Liberated Women and Travesty Fetishes Sarah Gutsche-Miller Conflicting Representations of Gender in Parisian Fin-de-Siècle Music-Hall Ballet

RESUMEN: This article explores the multiple and often contradictory representation of women in Parisian music-hall ballets staged at the turn of the twentieth century as reflections of shifting conceptions of women's social roles in fin-de-siècle France. Music-hall ballets mirrored both the broadening of gender norms and the social fears which accompanied these changing social mores; they helped reinforce shifting perceptions of women while simultaneously undermining them. Created at a rate of six or seven per year for fun-loving socialites, music-hall productions were as up-to-date as they were ephemeral, serving as an unusually direct theatrical barometer of middle-and upper-class Parisians' tastes and values. PALABRAS CLAVE: Ballet, music-hall ballet, gender roles, La Parisienne, New Woman, Belle Époque