Spenser Robnett
In Margaret E Gray’s article Cross-undressing in Colette: Performance, gender and music-hall labour practice, she analyzes Colette’s 1913 memoir L’Envers du music-hall. Within these documents, Colette recalls the paradoxical environment of the glamorous yet complex industry of female stage performers in early 1900s France, whose behind-the-scenes labor hardships were “colonized and appropriated by the stage”; this statement reveals how the stage actresses private lives bared the unfortunate costs of an industry, such as being sexualized, underpaid, and overworked at the expense of of the tyrannical employers. Exploiting the female performers’ inequality is the Gray’s purpose, as she explains the imperialism of the performance industry and the victimized martyrs who suffered such atrocities as unreported rape and “slave” labor practices. The significance of bringing to light Colette’s memoir is to reveal that early Twentieth Century France was a largely sexist regime which exploited some of the most important female performers for the sake of performance and entertainment. When watching Smiling Madame Beudet, one should not forget the suffering that women performers endured and he or she should understand Germaine Dulac’s purpose for choosing an oppressed female lead actress. The female performers’ occupational hazards outweighed the glamour of fame and “fortune” in early 1900s France and should be remembered as a disgusting point in time and therefore studied so not to repeat the same practices.
Gray, M. E. “Cross-undressing in Colette: Performance, Gender and Music-hall Labour Practice.” French Cultural Studies, 2012, 202-14.