. My research is situated primarily in the fields of Cultural History, the History of Sexuality, and Gender History. My first book, Drag: A British History (University of California Press, 2023), is out now.
My second book will be on the historical reception to, and cultural legacy of, musician Little Richard.
In my spare time I am an amateur drag queen. My drag comedy cabaret show, Songs For Glitter Fetishists, has been seen regularly at The George Tavern in Shadwell, London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I am also an enthusiast of repertory cinema, false eyelashes, glitter, and more.
I completed my MA and MSc at The University of Edinburgh and my PhD at The University of Manchester. I'm originally from Brooklyn, NY.
Supervisors: Professor Laura Doan and Professor Frank Mort
Address: Universität Konstanz
Fach 216
Universitätsstrasse 10
78457
Konstanz
Deutschland
My second book will be on the historical reception to, and cultural legacy of, musician Little Richard.
In my spare time I am an amateur drag queen. My drag comedy cabaret show, Songs For Glitter Fetishists, has been seen regularly at The George Tavern in Shadwell, London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I am also an enthusiast of repertory cinema, false eyelashes, glitter, and more.
I completed my MA and MSc at The University of Edinburgh and my PhD at The University of Manchester. I'm originally from Brooklyn, NY.
Supervisors: Professor Laura Doan and Professor Frank Mort
Address: Universität Konstanz
Fach 216
Universitätsstrasse 10
78457
Konstanz
Deutschland
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Books by Jacob Bloomfield
Drag: A British History is a groundbreaking study of the sustained popularity and changing forms of male drag performance in modern Britain. With this book, Jacob Bloomfield provides fresh perspectives on drag and recovers previously neglected episodes in the history of the art form.
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.
Publications by Jacob Bloomfield
Papers by Jacob Bloomfield
This paper also explains how La Rue became one of the most famous British entertainers of the 1960s, all while predicating his career on cross-dressing. Building upon the work of historian Frank Mort, I take a critical approach to La Rue's place within the cultural and sexual history of 1960s Britain. I argue that the entertainer was ultimately aided by the wide-ranging debates about the impact and consequences of the so-called 'permissive society'. His shrewd appeal to 'conservative modernity' in the wake of the liberalisation of social and cultural attitudes in the 1960s, while taking advantage of the favourable entrepreneurial environment offered by contemporary Soho's permissive 'casino economy', allowed him to achieve mainstream success in a period when male gender variance was often perceived as transgressive.
Book Reviews by Jacob Bloomfield
Drag: A British History is a groundbreaking study of the sustained popularity and changing forms of male drag performance in modern Britain. With this book, Jacob Bloomfield provides fresh perspectives on drag and recovers previously neglected episodes in the history of the art form.
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.
This paper also explains how La Rue became one of the most famous British entertainers of the 1960s, all while predicating his career on cross-dressing. Building upon the work of historian Frank Mort, I take a critical approach to La Rue's place within the cultural and sexual history of 1960s Britain. I argue that the entertainer was ultimately aided by the wide-ranging debates about the impact and consequences of the so-called 'permissive society'. His shrewd appeal to 'conservative modernity' in the wake of the liberalisation of social and cultural attitudes in the 1960s, while taking advantage of the favourable entrepreneurial environment offered by contemporary Soho's permissive 'casino economy', allowed him to achieve mainstream success in a period when male gender variance was often perceived as transgressive.
The first three chapters of this thesis investigate the significant manifestations of male cross-dressing performance from 1918-1970: touring revues featuring cross-dressing ex-servicemen in the interwar and post-Second World War periods, the pantomime dame in the interwar years through the 1950s, and the emergence of the drag queen in the 1950s and 1960s. The final chapter highlights areas in which male cross-dressing performance was deemed controversial through an investigation of the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship system. This thesis will argue that contemporary views of male cross-dressing were complex. I will seek to unpack the various regimes of knowledge as they related to the meanings, or absence of meaning, perceivably associated with male cross-dressing. In doing so, my study will reveal that the practice held different and often contradictory meanings for performers and audiences alike. For instance, some newspaper reviews of theatrical productions featuring cross-dressing troupe Les Rouges et Noirs, which this thesis will explore in great detail, made vague allusions to the authors finding gender variance both troubling and alluring. Statements to this effect ranged from the cautiously complimentary: ‘How they have managed to eliminate all trace of that subtle unpleasantness so often associated with this type of thing I know not,’ to the unabashedly positive: ‘Reg Stone [of Les Rouges] in particular… achieves a wonderful sexual transition, complete in all its details down to the white powdered arms and polished manicured fingernails, the dainty gestures and positively pretty little affectations of femininity.’ Male cross-dressing performed before an audience could at once be a source of pleasure and anxiety in a time when British mass entertainment reached a greater and more diverse range of spectators than ever before. It is my hope that this thesis will reorientate interest in interwar and postwar male cross-dressing performance and will inspire a more critical historical approach to the study of gender variance in the twentieth century.