Sexual Suspects

From the Restoration through the 18th century, the sexuality of actors and actresses was written about in ways that stirred the public imagination. Actors were frequently suspected of heterosexual promiscuity or labelled effeminate, and actresses were often viewed as prostitutes or sexually ambivalent victims of their profession. This depiction of players, argues Kristina Straub, greatly shaped public debates over what made women feminine and men masculine. Considering a wide range of literature by or about players - pamphlets, newspaper reports, theatrical histories, biographies, as well as the public correspondence between Alexander Pope and the actor Colley Cibber - she examines the formation of gender roles and sexual identities during a period crucial to modern thinking on these issues.